Colapesce, Dimartino Povera Patria

In 1978 Eliades Ochoa took the lead of Cuarteto Patria (literally Motherland Quartet) as director, music arranger, leading voice and guitarist. They toured around the world with great success. In 1989 Francisco Repilado (aka Compay Segundo) joined the band. His composition "Chan Chan" made the opening track of Chanchaneando, the album they recorded that year, and eventually the opening track of Buena Vista Social Club. Eliades Ochoa took from Compay his long experience. Compay provided compositions and second voice, hence the nickname Segundo (Second). Little did they know 10 years later crowds around the world would be crazy about them.

Founded in Santiago de Cuba on November 7, 1939, Cuarteto Patria since its beginning decided as its main objective to cover the region’s rich troubadour song book. Later on in 1978 they experimented a second period when Eliades Ochoa took over the direction, who, without abandoning the trova reoriented the repertoire to a style much more sonero, as is shown in Son de Oriente, an album that recreates anthological themes from our traditional music in versions imbued with great Cuban spirituality, in which Eliades, besides his charisma as a singer, demonstrates his great skill as a guitarist.

Il Ritorno dUlisse in Patria is based closely on the final books of Homers Odyssey and is hailed as the key work marking the threshold between the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Together with producer Klaus Michael Grüber, Nikolaus Harnoncourt strikes a new balance between musical polish and distillation of the essence of dramatic action. It is a kind of théâtre pauvre, which works with a few carefully chosen and powerful symbols, was how the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reviewed the production. The main action takes place on little more than an angled revolving stage in front of a whitewashed wall which hints at the landscape of a Greek island.

In 1978 Eliades Ochoa took the lead of Cuarteto Patria (literally Motherland Quartet) as director, music arranger, leading voice and guitarist. They toured around the world with great success. In 1989 Francisco Repilado (aka Compay Segundo) joined the band. His composition "Chan Chan" made the opening track of Chanchaneando, the album they recorded that year, and eventually the opening track of Buena Vista Social Club. Eliades Ochoa took from Compay his long experience. Compay provided compositions and second voice, hence the nickname Segundo (Second). Little did they know 10 years later crowds around the world would be crazy about them.

The work was produced with the Virtual Stage system, the innovative method that features new blended methods, between real and virtual, between philology and technology, applied to the operatic setting for both audio and scene through multitrack recording. The voice cast consists of young talents headed by virtuoso tenor Leonardo De Lisi as Ulysses. The ensemble instrumental sees musicians prominent of the group Dutch Heliosphere, together with the flautist Marco Di Manno co-founder of the Ensemble, Dimitri Betti assistant to the continuo players musician and harpsichordist and Giacomo Benedetti on the organ, with the participation of the Juvenes Cantores choir of the Cathedral of Sarzana by Alessandra Montali.

Ulisse was one of the first operas to be written for the public stage, not for royalty. Monteverdi was in his seventies when he wrote it, yet it is a work of intense and youthful passion, as well as wisdom. At nearly three hours (in this version, anyway), it demands a lot from its audience, and seeing it at home via DVD is a great way to make its acquaintance.
This production dates from 2000; this particular live performance was recorded in the fairly intimate Théâtre de Jeu de Palme in 2002. The production is simple but eloquent.

"Last year we gave a performance here in the Teatro Real of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, this year we have Ulisse and next year Poppea. We’re no longer in Mantova and we’re no longer in the Court of the Prince. We’re in Venezia and essentially [at] the beginning of the public opera house. We’re also at the beginning of what will become opera seria, that’s to say beyond the instrumental colors, the great dances and the great pageants, [are] the beautiful effects of the singing, it’s bel-canto and so the orchestral accompaniment becomes simpler…"

- from William Christie’s interview 2008 included on in the DVD

Ulysses and Monteverdi: passion and action at the heart of musical drama. Penelope sings of her endless wait, her hope to see the king of her heart again, while her suitors besiege her to take her hand and the throne. The return of Ulysses to Ithaca after twenty years of wandering brings the drama to a close. Travelling incognito disguised as an old man, he arrives at the palace for the contest that Penelope has arranged: whoever manages to bend Odysseus' former bow will have the hand of the queen. The old man in rags presents himself to the court, and achieves his revenge… Stéphane Fuget conducts this masterpiece, using every instrumental spell to fulfil his great ambition: to restore to Monteverdi's music and singing all of it's ornaments and colors, thanks to a magnificent cast and their passionate support.