FULL It seems like everything started spinning because of Gesualdo Perm 2024 N’Caged
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: It seems like everything started spinning because of Gesualdo
- Composer: Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa
- Libretto: Author of the project and literary and stage adaptation Ksenia Anufrieva
- Venue & Opera Company: Perm, Russia, Diaghilev Festival
- Recorded: June 29, 2024
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Vocal ensemble N'Caged, Arina Zvereva, Anastasia Polyanina, Olga Rossini, Sergey Malinin, Ilya Laptev
- Conductor:
- Orchestra:
- Stage Director: Ksenia Anufrieva
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Diaghilev Festival
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, rusubs, gensubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
The vocal ensemble N’Caged, created by Arina Zvereva in 2013, is widely known for its interpretations of contemporary music, often written specifically for this group. Since 2015, the ensemble’s soloists have been participating in productions of the Stanislavsky Electrotheater, receiving Golden Mask nominations and awards for their work. Chamber projects, including site-specific and museum projects, also occupy a large place in the ensemble’s work.
A new format—reading concert—appeared precisely in this vein. The project was inspired by the exhibition “Named by Vasari. Mannerism”, which took place in the Volga-Vyatka branch of the Pushkin Museum named after. A.S. Pushkin (Arsenal, Nizhny Novgorod) from autumn 2023 to spring 2024. Ksenia Anufrieva, a musicologist and curator of interdisciplinary projects, based the reading concert on the detective-psychological story of the 20th-century Argentine classic Julio Cortazar, “Clone.” The heroes of the story are members of a vocal ensemble. They perform the music of the most sophisticated composer of the late 16th century, Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa. One of the heroines, trying to express the level of musical unity in the ensemble, pronounces the word “clone”: to sing Gesualdo, you need to be clones of each other, to feel the music as one person. But is this possible? The complex relationships in the ensemble are polyphonically superimposed on discussions about Gesualdo, famous not only for his musical insights, but also for his double murder out of jealousy: “It seems that everything turned because of Gesualdo: did he have the right to do what he did, or should he punish himself , instead of taking revenge on his wife? During the break between rehearsals, we went down to the hotel bar to relax a little, Paola argued with Lucio and Roberto, the rest played canasta or went to their rooms. He’s right, Roberto insisted, that then and now, his wife deceived him, and he killed her…”
The dialogues of the musician characters are read by vocalists – members of the N’Caged ensemble. Like the events of the story, his reading is interspersed with the singing of madrigals by the “chromatic genius” Gesualdo, as well as one of the main admirers of his genius in our days, Salvatore Sciarrino. The works of the composer of the 21st century add another layer to polyphonic history – the image of modernity, listening to both the classics of literature of the 20th century and the mannerist labyrinths of music of the 16th century.