Zürich Opera's 1979 video production of Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria is an exercise in missed opportunities; given extraordinary musical and dramatic resources, the company squanders them on what, more often than not, is an embarrassing performance. The company obviously pulled out all the stops for this installment in its Monteverdi cycle: Nikolaus Harnoncourt, one of the pioneers of the early music movement, conducted his realization of the score, and the controversial but celebrated Jean-Pierre Ponnelle was the director. On both its musical and dramatic merits, however, the production falls short. But before focusing its failings, its strengths should be noted. Scenically, the opera is spectacular; Ponnelle's lavish set designs evoke the aesthetic sensibilities that it's easy to imagine being in vogue in mid-seventeenth century Venice, as do Pet Halmen's sometimes quirky but sumptuous costume designs. The large cast is vocally strong and sings with bel canto fullness of tone. Every lead has the technique and vocal expressiveness to bring these characters musically to life -- Werner Hollweg as Ulisse, Trudeliese Schmidt as Penelope, Francisco Araiza as Telemaco, Helrun Gardow as Minerva, Renate Lenhart as Guinone, Hans Franzen as Nettuno, Arley Reece as Iro, and Paul Esswood, Simon Estes, and Peter Straka as the suitors, all deliver solid performances. The musical problems begin in the pit. Harnoncourt has assembled an orchestra of 38, including various keyboards, orchestral strings, plucked strings, winds, brass, and percussion. Monteverdi specified the instrumentation for Orfeo (an ensemble lavish for its time but far less extravagant than this one), but only a short score of Ulisse survives, essentially a bass line with the vocal parts, so the critical job of reconstructing the score falls to the conductor or an editor. Harnoncourt's decision to use practically every instrument he can lay his hands on is a dubious historical and aesthetic choice. He exercises none of the judiciousness Monteverdi showed in the conservative deployment of his forces in Orfeo; this production bombards the listener with orchestral effects Monteverdi could probably never have dreamed of, much less brought to execution in the atmosphere of economic restraint that governed the size of pit orchestras in Venice of the 1640s.