Tod für fünf Stimmen

In this unconventional portrait of the Italian prince and composer Carlo Gesualdo (1560-1613), Herzog reconstructs a bizarre chapter in Gesualdo’s life. He married one of the most beautiful women of his time, but was increasingly haunted by demons and feelings of paranoia. When he hears that his wife is having an affair, he kills her and her lover. He is also convinced that his second son was fathered by that lover, so he orders to tie the boy’s feet with a rope and have him swing back and forth, accompanied by a choir singing about the beauty of death. After three days, the son passed away. In addition to these horror stories, Herzog comes across the reincarnation of Gesualdo’s wife, who is knocking about in his castle. In the nearby psychiatric institute, two patients have already checked in who claim they are Gesualdo. In this way, the composer not only lives on in his madrigals.