ABSTRACT
It has been noted for some time that Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, with music by Claudio Monteverdi on a libretto by Giacomo Badoaro, is remarkably close to the Odyssey, and that fact has undoubtedly contributed to the success of the opera since its rediscovery just over a century ago. Badoaro’s modifications are indeed worth remarking. Whether introduced to fulfill the conventions of the new operatic medium or to emphasize important plot elements, these changes offer an interpretative key to the opera. It is one thing for Badoaro to have omitted certain incidents and emphasized others in the process of reducing the epic to a size and shape suitable for dramatic presentation. It is quite another for him to have altered significant details of the original plot. Badoaro, however, once again reverses the situation. In the libretto, it is Ulisse rather than Penelope who raises the subject of the bed.
