Gesualdo-Death for Five Voices (1995) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	59:34
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Werner Herzog ? ? ? ? ? ?
Studio Distributor	ZDF Select Audio-Visual Distrib	Starring	Pasquale D'Onofrio Salvatore Catorano Angelo Carrabs Milva Raffaele Virocolo Vincenzo Giusto Giovanni Iudica Walter Beloch Principe d'Avalos Antono Massa Alan Curtis Gennaro Miccio
Case	PUSH-11
RPI	$59.95	Music	Carlo Gesualdo ? ? ? ?

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	French Spanish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Carlo Gesualdo (1560-1613) was an Italian prince and composer who achieved a great deal of notoriety for having killed his wife Maria D'Avalos and her lover (a Duke) in flagrante delicto in 1590. As he was a nobleman and the killing was deemed to be justified, he was not pursued by the law. However he did have to flee relatives of his late wife, who wanted revenge upon him. After the murder he lived in Ferarra and composed the only works of his that survive, which include the six books of madrigals on which his reputation rests. His music, perhaps influenced by the traumas he had undergone, is bizarre by the standards of the time, almost dissonant and ranging across the chromatic scale within the same phrase. It was not until Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in 1868 that such music was heard again, and Gesualdo's reputation as a great composer was not resuscitated until the past century, when he was rediscovered by composers such as Stravinsky.

    This television film by Werner Herzog details what is known about Gesualdo's life, mainly in the settings of his family castle and the palace in Naples where the murders took place. The former is a dilapidated wreck and the latter appears to have been converted to apartments. Herzog chooses to present the facts and myths about Gesualdo without any attempt to sift through them, resulting in an almost dreamlike film. Included are performances of some of his madrigals by Il Complesso Barocco and The Gesualdo Consort of London. Herzog interviews the Principe D'Avalos, who wrote an opera about his ancestor Maria and her murder. I suspected that this Principe D'Avalos was one Fernando D'Avalos, a conductor with numerous recordings released on the ASV label. I spent some considerable time on the internet trying to verify this, only to discover that the answer (in the affirmative) is in the booklet essay. D'Avalos also owns the bed in which the lovers were murdered.

    Adding to the atmosphere are several strange touches, some of them serendipitous. For example, when interviewing the porter at the palace in Naples where the murders occurred, a black cat climbs over a Volkswagen in the background. While the camera moves through the Principe D'Avalos' palazzo a photograph of Toscanini looms prominently in the background. Inside the ruined castle a staged sequence has a mad red-haired woman with dramatic cleavage pretending to be a reincarnation of Maria D'Avalos (this is really Milva, an Italian singer). Shortly afterwards a sequence in an indoor riding school has a retarded young man being led around on a horse to the strains of Ravel's Bolero, to no apparent narrative purpose. An interview with a cook discussing Gesualdo's wedding banquet with 120 courses for 1,000 guests is punctuated regularly by his wife calling the composer a "diavolo". And we see in a nearby church what purports to be the mummified remains of the murder victims.

    As documentaries about composers go this is one of the more unusual, but it is quite effective given the subject matter. I can't say that I gained that much insight into Gesualdo, but this is an entertaining hour and very recognisably a Herzog film.

Video

    This documentary was originally made for ZDF television and is presented here in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced and is in NTSC format.

    I suspect that this was shot on film by the look of it, but the disc transfer may be a PAL to NTSC conversion judging by some slight ghosting. Colours are muted and occasionally drab. This is not helped by the use of natural lighting, in darkened rooms and corridors. Some of these dark sequences are very grainy in this transfer. On the other hand, for viewing on a large screen there is sufficient sharpness and detail present.

    I did not see any film artefacts. There is a lot of mild aliasing, on leaves of books, around windows and on some of the decorative touches on the old buildings. Gibb Effect is also visible frequently, and digital noise is often present.

    The disc is single-layered. Optional subtitles are available in French and Spanish but not in English. The subtitles appear to be there to cover the languages that are not available as audio options. The absence of subtitles for the text of the madrigals is a deficiency, especially as no translations are provided in the booklet.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    While the case states that the audio is PCM stereo, the actual audio tracks are Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo.

    The initial language selection menu determines not only the menu language but also the default audio language. The three audio languages are Italian, English and German. The dialogue is either in Italian or English. On the English track we hear Herzog in voiceover (we do not seen him on screen) translating the Italian dialogue into English, and on the German track his voice can be heard doing the same in German, naturally. On the Italian track there is no voiceover in these sequences.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand. There is a slight sibilance but nothing particularly distracting. The music comes across very well, with excellent dynamic range and considerable bass. Stereo separation is very good and there is a discernable soundstage for the madrigal performances.

    Apart from Gesualdo's music there are some excerpts from the D'Avalos opera, and the Principe plays the opening chords of Tristan und Isolde, for which quixotically Herzog provides no explanation, even though those chords represent the first such chromatic language since Gesualdo.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The back cover of the disc clearly states that it includes an audio commentary by the director, but no such commentary appears on the disc.

Main Menu Audio

    The audio is music by Gesualdo.

Booklet

    A thin booklet is provided with an essay about the composer and the film, plus several black and white photographs.

    This disc appears to be the same as that available everywhere else in the world. The decision as to where to acquire it would therefore be based on price and convenience.

    An entertaining documentary in Herzog's inimitable style.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    No major extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall