“Dante in musica” concluded the Dante’s Year program in San Marino
Under the auspices of the San Marino Committee for the celebrations of the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, the cycle of eight lectures and readings of the Dante Year ended on Wednesday 1 December with “Dante in music – Composers inspired by the Poet”. Deep pathos aroused in the spectators present at the Titano Theater the lesson held by Maestro Marco Capicchioni, piano teacher, alternating with very suggestive musical pieces performed excellently by some students and professors, full of talent, of the San Marino Music Institute. Capicchioni has reconstructed the journey that Dante makes between Hell, Purgatory and Paradise in search of love, underlining that the whole Divine Comedy resounds with songs, instruments, melodic expressions. The musical dimension therefore accompanies Dante on his journey into the afterlife: thus the infernal noises are purified by the melody of Purgatory up to the harmony of the celestial songs of Paradise. Continuing in the historical narrative, the Maestro presented the numerous composers who are inspired by Dante’s opera, especially Hell, with interesting anecdotes and details. From the medieval period to the twentieth century, Dante’s poetics in general and the Divine Comedy in particular were interpreted with musical language: after the madrigalists, important authors of classical music such as Listz, Wagner, Puccini, Donizetti wanted to celebrate some great characters of the cantiche , Pia De ‘Tolomei, Casella and above all Francesca da Rimini, creating works in music of high value. The students of the Musical Institute were very good and prepared and offered performances of particular importance. Mattia Maroncelli on flute and Maddalena Bianchi on guitar performed well Bachianas Brasileiras No.5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos. The pieces Des Abends by Robert Schumann and Gradus ad Parnassum by Claude Debussy were played flawlessly by Alessia Broccanelli on the piano. The last duo is excellent, with Professor Nicola Giaquinto on the piano and his partner Amelia Sharp on the cello, a duo who performed Francis Poulenc’s Cavatine. In the finale the two talented musicians performed in a touching and engaging “encore” with a symbolic “infernal” blaze, interpreting the ritual dance of the fuego, from the ballet El amor brujo, by Manuel de Falla: a memorable and refined performance, which thus constituted a perfect conclusion to the conferences and readings of the Dante Year, conceived to honor Dante on the 7th centenary of his death. For this year of celebrations, the Dante Alighieri Association invites citizens to the Titano Theater for Thursday 9 December, at 5.30 pm: Sergio Barducci will present the thirteenth volume of the “Identità Sammarinese” Yearbook, which year, to honor the Supreme Poet on the 700th anniversary of his death, it comes out in a special edition of 480 pages.
Cs Dante’s San Marino Committee