Carlo Gesualdo - Contemporary Tributes

Contemporary Tributes

In 1985 the French writer Michel Breitman published the novel Le Témoin de poussière based on the latter part of the life of Gesualdo.

In 1995, Werner Herzog made a film for ZDF television about the life and music of Gesualdo, called Death for Five Voices.

Bernardo Bertolucci is said to be working on a biopic of Gesualdo with Joseph Fiennes as Gesualdo.It is also known that frequent Bertolucci collaborator Mark Peploe worked on the screenplay at some point.Its previous titles include Heaven and Hell and Love Song.

Italian singer Franco Battiato wrote a song about him, Gesualdo da Venosa, from the album L'ombrello e la macchina da cucire (1995).

Musician Anna Calvi named Gesualdo as her ultimate cult hero quoting "Gesualdo was an Italian composer who, because of mental illness, murdered his wife and her lover, and wrote music in the 16th century that was so progressive and extreme that no one attempted to recreate his style until the 20th century... It wasn't until centuries later that he was rediscovered, and his work is a huge inspiration to me."

As for Italian Jazz musicians, arranger/composer Corrado Guarino from Bergamo and the sax player from Livorno, Tino Tracanna, released a Cd "Gesualdo", Splas(h) CDH 677.2, 1998, with Maria Pia De Vito (voice), Tino Tracanna (sax), Claudio Pontiggia (French horn), Riccardo Parrucci (flute), Gloria Merani (violin), Alessandro Franconi (alto), Filippo Burchietti (cello), Paolino Dalla Porta (bass), Francesco Petreni (drums), Fulvio Maras (perc.), containing arrangements from I, IV and VI books of Madrigals.