The Concert
Voci dell’Ombra (Voices from the Shadow) The madrigals of the Renaissance composer, Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, have interested me for some time with their articulate mode of expression and their rich and mysterious musical textures. I have chosen six madrigals from the composer’s fifth book of madrigals to set for piano and solo soprano voice. Above all, my goal was to capture the expression and drama of text found in Gesualdo’s five-part vocal writing, selecting freely from each of the voices to construct my recomposition of the music for a single voice. I also desired to create a piano accompaniment that orchestrated the harmonic and rhythmic contrasts that are so prevalent in these Madrigals. The end result, stylistically, spans the pre-renaissance and post-renaissance periods of music with my own predilection for complex textures and sonorities found in my own original music. These pieces were composed in collaboration with mezzo-soprano Ayana Sambuu who will be creating a dramatic production for their premiere on October 12th, 2024 in Sala Baldini in the center of Rome, Italy. In studying these interpretations of the Gesualdo madrigals, Ayana has discovered the profound drama of the lyrics and the mysterious beauty of the music and words. She planning a dramatic production of these settings enhanced with light and costume design that would present a meaningful experience for contemporary audiences. The performance will be accompanied by Vitoria Khalilova, piano.
I would also like to acknowledge the Italian soprano Angela Nisi was so generous with her comments regarding the setting of the Italian words and vocal technique required to perform the pieces. Finally, I am appreciative of Nick Ceramella for his translations of the texts into English and his assistance in interpreting the meaning of the Italian words. WGN
The Musicians
William Grosvenor Neil In the 1980’s Neil was appointed as the first composer-in-residence with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the first residency of its kind with a major American opera company. His opera, The Guilt of Lillian Sloan was premiered by Lyric in June of 1986. He then went on to produce award-winning concerts and events at the New Music Chicago Spring Festival for several years. The Rome Prize and the Charles Ives Award are among his honors and his work has been recognized through grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, and the American Symphony Orchestra League, and awards from ASCAP and BMI. In 2008 he served as the McKnight Visiting Composer with the American Composers Forum for the city of Winona, MN. Most recently, clarinetist, Fàtima Boix Canto’ premiered Concerto for Piccolo Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA, Duo Sureno premiered Love Poem with a Knife at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, NC. Recent CD releases have featured his music including Out of Darkness Into Light on Ravello Records, Spiritual Adaptation to Higher Altitudes on Mark Masters Recordings, and Six Preludes for piano on PnOVA Recordings. His music was featured on several live broadcasts on WFMT radio in Chicago in 2019 including his Six Preludes for piano solo by pianist Martin Jones. In the fall of 2020, Neil served as an Artist in Residence at Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Most recently, his Sacrum Creature will be premiered by the Artaria String Quartet at the 2021 Springwood Chamber Music Festival in Lanesboro, MN.
The coloratura mezzo-soprano of international fame Ayana Sambuu Zandraa was born in Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia, into the family of famous film director Zandraa Tseveenii, founder of the professional Cinematographic Art in Mongolia. She demonstrated an interest in art and music since she was a child, and was mentored by her grandfather who generously shared his creative knowledge as a filmmaker. After having won several national-level singing competitions in Mongolia and completing her advanced degrees in music and languages, she moved to Italy for further study, and to pursue degrees in opera. Upon the invitation of Maestro Paolo Montarsolo, she continued her study of grand opera roles. Her repertoire includes operas by Rossini, Mozart, Bellini, and other composers and a vast program of Baroque arias, Italian, Russian, French, Spanish arias, romance songs and lieds. Her most acclaimed roles are from Rossini’s operas such as Cenerentola (La Cenerentola) and Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia)
She has been invited as a special guest to numerous TV programs in Italy, Mongolia, and Russia and opera singing festivals in Italy, Spain and Mongolia. Recently she was featured on the soundtrack for the documentary film “Bernini tells Bernini”, about the life of the Italian great sculptor Lorenzo Bernini, directed by Andrés Arce Maldonado. She has performed in opera houses and in prestigious concert halls in Italy, Mongolia, Great Britain, Spain, Greece, San Marino, France, China, and Hong Kong.
