In Flagrante Delicto
— Gesualdo da Venosa - A letter to Maria d'Avalos (2009)
Zefiro Torna – Ensemble Polyfoon – Tom de Hoog
Don Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (1560-1613) is one of the most controversial composers in music history. Early in his life he got possessed with music and started playing the harpsichord, lute and guitar. His experimental, mostly vocal, works are reminiscent of the renaissance and point in the direction of a new baroque style. His works are immersed in dissonants and chromaticisms and in exuberant word paintings they express strong emotions such as love, pain, death, ecstasy and agony. Without any doubt this can be traced back to Gesualdo's own tumultuous life. He caught his first wife in the act with her lover and killed them shockingly with his own hands. What's more, some sources mention that he denied his second son and even cuddled him to death. In the city of Ferrara, where he married Leonora d'Este, the avant-garde atmosphere offered him new creative possibilities. But without much delay his misfortune caught up with him, and to be sheltered from his avengers he locked himself in his Naples castle, looking for a cure in vain. Close to his music chapel and his servants, he spent the last years of his life in anxiety psychosis and depression.
Actor Tom de Hoog writes and performs a compelling text on insanity and schizophrenia while Zefiro Torna stages madrigals dedicThe Ensemble Polyfoon on the other hand draws from Gesualdo’s “Sacrae Cantiones”, some of which were added to by Igor Stravinsky. A new composition by Flemish composer Jeroen D’hoe concludes the evening.The Ensemble Polyfoon on the other hand draws from Gesualdo's partly unfinished “Sacrae Cantiones”. They were added to by Igor Stravinsky and now – in creation – by Flemish composer Jeroen D'hoe.
Tom de Hoog actor
Ensemble Polyfoon conducted by Lieven Deroo
Griet De Geyter, Cécile Kempenaers, Els Van Laethem soprano
Liam Fennelly viola da gamba
Jurgen De bruyn lute
Sarah L. Ridy harp
