Last Updated on January 17, 2026
Dark Harmonies from The Gesualdo Six, A Theatrical Concert for the 300th Anniversary of St Martin in the Fields
In his introduction to Death of Gesualdo, Bill Barclay writes:
“Carlo Gesualdo wrote some of the most darkly sublime music of the late Renaissance. He also savagely murdered his wife and her lover in their bed. Now be honest: which would you like to discuss first?”
It is a provocation that sets the atmosphere for an evening that resists easy resolution. Presented at St Martin-in-the-Fields as the launch of the church’s 300th anniversary celebrations, the World Premiere of Death of Gesualdo offered a measured and reflective interaction with one of the most troubling figures in music history.
Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, occupies an uneasy place in the late Renaissance canon. Born into Neapolitan nobility in 1566, he enjoyed a degree of artistic freedom unavailable to most composers of his time. His music is noted for extreme chromaticism, sudden harmonic shifts and an emotional intensity that sits uneasily alongside the conventions of sixteenth-century polyphony, even as it remains firmly within its mannered framework. His life was no less contradictory. In 1590, he murdered his wife, Maria d’Avalos, and her lover after discovering them together. Protected by his status, he was never tried, remarried, and went on to write some of his most distinctive music.
The programme allowed the music to remain at the centre. In the resonant yet clear acoustic of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Gesualdo’s writing emerged with striking definition. Passages of luminous beauty were repeatedly unsettled by dissonance and unexpected harmonic turns, generating a sense of instability that rarely resolves. The introductory text, O vos omnes, drawn directly from the Tenebrae responsories, is perhaps Gesualdo’s most familiar sacred work and one that can sound uncomfortably personal, as though Christ’s suffering were being refracted through the composer’s own. The remaining Latin texts are drawn more broadly from Gospel passages and devotional sources, blended with secular madrigal texts. Together they form a reflective sequence rather than a liturgical reconstruction, allowing sacred and secular voices to sit alongside one another while continuing a highly controlled musical line.
The singers of The Gesualdo Six were costumed in ghoulish black with striking make-up, looking as though they might have stepped straight off the set of The Traitors. Sustaining seventy-five minutes of almost continuous singing with such a consistent white-toned sound is no small achievement. Particularly impressive was the ensemble’s control of blend and balance. The voices were perfectly matched, creating a homogeneous texture in which individual lines remained audible without ever asserting themselves unduly. This careful equilibrium allowed Gesualdo’s densely worked harmonies to register.
Set against this musical framework, Bill Barclay’s production was at once intimate and visually arresting. From my seat, however, the view was restricted, offering only glimpses of what appeared to be a sequence of carefully composed Renaissance tableaux. Measured movement by Will Tuckett echoed the music’s formality, while Arthur Oliver’s striking costumes contributed to a strongly evocative sense of period.
Death of Gesualdo presents a composer whose legacy remains difficult to reconcile, shaped as much by violence as by musical brilliance. As the launch of St Martin-in-the-Fields’ 300th anniversary, it offers an absorbing evening, and one that enables the music to carry on its own ambiguities rather than attempting to resolve them.
Friday 16 and Saturday 17 January at 7 pm (duration 75 minutes)
St Martin-in-the-Fields
Trafalgar Square,
London,
WC2N 4JJ
Tickets £40-£55
Tickets and information HERE
Further performances of The Death of Gesualdo include:
National Centre for Early Music in York,
January 18 & 19, 2026 TICKETS
US Premiere: Cathedral Church of St John the Divine in NYC,
February 13, 2026 TICKETS
Looking for something different? Check our opera previews for 2026.
Leave a Reply