Currently, as the founder and the President of the Cultural Association NEW OPERA DIMENSIONS, Rome, ITALY, she organizes music events, involving young international opera singers. She has served as a collaborator at the prestigious ROMA International Opera Competition founded by great Italian pianist Marcella Crudeli, the Fryderyk Chopin Cultural Association that organises the ROMA International Piano Competiton, and the Vincerò World Opera Competition.
The Music
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Voci dell’Ombra (Voices from the Shadow)
The madrigals of the Renaissance composer, Carlo Gesualdo “The Prince of Venosa”, have interested me for some time with their articulate mode of expression and their rich and mysterious musical textures. I chose six madrigals from the composer’s fifth book of madrigals to set for piano and solo soprano voice. Above all, my goal was to capture the expression and drama of the texts found in Gesualdo’s five-part vocal writing, selecting freely from each of the voices to construct my recomposition of the music for a single voice. My intention was to distill the many voices down to one dramatic voice that would appear to emerge from the shadows of the dark poetry that Gesualdo set in his later years. There was drama in Gesualdo’s life not only centered around his tormented personal life but also reflecting how he perceived himself as a composer of music in the changing cultural world around him. To begin the project I collaborated with the literary writer, Nick Ceramella, who provided me with an English translation of the texts to guide my composition. We collaborated over a six month period, discussing the poetry and harvesting a clear meaning of all the texts that would inspire my work.
Gesualdo was well know for murdering his first wife and her aristocratic lover upon finding them in flagrant delicate. He also abused his second wife and in his final days become the victim of the nefarious ploys of a group of witches who took up residency in his castle and were eventually tried and convicted. Gesualdo was also challenged with a trend in music that was contrary to his style of composing. His music was being eclipsed by the rise of the solo singer and a style of music that was yielding more expressive power in performance.
In addition to the changes going on in music that were unfolding around him, the Catholic Church was going through some turmoil since the publication of The Hammer of Witches in 1486. The publication calls sorcery heresy, and this led to the persecution of witches. The book was later revived by the Italian royal courts during the Renaissance, and contributed to the increasingly brutal prosecution of witchcraft during the 16th and 17th centuries. The Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, the Archbishop of Milan, Gesualdo’s uncle was involved in all this renewed heresy against witchcraft in Northern Italy. Gesualdo had sided with his uncle but continued to struggle with his association with women involved in the witch trials including his lover Aurelia d’Erico. His personal life mirrored the shifting tonalities that we hear in his late madrigals. His mercurial temperament led him to mistreating his second wife Eleonora who was pressing for the prosecution of Aurelia who was tried for witchcraft and attempting to poison Gesualdo. Despite Eleonora’s desire to have her hanged she was imprisoned in Gesualdo’s castle. What an odd solution considering Gesualdo’s attraction to her. And yet he continued to establish new liaisons. All of this contradicting behavior made him ill and his castle become the locus of a continual parade of magicians and medical advisors. It all ended tragically with Gesualdo’s only son and heir dying in a riding accident two weeks prior to Gesualdo’s death.
This grand melodrama of Gesualdo’s life is the underlying impetus behind my interpretation and recomposition of these madrigals. The dramatic role that I have created for Ayana Sambuu emerges from theses shadows and challenges the tormented spirit of Carlo Gesualdo. WGN
Voci dell’Ombra
Già da qualche tempo mi interesso ai madrigali del compositore rinascimentale, Carlo Gesualdo Il Principe di Venosa, per la loro articolata modalità espressiva e la ricca e misteriosa tessitura musicale. Ho scelto sei madrigali dal Quinto Libro di Madrigali (1611) del compositore che ho arrangiato per piano e soprano solo. L’obiettivo principale che mi sono posto è stato quello di cogliere l’espressione e la drammaticità dei testi nella scrittura vocale a cinque parti di Gesualdo; ho fatto questo scegliendo liberamente da ciascuna delle voci per realizzare la mia ricomposizione della musica per una voce sola. La mia intenzione era quella di trarre dalle molte voci un’unica voce drammatica che sembra emergere dalle ombre della poesia oscura e misteriosa scritta da Gesualdo nei suoi ultimi anni. C’era drammaticità nella vita di Gesualdo, incentrata non solo sulla sua tormentata esistenza ma riflettente anche il modo in cui egli percepiva se stesso come compositore nel mutevole mondo culturale che lo circondava.
