From Verdi to Mozart, from Puccini to Leoncavallo and Mascagni, from Bellini and Bizet to the exploration of Dante’s works and the operetta: over the years, the Autumn Trilogy has travelled through great seasons of opera and this time, to crown the Ravenna Festival’s 35th edition, it ventures to the roots of bel canto and the origins of opera. The titles and repertoire on stage at the Alighieri Theatre in Ravenna from 15 to 19 November belong to the 17th century. The two new productions are directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi and feature Accademia Bizantina led by Ottavio Dantone: the first is Monteverdi’s Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria (15 and 18 November), while the second is dedicated to Purcell, whose ode to St. Cecilia sets his Dido and Aeneas (16 and 19 November). At the centre of the diptych of ‘wandering heroes in search of peace’, as the title of the Trilogy suggests, is a recital: Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, joined by the ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, performs in Beyond | Orliński (17 November). The 2024 Autumn Trilogy is made possible by the support of the Ministry of Culture and the contribution of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna; Eni is Ravenna Festival’s main partner.

‘What holds the two operas together on the same stage is their common set design,’ explains Pier Luigi Pizzi, who also curates the sets and costumes (Oscar Frosio is the lighting designer). ‘While coming to life within the same architecture, each action finds its own atmosphere, according to its peculiarities and, above all, the uniqueness of its score and libretto. In Il ritorno di Ulisse, Penelope’s loom will be immediately visible on stage as a guide for the audience, immediately suggesting the backstory of Penelope’s long and painful wait. In Dido, however, the emotional climate is diametrically opposed: we are in a school, and the focus is on the vitality of the young students, the joy of making music and the spontaneity of improvisation. And we should not forget that, despite these differences, both operas are rooted in myth: Ulysses and Aeneas are fleeing from the Trojan War, forced to wander for years in strange lands and among strange people. And it is precisely this long journey, the trials and hardships they endure, that will give value to their achievements and to the new peace they will find.’

‘For style and rhetoric, that is, the art of good composition, I consider Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria to be the true opera among those remaining by Monteverdi, as well as one of the most beautiful works ever written,‘ Ottavio Dantone emphasises. ‘While within Purcell’s Ode to St. Cecilia we will let Dido and Aeneas bloom, starting from a directorial intuition by Pier Luigi Pizzi: a group of students engaged in goliardic celebrations decide to represent the story of the Trojan hero and the Carthaginian queen. I am happy to take on Purcell, whose Fairy Queen I have already directed. He’s a great genius in the history of music, unique in his ability to combine the tastes of the era to an incredible harmonic richness. The most evident difference between Italian and English theatre is the presence of the magical and enchanted element, entirely alien, even in the future, to Italian opera. But that does not prevent Dido and Aeneas from showing, like Monteverdi’s Ulisse, the unmistakable marks of modernity.’

Penelope’s lament opens Monteverdi’s Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria, which debuted during the 1640 Carnival at the Santi Giovanni e Paolo Theatre in Venice; the subject matter was sufficiently well-known for a debut in medias res. Alongside the trio of mortal main characters (in Ravenna, Ulysses is Mauro Borgioni, while Penelope and Telemachus are Delphine Galou and Valerio Contaldo respectively) are the gods, namely Gianluca Margheri’s Jupiter, Federico Domenico Eraldo Sacchi’s Neptune, Arianna Vendittelli’s Minerva and Candida Guida’s Juno. Not to mention the personifications of Human Frailty (Danilo Pastore), Time (Gianluca Margheri), Luck (Chiara Nicastro), and Love (Paola Valentina Molinari). Among the mortals, next to Penelope’s suitors – played by Federico Domenico Eraldo Sacchi, Danilo Pastore, Jorge Navarro Colorado and Žiga Čopi – and the women in Penelope’s service (the nurse Ericlea, or Margherita Maria Sala, and the handmaiden Melanto, or Charlotte Bowden), are the loyal swineherd Eumete (Luca Cervoni) and Iro (Robert Burt), a beggar who is also Monteverdi’s first comic character. Its grotesque complaint for his empty belly and dry throat is a counterpoint to Penelope and Ulysses’s severe, elevated recitative, to the love skirmish songs between Melantho and her lover Eurymachus, to the more elaborate and flowery vocalism of the gods, and above all to Penelope’s lament, the summit of Monteverdi’s pathetic style. As the librettist of the opera, Giacomo Badoaro, stated, with this work the composer had ‘made the true spirit of theatrical music known to the world’.

In Dido and Aeneas on the Day of St. Cecilia, the students of a music school intone Hail! Bright Cecilia: the homage to the patron saint of music suggests the improvisation, within the ode, of Dido and Aeneas, that Purcell composed around 1689 precisely for the young ladies of a boarding school in the London suburb of Chelsea. Nahum Tate’s libretto also chooses the classical epic, in this case Virgilian, as its source. Shipwrecked in Carthage, the Trojan hero played by Mauro Borgioni falls in love with its queen, played by Arianna Vendittelli, but a sorceress (Delphine Galou) plots with her companions (Chiara Nicastro and Paola Valentina Molinari) to separate the lovers. The evil spirit they conjure up takes the appearance of Mercury (Žiga Čopi) and orders Aeneas to take to the sea to fulfil his destiny. The departure of the beloved, announced by the aria of the sailor (Jorge Navarro Colorado), drives Dido to suicide, on the celebrated final aria When I am laid in earth, with which the queen begs her confidante Belinda, or Charlotte Bowden, to remember her. The vocal cast is completed by Candida Guida as a handmaiden; also on stage will be the Guido Chigi Saracini Choir of the Cathedral of Siena, led by Lorenzo Donati.

Completing the Trilogy is one of the protagonists of today’s vocal scene, a symbol of renewal and the timeless expressive and communicative power of a repertoire that defies the centuries. He is Jakub Józef Orliński, the Polish countertenor who, in his early thirties, has conquered international audiences with his heavenly voice. His recital features pages by Monteverdi, but also by Barbara Strozzi, Giulio Caccini, Francesco Cavalli and other well-known and lesser-known composers of the period. ‘With this programme, I delve into the meaning of the word beyond,’ Orliński explains, ‘particularly in the sense that this music resonates beyond its own time. It is still relevant, still alive, vibrant, touching, engaging and entertaining. Together with Il Pomo d’Oro and its acclaimed musicians, I’m taking you beyond the limits of a classical concert or musical concept on a journey of discovery. I’m helped in my endeavour by my dear friend Yannis François, whose period research dug up some extraordinary pieces’.