Tomorrow night’s Early Music Hawaii features music by Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613), a musician whose chromatic style was not seen again until the 19th century — a musician ahead of his time. What he’s famous for, outside of the music, though, is the story about how he killed his wife and her lover — and got away with it!

You can read the account in Wikipedia:

Two years into her marriage with Gesualdo, Donna Maria began an affair with Fabrizio Carafa, third Duke of Andria and seventh Count of Ruvo. For almost two years, Gesualdo did not have knowledge about this, although the news was spreading and well-known elsewhere. On the night of October 16, 1590, Gesualdo allegedly announced that he was going on a hunting expedition and it is rumored that he arranged with his servants to leave the doors unlocked. When he unexpectedly returned at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples, he smashed down Donna Maria’s bedroom door to discover the two lovers in flagrante in bed [Go ahead: I had to click on the link to look it up, too!]. Gesualdo then slaughtered them both on the spot. Afterwards, the bodies of his wife and lover, both mutilated and naked, were dragged outside, in front of the palace to be exposed for everyone to see. Later, Carlo Gesualdo fled to his castle at Gesualdo, Campania to be safe from any relatives of the murdered ones swearing vengeance.

The day after the murders, a delegation of Neapolitan officials inspected the room in Gesualdo’s apartment where the killings had taken place, and interrogated witnesses. The delegation’s report did not lack in gruesome details, including the mutilation of the corpses, and, according to the witnesses, Gesualdo going into the bedroom a second time “because he wasn’t certain yet they were dead”.

Due to his status as a nobleman, The Gran Corte della Vicaria found that Gesualdo had not committed a crime.

So, Gesualdo got away with murder! It’s outrageous, except that now the fact is in the history books and everyone knows about it.

When I opened up the Star-Advertiser newspaper this morning, my eye was drawn to this article and photo in the Entertainment section:

I actually took the photo at the last Early Music Hawaii concert, but Ian Capps, president of Early Music Hawaii, thought it could suffice for tomorrow night’s concert, “Musical Mavericks,” featuring the music of Carlo Gesualdo, Orlande de Lassus, Monteverdi and William Byrd.

I worked on the program earlier in the week which you can view here: Mavericks program. Tickets are available at the door or on the Early Music Hawaii website.