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Nederlands

Gesualdo

De Warme Winkel, Nederlands Kamerkoor

Incredible stories abound about the Italian composer and prince Carlo Gesualdo. Apparently, he had a whole forrest felled because the rustle of its leaves disturbed him when he was composing, and he also murdered his wife and her lover when he discovered their adultery. He tortured animals and servants, suffered from depression, and his mistress was a witch. Yet he composed heavenly madrigals which are still part of the repertoire. Nederlands Kamerkoor, one of the world’s greatest choirs, and anarchist theater company De Warme Winkel explore this paradox in a musical theatre performance that becomes a quest for the sublime.

dates

Thu June 21 2018 8:00 PM

Fri June 22 2018 8:00 PM

Sat June 23 2018 8:00 PM

Sun June 24 2018 3:00 PM

Mon June 25 2018 8:00 PM

information

  • Dutch

  • Duration of performance unknown (zonder pauze)

related

De Warme Winkel and the Netherlands Chamber Choir (Nederlands Kamerkoor) are to present the world premiere of Gesualdo at this year’s edition of the Holland Festival. This new “oeuvre production”

De Warme Winkel and the Netherlands Chamber Choir (Nederlands Kamerkoor) are to present the world premiere of Gesualdo at this year’s edition of the Holland Festival. This new “oeuvre production”

is the latest result of a genre developed by De Warme Winkel, in which the dramatists try to capture and present both the life and work of an artist as well as the spirit of the times in which he worked. Earlier works in the genre include Gavrilo Princip (Holland Festival, 2014) and Majakovski/Oktober (2017). 

 

Gesualdo represents a quest for the extraordinary, a search for that which evokes both horror and fascination, an increasingly everyday occupation in our time as we gaze in enthralment at the spectacle of Trump and North Korea — never before have we been so attracted and repelled.

 

Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) was himself a living embodiment of the extraordinary. An Italian composer and prince, he wrote wondrous and breathtakingly beautiful music that sounds modern even today. He was, at the same time, famous for the absolute madness that surrounded his life. Not only was he said to have had an entire forest chopped down because he found the rustling of leaves distracting to his composing, but he is also reputed to have killed his wife and her lover upon discovering their adultery. He tortured animals, subjected himself to regular whippings by his staff, suffered from depression, and had a witch for a mistress. 

 

So vivid is his music, however, that it is almost impossible to listen to without picturing the horrible death his wife met at his hands. Period costumes are juxtaposed with faeces in the hallway; violent screams vie with angelic voices, pain with pleasure, art with nature, science with superstition.The Renaissance is a new subject for De Warme Winkel, which is somewhat surprising given the collective’s fascination with the spirit of cultural awakening, their love of art, and the bizarre contrasts that arose in the period of transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era. Those contrasts and contradictions defined the zeitgeist: audiences were witness to radical happenings in the arts — poetry, literature, paintings rich with chiaroscuro — and in the lives of artists themselves. People like Gesualdo, Caravaggio and Torquato Tasso were as eccentric, impossible, and monstrous as human beings as they were brilliant as artists. 

 

The Netherlands Chamber Choir, for its part, considers Gesualdo an old friend, having performed the Italian composer’s work fairly regularly throughout its eighty-year history. Tido Visser, the choir’s managing director, is one of the most highly respected authorities on the composer’s life and works, and, as a singer, has recorded Gesualdo’s complete madrigals for the Globe label. It’s been a fervent wish of his to collaborate with De Warm Winkel with the aim of shedding new light on the phenomenon that is Gesualdo. Harry van der Kamp (preparation) is, in addition to being a former member of the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the founder of the renowned madrigal ensemble the Gesualdo Consort.

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credits

concept Vincent Rietveld, Mara van Vlijmen, Ward Weemhoff, Florian Myjer, Marieke de Zwaan cast Vincent Rietveld, Mara van Vlijmen, Ward Weemhoff, Florian Myjer, Marieke de Zwaan, Nederlands Kamerkoor vocals Nederlands Kamerkoor idea Tido Visser, De Warme Winkel costumes Bernadette Corstens musical supervision Bo Koek costumes keeper Hans Peter Hulscher office management Thomas VandeWalle planning Marloes Marinussen sales Marloes Marinussen marketing and publicity Pauline Hunse, Sanne van de Kraats First inspecient Niels Runderkamp rehearsal leader Harry van der Kamp design Marloes en Wikke sound design Will-Jan Pielage lighting design Prem Scholte Albers light operator Jeroen Veer sound engineer Jannes Noorman technique (internship) Rutger Bouwman production co-ordination Carry Hendriks production Joppe Kos choir production Annelot Rijkaart coproduction De Warme Winkel, Nederlands Kamerkoor, Holland Festival with the support of Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Stichting Zabawas

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