Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995)

Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (German: Tod für fünf Stimmen) is a 1995 film by German director Werner Herzog filmed for ZDF television. The film explores the music of Carlo Gesualdo and the legends surrounding Gesualdo's personality, his cursed castle, and his murder of his wife and her lover. Between narration and interviews, several of Gesualdo's madrigals are performed. Herzog calls Death for Five Voices "one of the films closest to my heart."

Synopsis

The film begins at Gesualdo's castle, where a worker gives a tour. Several people are encountered at the ruined castle, including a man who plays music into the cracks in the walls in order to deal with the demons which haunt the place, and a woman who claims to be the ghost of Donna Maria d'Avalos, Gesualdo's wife whom he murdered. Two cooks discuss and reconstruct an extravagant wedding feast which Gesualdo had ordered. Herzog also visits some workers from a local mental health clinic, who claim that they once treated the woman who claimed to be a ghost, and that they in fact have two patients currently who believe themselves to be Carlo Gesualdo.

Actors