Don Carlo Gesualdo was a man of torment — to himself, and others. A Neapolitan prince and composer, he murdered his first wife, hounded his second and was wracked by mental illness. Only music brought him ease. A visitor complained in 1593: “The prince, who would like to do nothing but sing and play music, forced me to visit with him and kept me for seven hours.”
We get off lightly in Dance Umbrella’s show at the Barbican: 75 minutes and out. Four intent dancers from the company of Senegalese-French choreographer Amala Dianor mesh with six unaccompanied singers from baroque specialists Les Arts Florissants. Together, they perform Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsoria, a work of sorrow and shadows tracing Christ’s last days.
