Divine Comédie is the title of an EP released by Dante on July 2, 2018. Digital download available for purchase on TONN Bandcamp.
Listen to Part 2 on TONN Bandcamp or Soundcloud.
Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
Divine Comédie is the title of an EP released by Dante on July 2, 2018. Digital download available for purchase on TONN Bandcamp.
Listen to Part 2 on TONN Bandcamp or Soundcloud.
On his album Il Canto di Dante, Luigi Gaudio sets the poetry of the Commedia to his own original musical compositions. The album was recorded at the Tappeti Sonori Recording Studio (Bresso, Italy) and was released in 2018.
The track listing, with links to YouTube videos, is below:
1. Smarrimento
2. Francesca
3. Ulisse
4. Ugolino
5. Casella
6. Manfredi
7. Ahi serva Italia
8. Libero arbitrio
9. Beatrice
lO. Piccarda
11. Divina Commedia Paradiso Canto XI
12. Esilio
13. Vergine Madre
Contributed by Luigi Gaudio
One of the performances at the 58th annual Zecchino d’Oro (an international children’s music festival), held in Bologna in 2015, was “Una commedia divina,” with music by Corrado Neri, text by Arianna Caldarella. It was performed by Andrea Amelio and Chiara Casolari (pictured below), together with the Piccolo Coro “Mariele Ventre” dell’Antoniano.
The Zecchino d’Oro website describes the song as follows: “Originale rivisitazione a misura di bambino di uno dei più grandi capolavori della letteratura italiana: la Divina Commedia. L’amore di Dante per Beatrice si carica di un’energia tutta nuova, fresca e vivace, e prende vita sotto forma di un linguaggio semplice e dotato di una punta di ironia, concedendo anche ai più piccoli di addentrarsi nel favoloso mondo del ‘sommo poeta.’ Il brano si propone inoltre di omaggiare in musica Dante Alighieri nell’anno in cui si celebra il 750° anniversario della sua nascita.”
The full text of the song is available on the Zecchino d’Oro website (with videos) and at si24.it.
In June 2017, Septicflesh released a video for the opening track of their new orchestral death metal album Codex Omega (Prosthetic Records, Sept. 2017): “Dante’s Inferno.” Of the song, Guitarist Sotiris V. says, “We are proud to present the first track from the upcoming album, Codex Omega. The song is appropriately entitled ‘Dante’s Inferno,’ acting as a gateway to hell… as it was inscribed on the top of the Hellgate in the famous poem by Dante Alighieri, ‘Through me you pass into the city of woe; Through me you pass into eternal pain; Through me among the people lost for aye.’ This is just the first glimpse – the entrance to our new album. Stay tuned as more will gradually be revealed with the release date of our new album getting closer…” (cited on metalunderground.com).
The track was one of the “Picks of the Week” on the blog Metal Sucks. Guest blogger Garren L. has this to say: “Septicflesh have once again demonstrated why they are the masters of symphonic death metal. I might go as far as to make the audacious claim that their new track ‘Dante’s Inferno’ has given Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy an extra layer of sinisterness. By mixing the brutality of death metal with the orchestral elements normally found as part of a film score, Septicflesh are able to portray the horrific, evil, and grotesque nature of what Dante described in his work.” — metalsucks.net
The video is available here.
Cited in Loudwire’s “11 Metal Songs Inspired by Dante’s Inferno” by Katie Irizarry (August 15, 2018).
Contributed by Paul Ickert (George Mason University ’19)
“Dolente Pia, dolente Pia,
dolente Pia innocente è prigioniera.
Col capo chino, la fronte al seno,
pensa a quei giorni del passato ricordi in fior.
“Torna, sento già la tua luce nell’anima.
Sei qui con me, sono le braccia tue che stringo.
Per quanti mesi e notti e giorni,
non saprei dire, non lo so ma questo è certo:
ci fu l’inverno, poi primavera,
la vita torna nel castello ma non per me.
Guarda se ne va questo sogno di te.
Là batte l’onda e un cavallo galoppa.
Ma l’amore, il nostro amore, marcisce dietro a questa porta.
“Ma l’amore, questo amore, marcisce dietro a quella porta.
Fa sempre freddo, in quelle mura,
il cielo è chiaro ma la terra resta scura.
Poi il primo verde, la lunga luce,
pensa a quei giorni del passato ricordi in fior.
Dolente Pia, dolente Pia,
Dolente Pia innocente è prigioniera.
Col capo chino, la fronte al seno,
pensa a quei giorni del passato ricordi in fior.”
–“Dolente Pia,” from the 2007 album Pia come la canto io by Gianna Nannini
Listen to the song here.
For a comparative analysis of Dante’s Pia with Nannini’s, see the blog laletteraturaenoi.it.
Contributed by Anna Lisa Somma (University of Birmingham)