Kyle Masson

Claudio Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (1640) constitutes a unique source for understanding Venetian norms concerning the nature of marriage, love, and the emergence of public opera as a popular form of entertainment in 17th-century Venice.  Monteverdi’s first foray into public opera demonstrates the composer’s ability to adapt to shifting expectations from the audience while fulfilling his own personal aesthetic.  This study seeks to understand the plurality of meanings embodied in a particular character, Queen Penelope, in an effort to recover period listening practices and receptions of operatic character.  In the historiography of Il ritorno studies, Penelope acquires a degree of autonomy more closely correlated to her Homeric counterpart than her textual and musical treatment suggests.  Augmented by an investigation of the social conditions and aesthetic shifts of the time, a study of Penelope’s music in its dramatic contexts reveals a systematic objectification of her character.  By examining these representations as deliberate actions of the composer, one concludes that the opera focuses on women as objectified symbols worthy of pity rather than representatives of chastity, prudence, or constancy.