The musical nature of the Italian language expressed in the Divine Comedy has inspired a number of cultural events organised by the Italian Consulate in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on the occasion of the Week of the Italian Language in the World.
The first event, entitled “Music revolving around… Dante”, is a performance of theatre and music featuring an ideal journey based on a selection of cantos from the Divine Comedy and several musical pieces, chosen for their sound inspired by scenes from the circles described in Dante’s fantastic journey. The authors include Nicolò da Perugia, Gherardello da Firenze, Luzzasco Luzzaschi and Francesco Landini. The programme also includes some famous Psalms quoted in the Comedy, such as: In exitu Israel in Aegypto, Beati pauperes spiritu.
The performance and its recording were set in the marvellous Regional Museum of the historic city of São João del-Rei, where an 18th-century organ accompanied the madrigal choir assembled for the occasion, as well as a lute, recorder and spinet.
The second event organised by the Consulate will feature a presentation by the Italian Language students of the UFMG. In “Na trilha musical da Divina Comedia“, some famous songs inspired by the Divine Comedy were performed by a number of Brazilian singers and bands, such as Os Mutantes, Chico Buarque, Belchior and the Horizontally-blues Sepultura, a metal band that launched the album “Dante XXI” in 2006 as a tribute to the Divine Comedy.
Yet another important event for showcasing the Italian language and culture in Belo Horizonte, during the Italian Language Week, is the Brazilian premiere of the opera “Ptolemy and Alexander” by the great Italian Baroque opera composer Domenico Scarlatti, with a libretto by Giuseppe Capece, at the Grand Theatre of the Palacio das Artes, also sponsored by the Italian Consulate. For the first time, Brazilian audiences will have the pleasure of seeing an opera by Scarlatti. The opera is included in a programme of theatrical performances that are also available online and will be broadcast on Saturday 23 October (at 20:30 in Brazil, 1:30 in Italy) on the Palacio das Artes YouTube channel, where it will then be uploaded.
“The cross-cultural influence and versatility of Dante’s work, which after centuries continues to be an incredible source of inspiration also for Brazilian artists from Minas Gerais – emphasised Dario Savarese, Italian Consul in Belo Horizonte – are the leitmotif of the events organised by the Consulate, ranging from murals to madrigal choruses, from theatre to the most diverse musical styles, such as heavy metal”.
