There are blood, guts and anguish aplenty in Monteverdi’s 1640 opera, but a nuanced account should also portray the hurt and isolation of an ageing war veteran. The drama covers books 13-23 of Homer’s Odyssey, in which the hero returns to his wife Penelope after 20 years’ absence, slays her suitors and leaves us pondering how such a casually brutal act can sit alongside his noble image. Claudio Monteverdi’s surviving manuscript is tantalisingly free-form – big holes in ensemble parts, bits and bobs added in footnotes, no fixed instrumentation – and conductor Martin Pearlman’s edition for the Boston Baroque fills in the gaps diligently.
This performance is technically solid with some fine playing from the orchestra, but it doesn’t clinch the opera’s racy action or emotional drama. Continuo lines are chunky and low on flux; more problematic is the dialogue, which never really flows. With middling tempos, cautious rhythms and scant conversational spark, even in the final reunion between Ulisse (Fernando Guimaräes) and Penelope (Jennifer Rivera), the three hours start to feel long.
