The Divine Comedy in music: Hell - Purgatory - Heaven
Dante narrates his hell
The first opera about Dante
Darkness. Dreadful drama. Weep. Stars.
These are the keywords of Andrea Arnaboldi’s operatic drama, which follows Dante’s inspiration to write the first part of the Divine Comedy.
Dante, in Arnaboldi’s opera, lives again the pathos who felt when he met those characters who became famous, like Francesca the noblewoman from Rimini, the Ghibelline Count Ugolino, which is represented in the famous portrayal of the “fiero pasto”.
Arnaboldi’s re-examination studies in depth Dante’s inner controversies and nostalgia for his country, which is corrupted by false wealth, which is slowly changing its extraordinary past…
The opera is characterized by the alternation between prose and singing, a sort of modern Singspiele, which describes Dante’s journey by giving the spectator the most suggestive images of the Comedy: the dialogues between the controversial and passionate Dante and his guide, the poet Virgil are based on a great vocal and scenic contrast.
From many points of view, the musical dialogue draws on the languages of musical Verism, which is a peculiarity of Arnaboldi’s style. It concentrates its attention on the perception of a scenic word, which penetrates into the drama and creates real, nostalgic and full-blooded atmospheres, in order to offer in music the noblest verses which have never existed.
Therefore, Francesca from Rimini’s noble and emotional drama, the granitic warning which is engraved on the Infernal Doors, the mocking and diabolic demon Malacoda, the damned souls who swarm on the scene and Ugolino’s terrible confession live again.>