Click image above to watch video.
Contributed by Lisa Flannagan
Roger Marsh, “Il Cor Tristo” (2008)
“In 1996-98 I was the producer for an audio-book version of Dante’s Divine Comedy, in a new English translation by Benedict Flynn. The reader was Heathcote Williams, and when we came to record Canto 33 of Inferno, I found myself transported by the power and emotion of his reading. It occurred to me that afternoon, that one day I would like to make a musical setting of these verses.
The opportunity to realise this project came last year, when the Hilliard Ensemble invited me to compose something for them, and this was the project I proposed to them. Ugolino’s monologue in Canto 33 is remarkable within the context of the Divine Comedy, in that it is the only time we are given a full account of a personal story: elsewhere we are given snippets or allusions, but Dante does not make time to re-iterate tales he believes we should know already. In this case, the scenario clearly took hold of his imagination: a traitor imprisoned with his entire family, and eventually condemned to starve to death together in their sealed tower. Dante has Ugolino tell his own story simply, calmly and in pathetic detail.
I have begun the drama as Dante first encounters the frozen lake which lies at the bottom of the pit of Hell, cutting a few lines from time to time en route to Ugolino’s story, which I have set complete. My primary concern has been to keep Dante’s words clear at all times, and thus you will find in this ‘contemporary’ music many devices more usually encountered in music of much earlier times.I hope that I have been able to do this without wasting the incredible talents of the Hilliard Ensemble. The challenge for them is less in the notes they have to sing, than in the large number of words which I ask them to enunciate with expression, but also with maximum clarity. And that is my suggestion to you: that you do not close your eyes and let the sound of the music drift over you, but that you accompany Dante on this section of his journey, line by line.” –Roger Marsh, 2008
Pinsky Reviews José Saramago’s “Cain” (2009)
“…Masters of narrative have the power to expose the act of fabrication without invalidating the work: sublime puppeteers like Austen or Nabokov smiling at the audience above their creations, addressing the reader or discussing what they know or need to suppose about the puppets and their stage. Sometimes it’s done with backspin, as when Dante says he hesitated to say he saw a body walking along holding its severed head — but what can he do, he really saw it?” [. . .] –Robert Pinsky, The New York Times, October 21, 2011
“EverAfter” Photographs by Claudia Rogge (2011)
“…Le opere in esposizione sono liberamente ispirate alla Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri, presentano i segni della pittura rinascimentale e manierista o i tableaux vivants messi in scena da Pier Paolo Pasolini in alcuni suoi lavori. L’Inferno, il Purgatorio e il Paradiso sono l’elemento di riferimento per l’elaborazione di domande sul confine ancestralmente labile tra bene e male; vizi e passioni sono le cifre di un sentire umano in continuo cammino verso direzioni confliggenti ed interdipendenti. La nudita’ e il bell’aspetto dei soggetti raffigurati rappresentano una sorta di perfezione terrena formale, limitata e necessariamente proiettata verso una dimensione diversa, piu’ completa, mentale e interiore; la folla alza le braccia al cielo per osannare, supplicare o maledire, a seconda del girone.” [. . .] —La Citta’ di Salerno, October 17, 2011
See Also: Galleria Verrengia, October 21 – December 3, 2011, Salerno, Italy.
Contributed by Davida Gavioli
ARoS Museum (Denmark): Inspired by Dante’s Comedy
“On the roof of a museum inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, a sculptural walkway resembling a many-colored halo is attracting record-breaking crowds. It offers a 360-degree view through multicolored glass of Denmark’s second-largest city and by night it lights up, the brightest illumination in western Denmark.” [. . .] –Nicolai Hartivig, The New York Times, October 14, 2011
Contributed by Hope Stockton (Bowdoin, ’07)
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- …
- 136
- Next Page »
