“In Scudorama eight dancers, wearing street clothes and bright leotards and using beach towels as shrouds (with sets and costumes designed by the artist Alex Katz), disintegrate into ravaged forms. Like shifting shadows they crawl across the floor in jagged bursts of bewilderment, emptiness and rage. The dance’s accompanying program note, from Dante, begins with ‘What souls are these who run through this black haze?’ For Mr. Taylor, those words refer to the ‘lost souls in purgatory, because they hadn’t done anything good and they hadn’t done anything bad.'” [. . .] –Gia Kourlas, The New York Times, February 13, 2009
“Blasphemy! strikes Madison: Walmartopia creators discuss new disco opera”
“Religion has always been a central element of American political strife, with the excesses and calumnies of Christian fundamentalism providing a broad and sustained target for satire by believers and nonbelievers alike. Playwrights Catherine Capellaro and Andrew Rohn flout the latest manias and offer up laughs with Blasphemy, their new ‘wicked trio of musical comedies that takes aim at creationists, George W. Bush, Rapture Christians, and intolerance of all stripes.’
Premiering at the Bartell Theatre on January 9, this production is the latest creation by the husband-and-wife team, whose previous musical Walmartopia broke theatrical box office records in Madison before hitting the national stage with an Off Broadway run last year. As they did with their send-up of the smiley-faced corporate behemoth, the pair goes for laughs in Blasphemy by taking on an American institution, in this case the tenets of faith-based politics.
In a nod to Dante’s Divine Comedy, the show is split into three tales, titled ‘Rapture,’ ‘Purgatory,’ and ‘Paradise.’ The anticipation of politicians like George W. Bush and Sarah Palin for the return of Jesus, a disco meditation on death, and a parable about the revelation of evolution to Adam and Eve together comprise a wicked triptych of sacrilege.” [. . .] –Kristian Knutsen, The Daily Page, December 23, 2008
Contributed by Patrick Molloy
Johnny Depp to Play Protagonist in Nick Tosches’ Novel “In the Hand of Dante” (2002)
“Johnny Depp’s production company Infinitum Nihil has acquired screen rights to the Nick Tosches novel In the Hand of Dante. The novel will be developed as a potential star vehicle for Depp.
[. . .]
“Book revolves around Dante’s masterwork The Divine Comedy, and tells parallel storylines involving Dante in 14th-century Italy as he tries to complete the work, and a contemporary storyline involving Tosches, who is asked to authenticate what might be Dante’s original manuscript. Depp would play Tosches. The novel was published in 2002.” [. . .] –Michael Fleming, “Johnny Depp books ‘Hand of Dante,'” Variety, December 2, 2008
Contributed by Patrick Molloy
“Dr. Who: The Impossible Planet & The Satan Pit” (2006)
Second series of Doctor Who, Episodes 8 and 9: The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit
Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe De Liguoro, and Adolfo Padovan, “L’Inferno” (1911)
Watch YouTube video clips of Inferno (1911) and Satan Eating Human (1911).
“The Italian epic came of age with Giuseppe de Liguoro’s imaginative silent version of the Inferno, loosely adapted from Dante and inspired by the illustrations of Gustav Doré. L’Inferno was first screened in Naples in the Teatro Mercadante 10 March 1911. The film took over three years to make involving more than 150 people and was the first full length Italian feature film ever made. It’s success was not confined to Italy it was an international hit taking more than $2 million in the United States alone.
Tangerine Dream have composed the soundtrack based on their opera of Dante’s Inferno producing a soundtrack truly worthy of their position as one of the top film music composers in the world.” —L’inferno.com
Contributed by J. Patrick Brown (Bowdoin, ’09)
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