Anne-Kathryn Olsen

Graindelavoix, Bjorn Schmelze: Gesualdo - Tenebrae

by C. Michael Bailey
July 26, 2020

Choral composer Carlo Gesualdo (1566 -1613) has a public relations problem. On October 16, 1590, Gesualdo came upon his wife, Donna Maria, and her aristocratic lover, Fabrizio Carafa, in flagrante delicto, brutally killing them both and dragging their mutilated bodies in front of his Palazzo Sansevero for all to see. As Gesualdo was of noble birth he was found not to have committed a crime. Trying to square this behavior with his composing the greatest collection of madrigals, second only ...