Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
“Dante’s Nightmares and Dreams is a stunning collaboration between the Wichita State Wind Ensemble and the Wichita Contemporary Dance Theatre. Featuring live music, film, and dance, Dante’s classic tale, “The Inferno,” is brought to life in a veritable feast for the senses.” –Becca Yesner, The Sunflower, April 24, 2019
Dante’s Inferno is a hip hop artist who released their first EP Hot N’ Cold on December 25th, 2017. Their particular brand of rap/hip hop is a mix of personal, sometimes funny lyrics backed by a chill, sometimes lo-fi hip hop sound. The song “Deep Freezin'” from Hot N’ Cold is a great representation of his hip hop sound, which you can listen to here on Soundcloud. Dante’s Inferno distinguishes himself from other artists by taking on the persona of a demon in his music, with frequent references to Hell in his lyrics and a generally dark, gothic vibe.
You can check out the Hot N’ Cold EP on Apple Music, and you can visit the Dante’s Inferno Soundcloud to listen to his singles as well.
“Quick lives in the City of the Dead, and pays his rent by finding souls lost in purgatory. Scouring the water-bound city for a red-headed girl named Calliope, Quick finds the soldier who loved her, a pager-carrying bouncer named King of the Birds, and a demon who claims to be toiling for the good of the world. With a live soundtrack of cello, flute, drums, and vocal calisthenics, The Bright River follows Quick’s journey through the dingy underworld – from the bus station of purgatory to the rooftop of creation.
“Deep and dark as the River Styx, this neo-gothic tale of love was first performed by energetic bard Tim Barsky to sold-out Berkeley crowds in 2005. Resurrected from the theatrical graveyard, this musical reinvention of Dante’s Inferno is set for a three month run. With music that thrums through your bones and a story that yanks your still-beating heart straight out of your ribcage, The Bright River is proof that hope comes at man’s darkest hour.” [. . .] –7×7 Editors, 7×7, December 11, 2009.
“Director Lars von Trier has shared a new piece of art for his controversial The House That Jack Built that echoes Eugène Delacroix’s ‘The Barque Of Dante’ (1822), which is loosely based on fictional events taken from canto eight of Dante’s Inferno.
“’A leaden, smoky mist and the blazing City of the Dead form the backdrop against which the poet Dante endures a fearful crossing of the River Styx,’ wiki explains. ‘He is steadied by the learned poet of antiquity Virgil as they plough through waters heaving with tormented souls.’
“In the film, Matt Dillon (Wayward Pines) stars as a serial killer who views each of his murders as a work of art.” — Brad Miska, “The House That Jack Built Art Recreates Dante’s Inferno,” Bloody Disgusting, May 16, 2018
Throughout the film, Jack confesses his exploits in a retrospective narrative to a character named “Verge,” a nod to Virgil, voiced by Bruno Ganz and pictured in the role of Virgil in the image above.
“Dante’s Purgatorio“
Written by Patrick Baliani
Directed by Joseph McGrath
See also the performance by The Fountain School at Dalhousie University, 2018
“The Czech-Cambodian Devět kruhů pekla (Nine Circles of Hell) is a poignant love story set amidst the hell of the Pol Pot regime. As the Khmer Rouge carves a path of death throughout the land, a Czech doctor Milan Knazko falls in love with a Cambodian woman Oum Savanny. Their relationship, though sorely strained by the war’s horrors, produces a child. The doctor is separated from his family once Pol Pot assumes control. Devět kruhů pekla was financed in part by the Ministry of Culture of the Kampuchean People’s Republic.” — Synopsis from film-enstreaming.com
The film was screen at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.
In October 2017, the American Contemporary Ballet of Los Angeles, under the artistic direction of Lincoln Jones, performed Inferno, based on composer Charles Wuorinen’s ballet “The Mission of Virgil” (featured on Dante Today here).
“You can really draw a parallel between Dante’s time and our time because of the incredible divisiveness. The issues were different on the surface but underneath, probably a lot the same. In Dante’s time, cities would fight wars with each other. Dante wanted to get his point of view heard and send the people he thought should be in hell to hell. I think maybe there’s a lot of similar feeling with the diatribes people are writing today against those they feel have it wrong. So there’s a lot of similarities, political corruption, factions.” — Interview with American Contemporary Ballet artistic director Lincoln Jones in the LA Times (October 10, 2017)
“Set in Bucharest, Romania, an ailing old man is carried by an ambulance from hospital to hospital during one night, while doctors refuse to treat
him. The ever-worsening journey of Mr Lazarescu, whose first name is Dante becomes a descent into the Underworld of Romania’s medical
services. Echoes to Dante abound.” — Contributor Cristian Ispir
“The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is the first instalment in a projected series of ‘Six Stories from the Bucharest Suburbs’. Puiu cites Eric Rohmer’s Moral Tales as his chief inspiration, but on this evidence an equally telling parallel would be Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Dekalog, though Puiu is more inclined towards self-conscious symbolism than the Pole. There are characters called Dante and Virgil and an unseen Dr Anghel, and the various hospital trips and their cyclical routines would match anyone’s idea of hell. And although the film’s title and mounting medical evidence suggests the opposite, Lazarescu’s own name hints that some kind of miraculous resurrection might be in prospect. It’s not just the film’s ambiguous ending that supports this, but also Fiscuteanu’s uncannily convincing portrayal of a man increasingly aware that he’s crossing the bridge between life and death but fiercely determined not to go without a fight, even as his faculties betray him. If Puiu’s main theme is the absence of love, his film is ultimately about the love of life.” — Review by Michael Brooke for the British Film Institute’s Sight & Sound magazine
Contributed by Cristian Ispir (University College London/Université de Lorraine)
“We’re making an independent HORROR/THRILLER hybrid, executed with hand-made PRACTICAL EFFECTS and shot entirely on 8mm & 16mm B+W FILM.
“Inferno is a contemporary adaptation of Dante’s Inferno. The film will be shot entirely on traditional motion picture film with hand-made practical effects. Inferno is the story a Dante, a man in the midst of a midlife crisis. At the beginning of the film Dante is a lost soul, unsure of himself and his future. With the help of his guide Virgil, he descends into the underworld and through each of the nine circles of Hell. Each circle represents a different mortal sin, and each circle teaches Dante a different lesson on his path to enlightenment. Along the way the pair encounter treacherous allies, villainous monsters and a number of things that aren’t quite what they seem. Ultimately Dante reaches the 9th and final circle of Hell, where me meets Lucifer and learns a lesson which will change him forever.” — Kickstarter Page for Dustin Rosemark’s Inferno
“15 April-13 May [2018]. This is the first time Francesca da Rimini, inspired by D’ Annunzio’s novel of the same name written in 1901, returns to La Scala in six decades.
“Zandonai’s opera, his most successful, was performed in Turin for the first time in 1914. This new La Scala production is conducted by Fabio Luisi and directed by David Pountney with Maria José Siri in the lead role. Pountney is a British theatre and opera director known for his productions of rarely performed or new works. Teatro alla Scala, Via Filodrammatici 2, www.teatroallascala.org.” — Posted on wantedinmilan.com
