✭✭✭✭✩

by Claudio Monteverdi, directed by Marshall Pynkoski

Opera Atelier, Elgin Theatre, Toronto

November 3, 2007

Opera Atelier’s new production of The Return of Ulysses (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria) of 1640 is a triumph.  The company has now staged all three of Claudio Monteverdi’s extant operas and again demonstrates his genius in developing the then avant-garde genre of opera.   

Based on the last half of Homer’s Odyssey, the story does not have the usual interpersonal conflict that drives a plot.  Ulysses (Olivier Laquerre) has been away from his home of Ithaca for twenty years, ten fighting in the Trojan War, ten in trying to return home after being blown off course.  Finally, he finds himself shipwrecked on Ithaca but is directed by the goddess Minerva (Carla Huhtanen) to disguise himself until the time is right.  Meanwhile, Ulysses’ faithful wife Penelope (Stephanie Novacek) has been fending off the advances of one hundred suitors who wish her to remarry so that one of them can claim Ulysses’ kingdom.  The story is a carefully paced sequence of recognitions and revelations with each one growing in importance and impact.  Director Marshall Pynkoski masterfully shapes the action as a slow but steady crescendo of emotion as Ulysses’ son Telemachus (Cory Knight), the servants, the suitors and finally Penelope come to realize who the stranger really is. 

On opening night the singing was uneven.  Laquerre and Huhtanen stood out for their strength of voice and characterization.  Using his deliciously mellow voice Laquerre conveyed the complex range of Ulysses’ emotions from despair to guile, joy and tenderness.  Huhtanen’s bright, unwavering voice was ideal for the foresighted goddess of wisdom.  Novacek seemed a bit under the weather and her tone lacked its usual clarity.  In smaller roles Jennie Such and Michiel Schrey made a fine comic couple whose carpe diem philosophy contrasts with that of Ulysses and Penelope.  The ardent Knight made an impressive debut, Lawrence Wiliford as the shepherd Eumaeus sang with a firm rich tone, Vicki St. Pierre had a fine comic turn as Ulysses’ nurse Eurycleia and Christopher Temporelli was a physically and vocally imposing Neptune.  Others, however, could not always be heard clearly through the orchestra.  In any case, all the performances are characterized by highly detailed, truthful acting. 

The design, a 17th-century impression of ancient Greece, is thoroughly in keeping with the period.  Effects of sea and wind made with reams of blue cloth are wonderfully conceived.  Jeannette Zingg’s graceful choreography draws from a wide range for sources from court and country dances to ballet.  The sound produced by the Toronto Consort under David Fallis is consistently rich and beautifully phrased and a pleasure in itself.  All in all, the Opera Atelier production of this infrequently seen Monteverdi masterpiece is both visually stunning and profoundly moving.                 

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2007-10-29.

Photo: Carla Huhtanen and Cory Knight. ©Bruce Zinger.