¡Gesualdo!

The play by Carlo Gesualdo (1561-1613) comes to the Arriaga Theatre de under Calixto Bieito, who directs Gesualdo!, an impressive show that uses his “Tenebrae Responsoria” as a reference, or what is the same,  the Fifth and Sixth Book of Madrigals by the magnificent Italian composer. Gesualdo!, with Johannes Blum and Ute Vollmar as playwrights, is a joint coproduction by the Arriaga Theatre and the Hamburg State Opera, and it was there, at the Hamburg State Opera, that the play was premiered on 15th January with resounding success.

Gesualdo! reveals a staging with many contrasts, full of lights and shadows, in which passion, pain and ecstasy are intermingled. The beauty of the nudity of the body can also capture the audience’s attention, directly inspired by the great maestros of painting, like Zurbarán and Caravaggio, who have always influenced Calixto Bieito. In short, it is an impressive staging that offers brilliant performances and the wonderful music of Carlo Gesualdo as the guiding thread of the play, with the masterly musical direction by Johannes Gontarski, a brilliant young German musician who is causing a sensation in his native country.  Gontarski plays the lute in this version of Gesualdo!

Free talk on the show and the author

As a complement to Gesualdo!, on Saturday 4th February at 6pm, two hours before the performance, the playwright, Johannes Blum, will give a stimulating free talk  lasting one hour. It is particularly aimed at people who are going to watch the show, although it is open to anybody who wishes to attend, until the maximum capacity of 500 people is reached.  In it, Blum will explain interesting details about the show and will talk about the life and work of the genius Italian author, Carlo Gesualdo.

About Carlo Gesualdo

Whilst fellow composers, such as Monteverdi focused on new sound forms or guiding the invention of the concept of   futuristic opera, Carlo Gesualdo, who was the Prince of Venosa, remained loyal to an extremely complex and risky   polyphony characterised by the use of chromaticisms, obtaining a sound that is more typical of Schönberg than a Renaissance composer. In any case, the quality of his work is unquestionable.

However, his artistic grandeur is contrasted with his monstrous biography, in which such a dark episode as the brutal murder of his wife and her lover de in a furious attack of jealousy. In his subsequent Madrigal, it is easy to imagine sounds of lust, rage, pain and death. His music is a reliable reflection of a mind that is just as tormented as it is privileged.