Ulisse

This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message )

Ulisse
Opera by Luigi Dallapiccola
Dallapiccola's autograph
Librettist	Dallapiccola
Language	Italian
Based on	Ulysses
Premiere	September 29, 1968 (1968-09-29) (in German) Deutsche Oper Berlin

Ulisse [uˈlisse] is an opera in a prologue and two acts composed by Luigi Dallapiccola to his own libretto based on the legend of Ulysses. It premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (in German translation by Karl-Heinrich Kreith as Odysseus) on 29 September 1968 conducted by Lorin Maazel with Erik Saedén in the title role.^[1] Ulisse was Dallapiccola's last opera and took eight years to compose. As in his previous operas, Volo di notte and Il prigioniero, his declared theme was "the struggle of man against some force much stronger than he".^[2]

Roles

• Ulisse – baritone (Erik Saedén
  )
• Calypso – soprano (Annabelle Bernard)
• Nausicaa – soprano (Catherine Gayer)
• Re Alcinoo – bass (Victor von Halem)
• Demodoco – tenor (Helmuth Melchert)
• Circe – mezzo-soprano (Jean Madeira)
• La madre di Anticlea ("mother of
  Anticlea") – soprano (Hildegard Hillebrecht
  )
• Tiresia – tenor (Helmuth Melchert)
• Pisandro (a suitor) – baritone (José van Dam)
• Antinoo – baritone (Ernst Krukowski)
• Eurimaco – tenor (Karl Ernst Mercker)
• Melanto – mezzo-soprano (Jean Madeira)
• Eumeo – tenor (Loren Driscoll)
• Telemaco – contralto (Barbara Scherler)
• Penelope – soprano (Annabelle Bernard)
• Ancella 1 ("handmaid 1") – soprano (Gitta Mikes)
• Ancella 2 ("handmaid 2") – contralto (Helga Wisniewaska)

Notes and references

Sources

• Gelli, Piero (ed.), "Ulisse", Dizionario dell'Opera, Baldini Castoldi Dalai, 2007,
  ISBN 88-6073-184-4
  . Accessed online 16 March 2009
• Shirley, Wayne, Luigi Dallapiccola's Sketch for Ulisse, The Moldenhauer Archives, Library of Congress
• Warrack, John
  and West, Ewan, "Dallapiccola, Luigi", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 1996.

External links

• Prologue and first act on
  YouTube
• Second act and epilogue on
  YouTube