The Filodrammatici Theatre. Via Filodrammatici, 1 Milan
8.00pm on Friday 3rd December.
For tickets: https://www.
TEL 39 340 2939869
Speaking Dante – Milan is an 80-minute live presentation (in both Italian and English) of The Divine Comedy. FOR TICKETS email info@jproductions.it
Following the amazing 24-hour marathon reading in the English language of the entire Divine Comedy in Florence this summer, to mark the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri, we are truly thrilled to bring a ‘mini-version’ of the event to the stunning Filodrammatici Theatre in Milan.
Speaking Dante – Milan includes sublime poetry from Dante’s La Vita Nova – written in his pre-exile years. The readings – in both the Italian and English languages (with subtitles) are by acclaimed English and Italian actors and poets including Justin Butcher, Francesca Mazzotta, Jan Noble, Janice Acquah and Simone Migliorini. There will also be video registered contribution from renowned television and theatre actor, John Nettles.
The performances are enhanced by magnificent paintings by William Blake, living artist Gabriele Dell’Otto and Gustave Doré reworked by Felice Limosani. There will also be short reflections on each work accompanied by interludes of music.
The performance will take place at the centrally located Filodrammatici Theatre, in Via Filodrammatici,1 (next to the Scala Opera House) at 8.00pm on Friday, 3rd December, 2021.
Adopting the renowned English translation by Robert and Jean Hollander (with the original version visible at all times), Dante’s dream-journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Heaven (Paradiso), guided by the poet Virgil, depicts some of the most sublime poetry ever written.
Translated into more than one hundred languages, The Divine Comedy stands alongside the Bible and the works of Homer and Shakespeare as one of the greatest achievements of literary creation.
As a victim of political persecution in the civil war that engulfed the medieval Republic of Florence, Dante was exiled on pain of death, at the height of his career. He lamented this bitterness of exile, for the rest of his life.
In these years of exile, his masterpiece The Divine Comedy was conceived.
You shall leave everything you love most dearly:
this is the arrow that the bow of exile
shoots first. You are to know the bitter taste
of others’ bread, how salt it is, and know
how hard a path it is for one who goes
descending and ascending others’ stairs.
Paradiso XVII, 55-60
In sympathy with the theme of exile, Speaking Dante-Milan will raise funds and awareness for projects working with refugees and migrants in Italy. Our charity partner is the Community of Sant’Egidio, whose pioneering work supporting refugees and migrants in Italy includes the Schools of Language & Culture, the Humanitarian Corridors Project and the Genti di Pace (People of Peace) project.
ALL PROCEEDS FROM SPEAKING DANTE WILL GO TO SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY OF SANT’EGIDIO
WORKING WITH REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS IN ITALY
For tickets: https://www.
