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The “Gesualdo Case” in Contemporary Melodrama

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Law and Opera

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Abstract

My contribution will focus on Gesualdo’s luck in the opera. His legendary life of great prince of the late Italian Renaissance, his fame as an outstanding madrigalist at the sunset of polyphony, his double murder (of his wife Maria d’Avalos and of her lover Fabrizio Carafa) attracted the attention of a cinema genius (as Werner Herzog), of great directors and film-makers (as Attilio Bertolucci, Di Gianni, Francesco Leprino) and of great contemporary composers (as Schnittke, Sciarrino, Francesconi), who dedicated to the supreme Prince of musicians operas of worldwide success.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The monograph by Annunziata (2016) is not only mentioned for the methodological rigour of the engaging narrative, but also for its exceptional bibliographical apparatus.

  2. 2.

    As regards the adventurous life of the brilliant librettist, I wish to recall a skillful story by Marta Morazzoni, telling of a casual nighttime encounter in a cold alpine inn, between two great men: Goethe and Da Ponte.

  3. 3.

    Glenn Watkins, a student of Robert Craft (in turn student of Stravinsky) dedicated his life to the study of Carlo Gesualdo, and his musicological studies on Gesualdo are fundamental. Watkins (1973) and Watkins (2010).

    For further references, both in the Italian and foreign literature, let me refer to my own work, Iudica (1993) (latest edition 2008), and to my more recent work, Iudica (2013).

    Iudica and Fertonani (2013) contain many valuable essays which deal with different aspects of the multifaceted figure of the great musician, focusing in particular on Gesualdo’s modernity, on the new study perspectives and on the modern reception of his music. Except for the essay by Vaccaro (1982), it can be said that the so-called ‘rediscovery’ of Gesualdo in the Italian literature starts after the 1980s. Turba (2013), p. 278, observes that ‘In the first half of the 1990s, a literary sensation will have a strong impact on the growing interest in the music of Carlo Gesualdo in Italy. I refer to Il principe dei musici (Diego Fabbri Award). Since 1993, Giovanni Iudica’s book has never been out of print, and it can be affirmed that no book on a ‘cultured’ musician has ever had such a resonance in our country. Even Salvatore Sciarrino mentioned it in the creative horizon of his work Luci mie traditrici’.

    The latest works by Cogliano (2005, 2006) (pls. refer to it for further and more recent bibliographical information), highlight unexplored or uncertain aspects (even defamatory statements) of the complex personality of the prince and musician. It should not be forgotten that Carlo Gesualdo was a prince of the Renaissance, and a prince could not ‘work’, but could only do things ‘for pleasure’ (make war, hunt, play cards, compose music, but always en amateur). See Mioli (2013) p. 63 ff.

  4. 4.

    For further information on Gesualdo’s fortune in literature, please refer to my work Iudica (2013), p. 67 ff., and, above all, Verga (2013), p. 157 ff.

  5. 5.

    The main seventeenth century source for this extreme overwhelming love story goes back to the brothers Corona and Corona (X-C 19). Much has been written on the tragic love between Maria d’Avalos, Princess Gesualdo, and Fabrizio Carafa. However, see in addition to the authors mentioned above, footnote 3, Gray and Heseltine (1926); Borzelli (1914), p. 8 ff.; Consiglio (1967).

  6. 6.

    Delli Ponti and Luban Plozza (1986), p. 152.

  7. 7.

    Corona and Corona (X-C 19); Watkins (1991), p.7 ff.; Iudica (1993), p. 76 ff.; Lazzaro (2013), p. 142 ff., to which we refer for further bibliographic information.

  8. 8.

    Iudica (2013), p. 13 ff.

  9. 9.

    The troublesome question was treated by Pierre Vicomte de Bourdeille, Abbé de Brantôme, who became in late years one of the favorites, one of the cousins, of famous Queen Margot. In his enjoyable and risqué best-selling book, Vies des dames galantes, and particularly in the first chapter Sur les dames qui font l’amour et leurs maris cocus, he tells the story of the gallant lady Maria d’Avalos Princess of Venosa.

  10. 10.

    The First Book of Madrigals, published by the Ferrara publisher Vittorio Baldini is, in fact, dated 1594. In this regard, see the in-depth analysis of Ziino (2013), p. 83 ff.

  11. 11.

    In the vast literature on the history of the House of Este, see the classic work by Muratori (1717–1740) as well as Chiappini (1967), p. 56 ff.

    See also Cavicchi (2009), p. 287 ff.; Lo Giudice (2013).

  12. 12.

    The wedding was memorable for its luxury and splendor: dances, tournaments inside the castle, a twenty-course meal and hundreds of dishes. Gallico (1996), p. 128 ff.; Iudica (1993) p. 171 ff., listing the whole menu. Alfonso was not trying to impress the spouses, but the bride’s uncle, hoping that he would soon become pope. Alfonso had reached the end of the game and was playing his last card.

  13. 13.

    Clemente VIII, Aldobrandini, had no scruples nor hesitations. Per lui si trattava di non perdere un’occasione eccezionale, che non sarebbe più ritornata, per ingrandire in modo perfettamente legittimo il ‘potere temporale’ della Chiesa. He had no intention to miss an exceptional opportunity, which would not repeat itself, to increase the ‘temporal power’ of the Church in a perfectly legitimate way.

