Baserad på Eyvind Johnsons roman. En pacifist och krigshjälte återvänder hem, tvingad att återställa ordningen. Han lägger ner sitt vapen men griper det igen. Hur får man slut på en strid utan att strida? Detta musikaliska allkonstverk tog hela bröllopssalen i besittning med många parallella skeenden inför en fascinerad och omtumlad publik.

\"Return to Ithaca was, above all, a scenic experience that fuses all the forms that go to make up opera... In the music itself, though, Jönsson has also arrived at a rich and pragmatic musical expression which is bound to find imitators. Its idiom is apparently simple, its predicament fundamentally romantic, and the music is rooted to a percussive base - a powerful engine, mastered with great accuracy and vigour by the conductor B. Tommy Andersson. The music repeatedly built up dramatic intensity, only to resolve in an abrupt pause. The vocal lines were, typically, short and characterized by odd leaps - yet the overall feeling of simplicity matched the often archaic tone of the libretto.\" Opera, London 2001

\"Jönsson weaves the web even closer by achieving a kind of composite tribal-sounding Ur-musik style at times: this is mankind, everywhere. The music is lyrical, slow-paced (except for a deliberately chaotic first act), almost hypnotic…\" Della Couling, Opera Now 2001

”Ett beställningsverk som blivit något av det mest nyskapande på en svensk operascen…och framför allt en helgjuten föreställning” Torbjörn Eriksson, Expressen 31 juli 2001

”Med Strändernas svall framträder Reine Jönsson som en första rangens operatonsättare…regi, scenografi och musikalisk ledning är högoktaniga, rolltolkningar och koreografi förstklassiga…en välförtjänt succé” Leif Aare, DN 30 juli 2001

\"Its idiom is apparently simple, its predicament fundamentally romantic, and the music is rooted to a percussive base - a powerful engine, mastered with great accuracy and vigour by the conductor B. Tommy Andersson. The music repeatedly buildt up dramatic intensity, only to resolve in an abrupt pause. The vocal lines were, typically, short and charachterized by odd leaps - yet the overall feeling of simplicity matched the often archaic tone of the libretto. Return to Ithaca was, above all, a scenic experience that fuses all the forms that go to make up opera /.../ In the music itself, though, Jösson has also arrived at a rich and pragmatic musical expression which is bound to find imitators.\" Åsa Mälhammar, Opera London, 2001

Tillgängligt material: Partitur. Klaverutdrag. Libretto. Ork.stämmor: V1-2, Vla, Vla solo (Hermes), Vc, Kb, Fl, Ob, Kl, Sax (Telemakhos), Fg, Cor, Harpa (Penelope), Perc.