Created and directed by Bill Barclay, The Death of Gesualdo at St Martin in the Fields is billed as a ‘theatrical concert’ with six actors, six musicians, and a puppet.
Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) was an Italian prince and composer. Known for composing madrigals and sacred music, he was also notorious for killing his first wife and her lover.
This is just one of the tableaux acted and positioned as part of The Death of Gesualdo. With music from the Gesualdo Six singers, directed by Owain Park, this concert has sublime melodies but an often puzzling story.
Six actors, including Imogen Frances, David Tarkenter, Siân Williams, and Markus Weinfurter, play Gesauldo and those in his life, including the unfaithful wife (Frances) he killed, and his second wife who spun him into psychosis.
Barclay’s programme notes suggest we can seperate the art and the artist. His staging of the story is often slow-paced, despite physical theatre inspiration and a choreographer (Will Tuckett).
A puppet portrays both the young Carlo and his ill-fated son, Don Emmanuelle. This moves beautifully and is effective in the church’s flickering candlelight, but is under-utilised.
As a theatrical production, The Death of Gesualdo is more a succession of scenes than full-bodied drama, and as it is all mime, gesture, and tableau, it is sometimes tricky to work out what we are seeing.
That Carlo Gesualdo was lacking in morality as a man is evident; that he created beautiful music is equally true. To bring the two together is audacious, and at certain moments, has a dark beauty.
The marriages, the murder, the death of the man. As the singers weave into the action, at some points lit simply by their tablets, the nave of St Martin in the Fields takes on an otherworldly glow.
As Tarkenter’s priest evolves into the devil through Gesauldo’s hallucinations, the story becomes ever more unstable, but yet peaks in its dramatic intensity.
Perhaps a little long at 75 minutes: there are rather more still-life sequences that are needed. I would have welcomed some captions or snatches of dialogue, although the Gesualdo Six are a very effective chorus.
The Death of Gesualdo does tell us something about the man, while offering an evening that doesn’t always marry theatre and music seamlessly together.
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The Death of Gesualdo has its final performance at St Martin in the Fields on 17 Jan. Details here. The show is co-commissioned by St Martin-in-the-Fields [with The National Centre for Early Music and Music Before 1800]
Photo credit: Paul Marc Mitchell