FULL GESUALDO (Schnittke) Moscow 2024 Ruslan Rozyev, Lyudmila Kuznetsova, Maxim Sazhin, Yulia Tomina, Andrey Chesnov
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Gesualdo
- Composer: Schnittke Alfred
- Libretto: Richard Bletschacher
- Venue & Opera Company: Zaryadye Hall, Moscow, Russia
- Recorded: November 3, 2024
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Ruslan Rozyev, Lyudmila Kuznetsova, Maxim Sazhin, Yulia Tomina, Andrey Chesnov, Evgeny Liberman, Evgenia Segenyuk, Ekaterina Chudotvorova, Oleg Polshkov, Andrey Pankratov, Svetlana Polyanskaya, Yana Usacheva, Pietro Bardotti, Maxim Kalinin, Yuri Zelenin, Alexander Shanin
- Conductor: Valery Polyansky
- Orchestra: State Academic Symphony
- Chorus: Capella of Russia
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Zaryadye Hall
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
SYNOPSIS
City and the Kingdom of Naples, between 1586 and 1590
Carlo Gesualdo is Prince of Venosa, lute player and composer. His only passions besides music are hunting and building castles. At the insistence of his family, Gesualdo marries his young cousin Maria d’Avalos, who has already been married twice. Gesualdo shows his frightened bride his favorite castle. Gesualdo’s family already feels a dull sense of threat. At a spring celebration of the Viceroy of Naples, Maria falls passionately in love with Fabrizio Caraffa, the married brother of her first husband. The doubly adulterous affair is uncovered by Gesualdo’s uncle and spreads as news. Gesualdo hopes to defuse this situation, which is personally and politically dangerous for him, with a “hunting accident.” The plan fails because Maria and Fabrizio are warned in advance.
Gesualdo composes a madrigal expressing his pain. At the same time, the lovers write to each other. Fabrizio tries to persuade Maria to give him up to save her life. But she responds by recklessly inviting him to new meetings. After he pretends to be going on a hunting trip, Gesualdo lies in wait for Maria and her lover. When the two show up, they are brutally murdered on Gesualdo’s orders. Maria’s maid Silvana manages to save Maria’s child.
The cardinal and viceroy question the eyewitnesses to find out the truth about the murder. Maria and Fabrizio’s families are overwhelmed with grief. Gesualdo has retreated to his favorite castle, where he does penance in the castle chapel. His hunting friends, who had supported him in the murder, now have to whip him while a choir of monks sings the “De profundis”. But from then on, Gesualdo is haunted by the baby’s cries. He imagines that he sees a resemblance to Fabrizio in the child and sees him only as the product of an adulterous union. In a fit, he grabs the child and kills it.
Quoted from Boosey & Hawkes