Australian mezzo Caitlin Hulcup learnt the role over the weekend and sang beautifully from the orchestra pit, while a lip-synching Rice walked the role on stage.
John Fulljames’s production responds to the architecture of the Roundhouse, in its revolving circular stage with central orchestra pit, into which is crammed the Orchestra of the Early Opera Company under conductor Christian Curnyn.
Monteverdi’s late great work is concerned with time and age, beginning with an exhausted Ulysses arriving back in his homeland after 20 years of wars and wanderings.
He has to defeat the suitors competing for his land and wife; and to reconcile with Penelope over his long absence.
After a slow start, the pace quickens with the arrival on a tandem pedalled by the goddess Minerva (Catherine Carby) of Ulysses’s son Telemachus (the splendid tenor Samuel Boden).
The reunion between father and son is heart-touching. Baritone Roderick Williams brings out Ulysses’s inner strength as he gets to grip with his bow and despatches the suitors (Nick Pritchard, Tai Oney and David Shipley) in an explosion of popped balloons and red confetti.
Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses – Royal Opera at the Roundhouse, London NW1
Tickets: 020 7304 4000/roh.org.uk; £30-£90