William Christie (left) and celebrated Italian opera director Pier Luigi Pizzi (right) launch another chapter in their Monteverdi collaboration. Claudio Monteverdi's 1640 chart-burning, double-plat Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria premieres in Pizzi's new production, opening tonight at Madrid's Teatro Real, with Ulisse sung by Kobie van Rensburg and Penelope sung by Christine Rice.
They'll be working together again next May for Madrid in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea (with Danielle de Niese, Philippe Jaroussky & Anna Bonitatibus).