About the Performance
Opera singers, musicians, half life-sized puppets and animated film come together to retell the Greek myth of Ulysses.
South African puppet company Handspring recently enjoyed great success in London with the National Theatre's Warhorse. For this innovative production it has joined forces with Philippe Pierlot and his Belgium based ensemble the Ricercar Consort and visual artist and director William Kentridge, renowned for his video animations of charcoal drawings.
In Kentridge's version of Monteverdi's opera, Ulysses is no longer in Ithaca. Instead, he lies reminiscing in a Johannesburg hospital bed. His romantic return to Penelope has become an epic dream that evokes not only classical Greece but also Monteverdi's Venice and contemporary South Africa.
'Ulysses is sick. He lies in bed, in twisted sheets, breathing shallowly. But Ulysses is made of wood...and the steady rise and fall of his breath as he lies racked by feverish dreams of reuniting with his wife is quiet testimony to the skill and detail of the production.' The New York Times
Ricercar Consort: 'simply a marvel of instrumental finesse, beauty of sound and perfection.' Bayerischer Rundfunk
Original production by the KunstenFestival des Arts and La Monnaie De Munt, Brussels.
Staged production sung in Italian with English supertitles
Image Gallery
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Sponsor of the Return of Ulysses productions