Per iniziare il progetto mi sono avvantaggiato della collaborazione dell’esperto di letteratura, Nick Ceramella, il quale ha tradotto in inglese i testi originali per guidarmi e assistermi nella composizione. Abbiamo collaborato assieme per oltre sei mesi, periodo in cui abbiamo discusso della versificazione per cogliere il significato profondo e chiaro di tutti i testi che avrebbero ispirato il mio lavoro.
Gesualdo era ben noto per avere assassinato la prima moglie e il suo amante aristocratico colti in flagrante delicto. Egli abusò anche della sua seconda moglie, e nei suoi ultimi giorni di vita divenne egli stesso vittima del piano criminale di un gruppo di streghe, le quali si stabilirono nel suo castello e alla fine vennero processate e condannate. Gesualdo fu messo in difficoltà anche da una tendenza musicale che era totalmente diversa dal suo stile di compositore. La sua musica veniva ecclissata dall’ascesa del cantante solista e da uno stile musicale che emanava più forza espressiva nell’esecuzione.
Oltre ai cambiamenti che stavano avvenendo nella musica, la chiesa cattolica attraversava un periodo di agitazione dalla pubblicazione di Il martello delle streghe, “Malleus maleficarum,” pubblicato in latino nel 1486. In quel libro l’eresia viene chiamata stregoneria, e ciò portò alla persecuzione delle streghe. Più tardi il volume venne riportato alla luce dalle corti reali italiane durante il Rinascimento, e contribuì alla crescente e brutale persecuzione della stregoneria nel corso dei secoli XVI e XVII. Il Cardinale Carlo Borromeo, l’Arcivescovo di Milano, zio di Gesualdo, fu coinvolto in tutta questa rinnovato attacco contro l’eresia delle arti magiche nell’Italia del Nord. Gesualdo si schierò con suo zio, ma continuò a lottare per non essere associato con le donne portate in giudizio, compresa la sua amante Aurelia d’Errico. La sua vita privata riflette le mutevoli tonalità che sentiamo nei suoi ultimi madrigali. Il suo temperamento ondivago lo portò a maltrattare la sua seconda moglie Eleonora che spingeva per intendere un processo contro Aurelia, la quale venne processata per stregoneria e per avere tentato di avvelenare Gesualdo. Nonostante il desiderio di Eleonora di farla impiccare, lei venne imprigionata nel castello di Gesualdo. Sembra proprio una strana soluzione, se uno pensa quanto egli ne fosse attratto. Comunque, egli continuò a stabilire dei nuovi rapporti. L’insieme di questo comportamento contradditorio lo fece ammalare, e il suo castello diventò il luogo di una passerella ininterrotta di maghi e consulenti medici. Tutto terminò tragicamente con l’unico figlio erede di Gesualdo, il quale morì in un incidente equestre due settimane prima della morte di Gesualdo stesso.
Il grande melodramma della vita di Gesualdo è l’impeto sottostante alla mia interpretazione e ricomposizione di questi madrigali. Il ruolo drammatico che ho creato per Ayana Sambuu deriva da queste ombre e sfida lo spirito tormentato di Carlo Gesualdo.
Testo di WGN tradotto da Nick Ceramella
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The ComposerStudio.Com presents chamber music concerts featuring extraordinary collaborations between musicians and musical genres, integrating new music with traditional repertoire, and incorporating visual and spoken arts. The podcast Music in so Many Words (youtube.com/@musicinsomanywords) was launched in 2022 that incorporates music with interviews. Recording projects with local collaborators are produced by TheComposerStudio Recordings