Written for the party goers of the 1639 Venice Carnivale, Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses was said by one scholar to have enough sex, gore and elements of the supernatural to satisfy the most jaded Venetian palate.

"A rotted body politic riven with lies and factions and a sense that debauchery, despotism and tyranny governs all," is how director, Michael Barker-Caven describes the background of The Rape of Lucretia.