  14. 14.

    Leichtentritt (1915), p. 615, also mentioned by Watkins (2010) p. 131. For the latter, Gesualdo’s music is ‘both timely and untimely’ (p. 5).

  15. 15.

    Huxley (1956), p. 286.

  16. 16.

    Watkins (2010), p. 208.

  17. 17.

    Recalled by Watkins (2010), p. 216.

  18. 18.

    The ‘modernity’ of Carlo Gesualdo is analysed in many ways in the different essays of the Iudica and Fertonani (2013). For further insight see the essays by Turba (2013), p. 253 ff.; Lazzaro (2013), p. 133 ff., by Corbella (2013), p. 203 ff. Gesualdo’s figure as a supreme madrigalist, uxoricide, murderer (and, according to some, infanticide) has also been represented at theatre, especially in the last and in the current century. See, in this regard, the beautifully written essay by De Mario (2013), p. 229 ff. The single act for female voice by Gino Negri is entitled: Carlo Gesualdo principe di Venosa and subtitled: Diario dell’assassinata. Latter subtitle reveals what the work is about, prevailing over the title. The protagonist, in fact, is the murdered, the narrating voice is the voice of who recounts the brief moment of supreme happiness which made her life worth living, and her sad farewell.

  19. 19.

    The great German director was strongly impressed by the tormented music of Carlo Gesualdo. In his cinema masterpieces Herzog always pays great attention to details as parts of a whole, which must be perfect, effective, sharp, even in its minimum components. An essential element in Herzog’s films is the soundtrack (just think of the ‘Bel Canto’ in Fitzcarraldo). Herzog’s admiration for the Prince of Venosa’s music started in a singular way. See, in this regard, the preface to the second edition of my work Il principe dei musici, cit., p. 20, in which I gathered from his words how his special relationship with Carlo Gesualdo’s music started. In his film Tot für fünf Stimmen, Death for five voices (which is not a documentary but all fiction), Milva, wrapped in a sumptuous sixteenth-century dress, sings the opening words of Gino Negri’s Diario dell’assassinata while she runs down the stairs of Gesualdo’s castle.

  20. 20.

    On the genesis, on the musical structure, and on the representation at the Martina Franca festival of the work by Maestro Francesco d’Avalos (Marquis of Vasto and Prince of Pescara), see the analysis of De Mario (2013), p. 242.

    I like remembering how Maestro d’Avalos, lover of Wagner and Bruckner, during the shooting of Herzog’s film in his Palace in via dei Mille in Naples, after having us shown his magnificent salons, sat down at the piano and played a musical phrase that Wagner had literally taken up from a madrigal by Gesualdo.

  21. 21.

    Richard Bletschacher, author of the Gesualdo libretto set to music by Schnittke, follows the picturesque opinion, according to which the Prince of Venosa would have done a carnage, killing not only his wife and her lover, but also Emanuele, the son he had had with Maria. Such an opinion does not deserve to be considered since it is proven that Emanuele lived long enough to marry a Fürstemberg princess, and to solemnly forgive his father for having killed his mother. The Perdono di Gesualdo (Gesualdo’s Forgiveness) is still celebrated today, in August, at the foot of the castle, in the charming and hospitable village of Gesualdo.

  22. 22.

    See De Mario (2013), p. 244 ff.

  23. 23.

    The elegant reinterpretation by Salvatore Sciarrino of Gesualdo’s famous madrigal Moro, lasso should further be remembered. This Gesualdian jewel was also worshiped by Luca Francesconi. See, in this regard Laterza (2013), p. 285 ff.

  24. 24.

    See the Introduction by Watkins (1991) as well as Zarrella (1995).

  25. 25.

    Besides the beautiful lyric poem by Tasso In morte di due nobilissimi, other poems deserve to be remembered, such as those by Ascanio Pignatelli (Piagasti Amor), Horatio Comite (Fra due contrarie leggi) and many anonymous ones (Il sepolcro di Maria parla al pellegrino; Dialogo tra Amore e Imeneo; Dialogo tra Maria e il Duca; Dialogo d’un viatore e donna Maria d’Avalos; Epitaffio), whose complete text can be found in my work Iudica (1993), p. 229 ff.

  26. 26.

    Vittorio Sermonti’s text to Francesconi’s Opera, Carlo Gesualdo considered as a Murderer, can be found in Iudica (1993) (last ed. 2008).

  27. 27.

    See the already mentioned maître à penser P. Brantôme, Vies des dames galantes, cit., great expert of aristocratic etiquette, heraldic rules and chivalry law.

  28. 28.

    See Iudica and Fertonani (2013), p. 302 ss. 302 ff., which contains the full text of the L’equilibrata edbalanced judgment of the Court of the Vicaria.

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  1. Bocconi University, Milan, Italy

    Giovanni Iudica

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  1. Angelo Sraffa Department of Legal Studies, Bocconi Universtiy, Milan, Italy

    Filippo Annunziata

  2. Graduate School of Law, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Giorgio Fabio Colombo

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Iudica, G. (2018). The “Gesualdo Case” in Contemporary Melodrama. In: Annunziata, F., Colombo, G. (eds) Law and Opera. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68649-3_11

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