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The Return of Ulysses

Monteverdi
9 August – 8 September 2018

In the first ever staging in Ireland of one of the greatest baroque operas, Monteverdi’s magnificent music finds a perfect creative match in the human drama of Homer’s Odyssey.

Synopsis

Ten years after the fall of Troy, the hero Ulysses has still not found his way home, as the gods quarrel over his fate. In Ithaca, his wife Penelope has waited faithfully, hoping against hope that he may still be alive.  Meanwhile the suitors are circling…

The ground-breaking company Opera Collective Ireland joins forces with Kilkenny Arts Festival to showcase Ireland’s finest operatic talent of the younger generation in a new production by Tony Award-winning director Patrick Mason. Christian Curnyn returns to Ireland following superb performances of Idomeneo and Giulio Cesare at the Kilkenny Arts Festival to conduct one of the world’s most acclaimed early music ensembles, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to experience a glorious operatic marriage of Homer’s epic with renaissance Venice.

A heart-stopping tale of true love against adversity, performed in a vivid new English translation by Christopher Cowell.

Dates & Venues

→ 9 August 2018 – Kilkenny Arts Festival, Watergate Theatre

→ 10 August 2018 – Kilkenny Arts Festival, Watergate Theatre

→ 12 August 2018 – Kilkenny Arts Festival, Watergate Theatre

→ 7 September 2018 – Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin

→ 8 September 2018 – Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin

Press

“… a Ulysses to remember, which is unlikely to be equalled on these shores for some time”
*****  Financial Times

“A collective triumph as Ulysses arrives in Ireland at last”
The Sunday Business Post

“The musical equivalent of the world’s best chef using just a clutch of the finest ingredients”
The Irish Times

“A multiplicity of elements that made for a rare and memorable night of music and drama”
****  Irish Examiner

Programme download

Programme download

Creative Team

Conductor Christian Curnyn
Director Patrick Mason
Set & lighting design Paul Keogan
Costume Design Catherine Fay

Cast

Human Frailty/Peisander Eoin Conway
Time/Antinous Brendan Collins
Fortune/Juno Rachel Goode
Love/Minerva Emma Morwood
Jove/Amphinous Andrew Boushell
Neptune Alan Ewing
Ulysses Gyula Nagy
Penelope Raphaela Mangan
Telemachus Andrew Gavin
Eurymachus Peter Harris
Eumaeus Rory Musgrave
Euryclea Bríd Ní Ghruagáin
Irus Ross Scanlon
Melantho Margaret Bridge

Collaborating with

A co-production with the Kilkenny Arts Festival generously supported by First Berlin GmbH.

What’s On

Find out more about OCI’s upcoming and past productions. 

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Committed to the needs of young Irish artists and Irish audiences alike, Opera Collective Ireland is grateful to the Arts Council of Ireland and all those who continue to support the work of the company.
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