Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 4, 2015
Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (SV 325, The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland) is an opera by Claudio Monteverdi using a libretto by Giacomo Badoaro. The opera, first performed at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice during the 1639–40 carnival, is based on the second half of Homer's Odyssey. It tells how Ulisse (Odysseus) returns from the Trojan Wars and recovers his kingdom. The loyal and virtuous characters are ultimately rewarded, while treachery and deception are overcome. After early performances in Venice and Bologna, the opera remained unperformed until the 20th century. Since the 1970s it has become increasingly popular, and has been widely performed and recorded. Monteverdi uses a variety of musical styles to express the feelings and emotions of a great range of characters, divine and human. In a division of critical opinion, Il ritorno has been described as an "ugly duckling", and conversely as the most tender and moving of Monteverdi's surviving operas. (Full article...)