Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

2023 Soundtrack for 1911 Helios Films Adaptation of the Divine Comedy

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“Un progetto, che sarà pubblicato in tre dvd nel 2023, a metà tra letteratura, cinema e musica: una composizione per banda musicale mai incisa e le immagini ritrovate circa vent’anni fa di una trilogia di film muti sulla Divina Commedia del 1911.”    — “Castelli Romani, il viaggio di Dante per musica e immagini con la banda musicale di Albano”, La Repubblica, March 25, 2023

It has been announced that, in 2023, a unique soundtrack by Albano’s band will be released, accompanying a new version of the Helios-Psiche 1911 film adaptation of the full Divina Commedia (not to be confused with the more famous 1911 Inferno by Milano Films).

“Dante in Greece” Conference (Athens, 2021)

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Dante-700-greece-conference“The ‘Dante and Greece‘ International Conference is part of the vast programme of Dante celebrations put in place to mark the seven hundredth anniversary of the death of the Supreme Poet. This initiative is also inspired by the bicentenary of Greek independence (1821-2021) and promoted by the Italian Philhellenic Society and by other Italian, Greek and Cypriot institutions.

“One of the stages of the conference will be at the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens on 30 September. The conference will discuss the extraordinary influence that Dante has exerted and indeed still continues to exert on Greek and Cypriot literature, from Kavafis to Kazantzakis, from Sikelianòs to Prevelakis. Italian and international scholars will be taking part.

“At 8 pm Dante Night will begin, with a screening of ‘L’inferno di Dante‘, a silent film by Bertolini, de Liguori and Padovan (1911). The film will be accompanied by a musical performance featuring saxophone and live electronics by Marco Castelli, who composed the arrangements.

“The preview of the exhibition ‘Dante: l’immaginazione delle immagini‘ (Dante: The Imagination of Images) will follow. The Divine Comedy today: an artistic dialogue between Greek and Italian painters 700 years after the Poet’s death. The exhibition is curated by Konstantinos Moussas.    —Italiana

For more information on the Convegno: Dante e la Grecia, see here.

Maurizio Guarini, live soundtrack for 1911 Inferno film (2017)

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“I started this live project in 2017. The director of the Italian Institute of Culture had the idea, and asked me if I wanted to do a live soundtrack with the occasion of the International Seminar on Critical Approaches to Dante organized by the University of Toronto. I saw this incredible movie from 1911—the first Italian feature film ever. and I took up the challenge.

“This first performance, that took place at the Innis Town Hall (University of Toronto), received a great audience response, so I decided to go ahead and do more shows.”   —Maurizio Guarini

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Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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