Skip to main content

Website navigation

We are aware of members experiencing issues when accessing priority booking for the 2026 season and this is currently being investigated. Please check back later today, or email your request to boxoffice@garsingtonopera.org.

IL RITORNO D'ULISSE

Claudio Monteverdi

Event details

12 June – 25 July 2026

Following their acclaimed production of Orfeo in 2022, we welcome back the same creative team to perform the second of Monteverdi’s opera trilogy. John Caird will direct and Laurence Cummings will conduct The English Concert on the stage, with a stellar cast lead by Cecelia Hall and Ed Lyon.

In the last five fruitful years of his life, Monteverdi wrote this opera for the carnival season of 1640, a time for music, dance and masquerading. His musical style, so astonishingly bold and innovative when he wrote Orfeo more than thirty years earlier, has developed yet further, with arias and duets that give full life and humanity to his characters.

The dramatic tale of Ulisse (Odysseus) returning to Ithaca after the Trojan War is expressed through a rich blend of myth, emotion, and human struggle. At its centre is Penelope’s enduring failthfulness, with themes of loyalty, identity, and divine intervention described through Monteverdi’s intimate and deeply expressive score, marking a key transition between Renaissance and Baroque opera styles.


Sung in Italian with English supertitles

Booking Information

Priority booking is now open and members are invited to request tickets in line with the allocation deadlines below.

Ingrams Circle, Constellation and Patron deadline Tuesday 25 November 2025
Special Friend and Friend deadline Tuesday 13 January 2026
Affiliate Member booking opens from 10am on Tuesday 13 January 2026
Opus 40 Club booking opens from 10am on Tuesday 17 March 2026
Public booking opens from 10am on Tuesday 31 March 2026

Start time: 5.20pm
Interval duration: 90 minutes
Estimated end time: 10pm

How to book & prices

Select a performance
Friday
IL RITORNO D'ULISSE
Thursday
IL RITORNO D'ULISSE
Sunday
IL RITORNO D'ULISSE
Tuesday
IL RITORNO D'ULISSE
Saturday
IL RITORNO D'ULISSE
Friday
IL RITORNO D'ULISSE
Sunday
IL RITORNO D'ULISSE
Saturday
IL RITORNO D'ULISSE
Il ritorno d'Ulisse

12 June – 25 July 2026

12 June – 25 July 2026

Cast & Creative Team

Cast

Penelope

Cecelia Hall

Ulisse

Ed Lyon

Telemaco

Dafydd Jones

Ericlea

Fiona Kimm

Eumete

James Gilchrist

Iro

Stuart Jackson

Melanto

Rowan Pierce

Eurimaco

Innocent Masuku

Minerva / Amore

Claire Lees

Giunone / La Fortuna

Jessica Cale

Pisandro / L’Humana fragilità

Alberto Miguélez Rouco

Giove / Anfinomo

Benjamin Hulett

Nettuno / Antinoo

James Creswell

Creative Team

Conductor

Laurence Cummings

Director

John Caird

Designer

Robert Jones

Lighting Designer

Paul Pyant

Choreographer

Arielle Smith
The English Concert

Videos

You might also like …

Der Rosenkavalier

Der Rosenkavalier

Priority Booking
Importance of Being Earnest

Importance of Being Earnest

Gerald Barry

Priority Booking
La traviata

La traviata

Giuseppe Verdi

Priority Booking