RETURN OF ULYSSES
SONG OF MY FATHER
MAY-JUNE, 2024
SOURCE THEATRE | BALTIMORE THEATER PROJECT
MONTEVERDI | LAU
IN Series’ lauded Monteverdi Trilogy continues with the second installation in the cycle. 2024 is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the start of official military action by the United States in Vietnam. It was a conflict that would change the face of America forever. The young souls that fought were wounded most acutely in ways that were invisible, and their return home was only the beginning of an epic struggle to live again.
Monteverdi’s second opera sets the story of Trojan War hero Ulysses’ traumatic homecoming from the epic The Odyssey. IN Series will bring this rarely heard masterpiece to life with an expansive work that incorporates a new English text crafted from interviews taken with Vietnam veterans, and the Thai contemporary dance company 18 Monkeys, bringing their unique mix of modern and traditional South-East Asian Kohn dance to the production. Monteverdi’s score will be joined by newly commissioned arrangements of popular Vietnam era songs in the style of Monteverdi madrigals and the words of Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong. An all star cast is led by Robert Mellon (Othello) and Elizabeth Mondragon (Zavala-Zavala), and is accompanied by a period instrumental ensemble from around the world. Memorial Day performances offer a moving and unique way to remember and honor the lives and living that was lost in those seas and jungles sixty years ago.
Directed and conducted by Timothy Nelson
INnovatio Baroque Orchestra
Choreographer by Jitti Chompee
Design by Lawrence E. Moten III and Abigail Hoke-Brady
Robert Mellon, Ulysses
Elizabeth Mondragon, Penelope
Elijah McCormack, Telemaco
Featuring Aryssa Leigh Burrs, Janna Critz, Oliver Mercer, Kevin Short
