mid-week music: love duets!

Il ritorno d’Ulisse, from Beaune festival in 2010, as covered by npr here.

I wanted to embed the NPR intro here but wp made it completely impossible.. so now we get this funny thing (if it loads on your computer, i learned from here, i prefer the player to play right on this page but it won’t.. at least the animation is cool! if you don’t see a cute “Ulisse” box, your computer is blocking it, like mine 🙂 ):

As hinted from the cover story, it took all 3 hours before we get to hear *two* happily-ever-after duets: The first one is not exactly by the book, I hear it as a very clear duet however: finally a crack of cheerfulness from Penelope as she floated on the entire string section (their music entirely repeat and complement each other). Then Ulisse entered for the official finale:

Nicely, i’ve just also discovered the school library has VK’s dvd version!! the weekend is now booked :-).
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Edit: libretto:

Penelope Illustratevi o cieli, rinfioratevi o prati, aure gioite. Gl’augelletti cantando, i rivi mormorando hor si rallegrino. Quell’herbe verdeggianti, quell’onde sussurranti hor si consolino, già ch’è sorta felice dal cenere troian la mia fenice.

Ulisse, Penelope Sospirato mio sole. Rinnovata mia luce. Porto quieto e riposo. Bramato, sì, ma caro. Per te gl’andati affanni a benedir imparo. Non si rammenti più de’ tormenti, tutto è piacer. Fuggan dai petti dogliosi affetti, tutto è goder. Del piacer, del goder venuto è ’l dì. Sì, vita, sì, sì, core, sì, sì.