Show Introduction

A stunning, bittersweet updating of Monteverdi’s opera Il Ritorno d’Ulisse by William Kentridge, the Ricercar Consort and Handspring Puppet Company—an ancient tale retold with puppetry, animation and a live performance of Monteverdi’s ravishing score.

Puppets and performers bring an opera classic to life

The battle-scarred Ulysses returns from an epic voyage to find a home he barely recognises—a place where his face is no longer known, and his waiting wife Penelope beset by those who stand to gain if he never returns. Homer’s Odyssey is a story of exile and longing, of love, deception and revenge, and it has been retold in almost every conceivable artform, from epic poetry to Hollywood movies; from experimental novels to animé. And, of course, opera. Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse is more than one of the oldest operas in the repertory. It is also a gripping human drama, told through energetic Renaissance dance music and passionate song, bristling with all the emotion, energy and wit of what was—when it was first performed in 1639—state-of-the-art blockbuster entertainment.

Now, visionary director William Kentridge, early music specialists the Ricercar Consort and vocalists specialised in baroque singing, including mezzo-soprano Kristina Hammarström and tenor Jeffrey Thompson, join South Africa’s world-famous Handspring Puppet Company to share their version of Monteverdi’s opera. In a 20th-century Johannesburg hospital, an elderly Ulysses looks back on the events of his life. Through video animation, the power of Monteverdi’s music performed live and Handspring’s extraordinary, life-size puppets, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse blurs the boundaries between human reality and artifice, memory and actuality, to create a powerful, universal and unforgettable operatic experience—like Homer’s original, a timeless epic of absence and adventure, of yearning, love and human fragility, and how fidelity and courage ultimately triumph over deception and greed.

Show Details

• Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse (The Return of Ulysses)
• Date & Time: 10-11 Mar 2023, 19:45 | 12 Mar 2023, 14:45
• Venue: Grand Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
• Address: 10 Salisbury Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Ticket Details

• Ticketing Website: Urbtix
• Prices: HK$680, HK$580, HK$480, HK$380, HK$280
• Students: HK$340, HK$290, HK$240, HK$190, HK$140
• Tickets are available for purchase from 7 December 2022

Remarks

• Performed in Italian with Chinese and English surtitles

• The 1998 version of Return of Ulysses was produced by La Monnaie/De Munt (Brussels, Belgium), Handspring Puppet Company (Cape Town, South Africa), Wiener Festwochen (Vienna, Austria), Kunsten FESTIVAL des Arts (Brussels, Belgium) with generous support of the Flemish Government.

• 2016 version produced by Quaternaire/Paris and restaged with the support of Asia Culture Center-Asian Arts Theatre (Gwangju, South Korea), the Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival (New York City, U.S.A.) and Musikfestspiele Sanssouci und Nikolaisaal (Potsdam, Germany).

• Handspring Puppet Company is represented worldwide by Quaternaire/Sarah Ford. www.quaternaire.org

Information Source: Hong Kong Arts Festival's official website