Royal Opera Announces Cast Amendment for THE RETURN OF ULYSSES at the Roundhouse

Due to vocal indisposition, Christine Rice has had to withdraw from singing the role of Penelope in The Return of Ulysses. The role will now be performed by Australian mezzo-soprano Caitlin Hulcup.

Caitlin Hulcup made her Royal Opera debut in 2009 as Arbaces (Artaxerxes) and has since sung Aristeus (Rossi's Orpheus) at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare's Globe for the Company.

The rest of the cast remains the same.

THE RETURN OF ULYSSES (Claudio Monteverdi) 15, 16, 18, 19 and 21 January at 7.30pm at the Roundhouse.

The Return of Ulysses (Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria) is one of only three surviving operas by the Renaissance composer Claudio Monteverdi. As with The Coronation of Poppea(L'incoronazione di Poppea) it dates from the later period of Monteverdi's career, and was first performed in Venice in 1640. The opera is a masterpiece: Monteverdi invests majestic music with great pathos and dramatic truth, driving with astonishing directness to the heart of each of his complex characters.

John Fulljames, The Royal Opera's former Associate Director of Opera, directs a new production of The Return of Ulysses in English for The Royal Opera at the Roundhouse. The production follows on from the tremendous success in 2015 of Monteverdi's Orfeo - The Royal Opera's first production of a Monteverdi opera - which was widely acclaimed for its musical excellence and innovative use of the distinctive, immersive space of the Roundhouse.

The chorus for The Return of Ulysses is made up of 40 singers from the Roundhouse community choir and the Royal Opera House Thurrock Community Chorus. These singers perform alongside students of the Vocal Studies programme at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

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