Gioseffo Zamponi’s Ulisse all’isola di Circe was the first opera to be performed in Southern Netherlands. It premiered in Brussels on 24 February 1650 in honour of Philip IV of Spain’s marriage to Maria-Anna of Austria. It is written in the new style of Venetian operas with highly distinctive characters and a language that combines recitar cantado with arias, alternating between theatricality and episodes of great emotion. The opera enthralled all the artists who took part in its resurrection. This production reunites all three ensembles led by Leonardo García Alarcón.
The Baroque Odyssey
Just ten years after the premiere of L’incoronazione di Poppea, music had evolved to such a point that it could be used to transmit all kinds of emotions. Zamponi used it to convey the fury of Venus, the grace of Circe and the queen’s humour as she jokes with her attendants. The poet (not yet called a librettist ) was assigned to come up with a scenario(not yet called a scenario either) that would accommodate all of these tones and genres. And, of course, stage director Giacomo Torelli had to bringing the drama to life with cranks, counterweights and capstans. In was truly the birth of Baroque opera.
“This work is typical of the opera that was developing throughout Europe in the middle of the 17th century. Like Alcine, Armide, Calypso (all the women in the Odyssey!), Circé is a sorceress. If it took Ulysses ten years to return from Troy, it wasn’t because of the storms, but because of these bewitching women (while poor Penelope waited for him as she wove her tapestries). Just a decade after Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, Ulysses is once again ‘charmed’, or rather, ‘bewitched’. Ascanio Amalteo’s libretto mixes together these different tones and genres, entrusting music with the task of expressing it all.”
Olivia Wahnon De Oliveira
Our partners
This recording was made with the support of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (Direction générale de la Culture, Secteur de la Musique).
