Is there such a thing as "a tragedy with a happy ending"? 

On the island of Ithaca, Penelope has been waiting twenty years for the return of her husband Odysseus. The Trojan War is over, but Odysseus is delayed. His chances of returning alive are dwindling every day. For Penelope, time has come to a standstill. While everyone around her lives on, she refuses to resign herself to the fact that her husband may never return. Even when Odysseus finally appears in the palace, it seems impossible for the two lovers to find each other again. Is a happy ending still possible?

Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria by Claudio Monteverdi is one of the oldest operas surviving from the seventeenth century. Yet the work is strikingly modern - perhaps even timeless. Text and music merge in a musical drama that is playful, direct and full of contrasts. In his composition, Monteverdi ingeniously draws a layered picture of mourning, self-deception, despair and love.

This version of Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria is set in the gray area between life and death, hope and despair, departure and return, comedy and tragedy. Elena Kats-Chernin's adaptation leaves only a small role for the Gods. No abstract mythology, but a story about real people of flesh and blood, about their relationships and their deepest fears and desires. 

Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria will be sung and performed in June at Amare by students of the Dutch National Opera Academy, the two-year master's program for the greatest talents of the Conservatory of Amsterdam and Royal Conservatoire The Hague, supplemented by students from both conservatories.

The opera is sung in Italian with Dutch and English surtitles.