Inspired by his romantic love for Mathilde Wesendonck, Richard Wagner created one of the most beautiful operas in music history. This season, the Hamburg State [...]Opera revives its legendary production by Ruth Berghaus of 1988.
Director: Ruth Berghaus
Set Design: Hans-Dieter Schaal
Costume Design: Marie-Luise Strandt
Dramaturgy: Sigrid Neef
Premiere: 13.03.1988
¡Gesualdo! | Carlo Gesualdo
- 04.02.2017: Gastspiel der Hamburgischen Staatsoper in Bilbao
“Tenebrae Responsoria”, the Fifth and Sixth Books of Madrigals by Carlo Gesualdo
The art of Carlo Gesualdo, Principe da Venosa’s madrigals is hard to [...]salvage from his biographical monstrosity of having committed the double murder of his wife and her lover in a jealous rage. In his later madrigals, it is easy to imagine the sounds of lust, rage, sorrow and intimations of death in simultaneous, dissonant rasping. While other composer-colleagues, such as Monteverdi, had already dedicated themselves to modern monody, i.e. solo singing accompanied by instruments, thus driving the invention of opera forward, Gesualdo remained true to a highly complex and highly risky polyphony – a fact alternately considered a mannered, vain gesture, pigheaded conservatism or the breaking of new chromatic ground.
Conductor: Johannes Gontarski
Director and Set Designer: Calixto Bieito
Costume Designer: Rebekka Zimlich
Dramaturgy: Johannes Blum
no further performances this season
