“Exceptional…sublime…perfect.
A cut above everything that’s gone before.”

-The Times (UK)

The madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) may be most famous for murdering his wife and her lover in bed, but among composers he is revered for anticipating chromaticism by 200 years. Gesualdo’s tortured mind led him into a life of violence and suffering, concluding in appalling tales of sorcery and flagellation. However shockingly macabre his biography is, the Prince of Venosa’s malignant narcissism can be traced to key incidents from his upbringing in the zero-sum game of Catholic politics.

PRESS

“It’s a cut above anything that’s gone before. The subject matter may be gruesome but the staging, singing and acting are sublime.”

The Times (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

“Singing with precision, pure tone and nuanced expression, their eyes blackened as if gouged out, the Gesualdo Six are outstanding…This show is a creepy juxtaposition of beauty and horror, like the music of Gesualdo itself.”

The Guardian (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

“What this show offers is the emotional and psychological context of his extraordinary music, performed here with supreme precision by The Gesualdo Six. Rarely have madrigals seemed so harrowingly potent.”

The Standard (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

“Barclay made sure that the music was never peripheral. The Gesualdo Six sang with their customary relish, biting into the crunchy dissonances, one of which was perfectly well timed when Gesualdo struck a blow to send his second wife to the floor….The agony and the ecstasy were both palpable in this haunting Renaissance chronicle”

Bachtrack  (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

“Barclay has assembled a fantastic team for this production and it shows…Owain Park…coaxes the singers to extract every atom of anguish and exquisite melancholy from the composer’s work…another fantastically thought-provoking experiment from the Gesualdo Six, that will no doubt expand audiences for their namesake’s shocking, otherworldly vision. A dark treat for sombre times.”

The Arts Desk (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

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Photos by Paul Marc Mitchell

“We are witnessing the birth of a new artform.”

Charles Hutch Press

“Owain Park and his singers sustain 75 minutes of virtuosic precision – lulling, coaxing, startling and consoling us, cloaking stiletto sharp harmonies in velvet delivery. The effect is mesmerising, hypnotic.”

The Tablet 

“Created, directed, and lit by Bill Barclay (previously director of music at Shakespeare’s Globe), the show is a remarkable and arresting dramatic biography of this dark Renaissance prince…The Gesualdo Six is an astonishing ensemble and did not tire once throughout the 75-minute performance of challenging music. Under the direction of Owain Park, their lines and volumes were spot-on”

The Church Times

“The expressive tension of those tableaux does what Barclay hopes: they successfully connect the strains of Gesualdo’s life to the radical harmonies of his music.”

Slippedisc

“Death of Gesualdo”doesn’t try to separate the music from the composer’s life. They are inextricably connected. However macabre the reality was, it would be a crime to deny the music that resulted from a complicated and tormented life. ‘The Gesualdo Six’ present it as a wonderful gift.”

The Spy In The Stalls (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

“This is an understandable and striking visualisation of a life…Although comprised of two main ‘ingredients’, the music and the drama, Death of Gesualdo manages to inhabit both worlds expertly at once to create something of its own.”

Everything Theatre (⭐⭐⭐⭐) 

“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…Bill Barclay’s production was at once intimate and visually arresting”

London Unattached 

“Though dancemakers often ignore the power of stillness, it’s a communicative tool that Tuckett wields with authority. His judicious choreographic restraint puts memorable flesh on Gesualdo’s music and flamboyant history.”

Dancewatch

“The stars of the evening were the singers of The Gesualdo Six…The singing was spectacular, the skill of the singers in keeping the harmonies tight, on pitch and with perfect intonation”

Early Music Reviews+