Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (SV 325, The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland) is an opera by Claudio Monteverdi using a libretto by Giacomo Badoaro. The opera, first performed at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice during the 1639–40 carnival, is based on the second half of Homer's Odyssey. It tells how Ulisse (Odysseus) returns from the Trojan Wars and recovers his kingdom. The loyal and virtuous characters are ultimately rewarded, while treachery and deception are overcome. After early performances in Venice and Bologna, the opera remained unperformed until the 20th century. Since the 1970s it has become increasingly popular, and has been widely performed and recorded. Monteverdi uses a variety of musical styles to express the feelings and emotions of a great range of characters, divine and human. In a division of critical opinion, Il ritorno has been described as an "ugly duckling", and conversely as the most tender and moving of Monteverdi's surviving operas.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_ritorno_d%27Ulisse_in_patria

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1847:

Scottish physician James Young Simpson discovered the anaesthetic qualities of chloroform. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroform

1890:

London's City and South London Railway (locomotive pictured), the first deep-level underground railway in the world, opened, running a distance of 5.1 km (3.2 mi) between the City of London and Stockwell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_and_South_London_Railway

1921:

After a speech by Adolf Hitler in the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, members of the Sturmabteilung, known as "brownshirts", physically assaulted his opposition, an event which assumed legendary proportions over time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung

1995:

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir while at a peace rally at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Yitzhak_Rabin

2010:

In the first aviation occurrence for an Airbus A380, Qantas Flight 32 suffered an uncontained engine failure and safely made an emergency landing at Singapore Changi Airport with no casualties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flight_32

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

entelechy: 1. (Aristotelian philosophy) The complete realisation and final form of some potential concept or function; the conditions under which a potential thing becomes actualized. 2. A particular type of motivation, need for self-determination, and inner strength directing life and growth to become all one is capable of being; the need to actualize one's beliefs; having a personal vision and being able to actualize that vision from within. 3. Something complex that emerges when a large number of simple objects are put together. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/entelechy

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

With curious art the brain, too finely wrought, Preys on herself, and is destroy'd by thought: Constant attention wears the active mind, Blots out our powers, and leaves a blank behind.   --Charles Churchill https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Churchill_(satirist)