Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Odysseus

The Good, the Bad and the Opera: Ennio Morricone’s “Partenope” Receives Its Belated Premiere

Ennio Morricone’s only opera, “Partenope,” received its world premiere this evening at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples – 30 years after the work’s completion.

The opera relates the plight of the titular siren, who drowns herself after failing to enchant Ulysses. Her body washes ashore and becomes the settlement that grows into Naples. The port city celebrates its 2,500th anniversary this year.

The work was commissioned in 1995 by a festival in the Campania region (of which Naples is the capital), but the event went bust before the opera could be performed.

Morricone, the composer of over 500 film and television scores, left roughly 100 concert works. He died in 2020 at the age of 91.

Yes, I subscribe to the New York Times, but I probably wouldn’t have seen this today if not for Mather Pfeiffenberger. Thanks, Mather! Enjoy this “gift article” on Classic Ross Amico.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/arts/music/ennio-morricone-opera-partenope.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8E8.uJFH.4_sS3215pW7K&smid=url-share

December 12, 2025
Odysseus’ Journey Music Inspired by “The Return”

With Ralph Fiennes now in theaters as Odysseus in “The Return,” I’m girding myself for a cathartic dose of holiday bloodletting. To get myself in the mood, this week on “The Lost Chord,” I’ll have an hour of music inspired by Odysseus’ homeward journey.

We’ll hear Ernst Boehe’s symphonic poem “Departure and Shipwreck,” from his cycle “From Odysseus’ Voyages” (1903-05), and Benjamin Britten’s radio play “The Rescue of Penelope” (1943), narrated by Dame Janet Baker.

Odysseus, of course, is one of the heroes of the Trojan War, waylaid time and again on his homeward journey by Poseidon and the frailties of his own men. It takes him ten years to find his way back to Ithaca. When he gets there, he finds his wife beset by boorish suitors all vying for her hand and his throne.

What happens next pushes all the same buttons that are still pushed whenever the descendants of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone begin applying the camouflage, strapping on their bandoliers, and sheathing their big knives. In the process, there’s also some meaningful father-son bonding. Homer always did know how to lend class to the classics.

If you’re looking for angry gods, shipwrecks, cannibalism, gratuitous nudity, riotous drunkenness, blinded Cyclopes, and the vicarious slaughter of one’s rivals, I hope you’ll me for “Home Sweet Homer” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

December 7, 2024
Odysseus’ Journey Home: Music & Adventure

Homesick for Homer?

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” it’s an hour of high adventure and satisfied bloodlust, as we listen to musical evocations of Odysseus’ homeward journey.

We’ll hear Ernst Boehe’s symphonic poem “Departure and Shipwreck,” from his cycle “From Odysseus’ Voyages” (1903-05), and Benjamin Britten’s radio play “The Rescue of Penelope” (1943), narrated by Dame Janet Baker.

Odysseus, of course, is one of the heroes of the Trojan War, waylaid time and again, on his return, by Poseidon and the frailties of his own men. It takes him ten years to find his way back to Ithaca. When he gets there, he finds his wife beset by boorish suitors all vying for her hand and his throne.

What happens next pushes all the same buttons that are still pushed whenever Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger apply the camouflage, strap on the bandoliers, and sheathe the big knives. Along the way, there’s also some meaningful father-son bonding. Leave it to Homer, who always knew how to lend a little class to the classics.

Odysseus strings his bow, for “Home Sweet Homer,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

“The Slaughter of the Suitors by Odysseus and Telemachus” (1812), by Louis-Vincent-Léon Pallière

September 13, 2020
Homer’s Homesick Sounds on WWFM

As one who seemingly can’t find his way home, I thought I would offer up an afternoon of music inspired by the ultimate wanderer.

Our centerpiece will be a rarely-heard work, “Odysseus: Symphony in Four Movements,” by the English composer Armstrong Gibbs. Its four movements are meant to evoke the “Escape from Calypso,” “Circe,” “Cyclops,” and “The Return.” If you’re a fan of Vaughan Williams’ “A Sea Symphony,” you might also enjoy this.

“The Return,” of course, refers to Odysseus’ return to Ithaca, after 20 years’ absence, when he finally strings his bow and lays waste to his rivals in one of the most satisfying bloodbaths in all of literature. It also forms the climax of Benjamin Britten’s “The Rescue of Penelope,” a radio play for vocal soloists and orchestra. In the work’s only recording, we’ll hear none other than Dame Janet Baker as the speaker.

I’ll try to mix it up from there, with music suggested by “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.”

We’re homesick for Homer, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 21, 2019
Bruch’s Odysseus Rediscovered

It says something about how highly regarded was Max Bruch’s “Odysseus” that none other than Johannes Brahms selected it for his farewell performance in 1875 as Director of the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna. Bruch’s oratorio racked up an impressive number of performances. Within two years of its premiere in 1873, it was given no less than 45 times. In fact, in Bruch’s heyday, the work was considered second in excellence only to his imperishable Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor.

Yet by the time of the composer’s death, in 1920, he was considered an artifact of a bygone era. “Odysseus” was a relic of the 19th century, and in the 19th century it would remain, until liberated by musicologist and conductor Leon Botstein in the late 1990s. Thanks to Botstein, we’ll get to enjoy the complete oratorio today on WPRB, as we listen to a full morning of music inspired by Homer.

Bruch’s oratorio perhaps unforgivably omits the cathartic bloodletting at the tale’s climax, when Odysseus slays his wife’s unwanted suitors, who have overrun his home in his absence. But Benjamin Britten was not so squeamish. Britten embraced all the inherent drama and adventure of epic vengeance in his music for radio, “The Rescue of Penelope.” We’ll cap the morning with this full-blooded work, which will be narrated by Dame Janet Baker.

Along the way, we’ll also have music by Gabriel Fauré, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Ernst Boehe, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jacques Offenbach, John Harbison, Hector Berlioz, and Jerome Moross, among others.

There will be more wine for Polyphemus, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’re always trying hard to rock your world, on Classic Ross Amico.

April 6, 2017

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