The Return of Ulysses

Synopsis

After his long journey home following the Trojan War, the Greek wanderer Ulysses returns to find his home filled with a stable of suitors, each desperate to win the hand of his presumed widow, Penelope. But after so many years away, does he belong here any more than they do? Will his long-suffering wife recognise this ravaged warrior as her husband and take him back?

Our Review:

25 March 2011

English National Opera’s collaboration with the Young Vic is now in its fourth year and, with a string of hits behind them, it’s tempting to think that this little and large duo are due to serve us up a dud.  They certainly don’t with Benedict Andrews’ dazzlingly theatrical The Return of Ulysses.

This is an evening of bold imagination, sexy and tender and startling, full of fascinating imagery and fine sounds.  Andrews directs his cast superbly and there’s not an extraneous moment or unmotivated action, although some may find his style, honed at Berlin’s exploratory Schaubühne, over-produced.

Certainly there’s more than enough to look at, our attention drawn in every direction, and Andrews does resort to techniques – puppetry, videoed sequences and Abu Ghraib visuals – that are starting to look a little clichéd on the opera stage.  That, and an over-abundance of splatter ...

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Latest User Review

Gareth James - 3 April 2011:

ENO has given us its best work for ages away from home at The Young Vic, The Return of Ulysses. This 370- year-old opera is given a radical updating that for once works. It’s staged in and outside a modern apartment which revolves, fully transparent on all sides – a sort of mini Big Brother house. There are two shop style cameras that project close-ups and detail onto two screens at either side of the stage. At the start it’s sparkling and new, but as the opera progresses it becomes smeared and more. You completely believe Pamela Helen Stephenson (terrific - never better) has been waiting 20 years for her man, as you do Tom Randle (wonderful)’s exhaustion after such a long war. There isn’t a fault in the rest of the cast (even an understudy as Eurimaco) who sing Monteverdi’s music beautifully, accompanied by a lovely sounding 14-piece ensemble situated stage left where you can hear every note. It’s a masterpiece of staging and acting when you can take a shower fully naked in a revolving glass room without showing any of your bits, as Randle managed! Despite this undoubted success, I’m still somewhat nervous that Terry Gilliam (as opposed to Berlioz!)’s The Damnation of Faust next month will take a few steps back after this huge leap forward....

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