THE VENOSA VENDETTA
Do you know Carlo Gesualdo ?
Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) was a famous Italian composer and nobleman renowned for his expressive, avant-garde madrigals* of the 16th century.
But behind his great musical abilities lay a man consumed by jealousy, capable of the worst atrocities. His tragic fate undoubtedly shaped his compositions.
Portrait of Gesualdo by Giovanni Balducci, detail from Perdono di Gesualdo (1609)
In 1590, the Prince of Venosa caught his wife Maria D'Alvalos and her lover the Duke of Andria in the act of adultery. In a fit of rage, Gesualdo stabbed them both.
Thanks to his noble rank, he escaped justice.
Gesualdo’s Music
His tragic fate undoubtedly shaped his compositions, which are characterized by chromaticism and modulation unprecedented for his time, reflecting his tormented soul.
Isolation, Flagellation.
Dark legends about Gesualdo were to follow, further darkening the composer's already tarnished reputation. Some musicologists claim that he suffocated one of his sons to death, but this remains a mere legend.
Researchers are certain, however, that until his death, Carlo Gesualdo inflicted self-imposed isolation with practices of "mortification of the flesh". We know, for example, that he practiced flagellation by hiring teenage men to do it.
He died on September 10, 1613, in a fall from his horse.
*The polyphonic madrigal is a secular, poetic and vocal musical genre born in 16th-century Italy. It is based on the union between the learned Franco-Flemish motet and various Italian popular musical traditions.
Based on De Montalembert, Eugène, et Abromont, Claude. « Le Madrigal ». In Guide des Genres de la Musique Occidentale, Fayard.Henry Lemoine, pp 607 à 643. Les Indispensables De La Musique. Librairie Fayard, 2010.
