Intonazioni Dantesche dell’Ottocento – Performance (Istituto Italiano di Cultura)

In the frame of the seven-hundredth year of the death of the sommo poeta Dante Alighieri, Istituto Italiano di Cultura Amsterdam presents ‘Intonazioni Dantesche dell’Ottocento’, a project initiated by CIDIM in the context of the Suono Italiano project, and managed by Andrea Coen.

The program devised for this concert in honor of Dante Alighieri focuses on one of the most imaginative figures of his entire ‘Divine Comedy’: Conte Ugolino della Gherardesca. Arguably the most iconic and determinant literary composition of Italian history, the Divina Commedia was masterfully interpreted musically by Gaetano Donizetti and Francesco Morlacchi, a few years apart, during the Italian Romanticism.

These two versions of Canto XXXIII from Dante’s Hell contain two intense lyric poems from Germany: Schumann’s Abendlied, dedicated to the famous verses of Canto V from Louteringsberg, and the rare sonnet “Tanto Gentile e Tanto Onesta Pare” composed by Hans von Bülow in the middle of the 19th century. According to the nineteenth century linguist and literary scholar Francesco De Sanctis, Bülow’s lyric poem is the most advanced work of the program that best managed to bring together the “melody of the verse and harmony of the concept”.

This homage will be performed by Mauro Borgioni (bass-baritone), Andrea Coen (piano), and Edoardo Coen (actor). The concert will take place on Sunday, October 17, at 15:00, at the Istituto Italiano in Amsterdam. Afterwards, the guests will be able to enjoy refreshments.

Free admission. Reservation is required. Visit the Istituto’s website to read more about the program and the performers of this splendid initiative.