L ' I N F E R N O

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DANTE
DRAMATISED
DANTE
DRAMMATIZZATO
1 L’Inferno
2 Il Purgatorio
3 Il Paradiso
G. P. KENNEDY
For Elzio Bini, my teacher.
SUMMARY
Dante’s great work is introduced to a wider audience with music and humour.
Dante Dramatised combines much of the DIVINE COMEDY’s poetry with English prose. Prose in any language or
dialect, including those of Italy, could be substituted for English with little or no alteration of the poetry or
action.
Very many people know of Dante but not so many non-Italians know his works beyond a few quotes.
The dramatisation shows Dante, the man, in his world and in the act of composition. The poetry gets into the
head as verbal music and as words with meaning attached. Some heads will turn to the original poem for more.
The dramatisation gets non-Italian speakers closer to Dante, and allows Italians (in Italy and overseas) who have
a dialect or another language to connect with their heritage in a new way.
Ask a poet to translate a well-known English poem into an English poem and you will be told that the poem is
unique, no other words will do etc. Ask him/her to translate from another language – less possible one would
think – and he/she will not be so inhibited. As Dante knew, poetry can never be more than part-translated. The
best verse translation of the DIVINE COMEDY can contain very few of Dante’s words. It is accepted because it
tells the story, has its own literary excellences, and leaves the body of the poem intact.
Lettor…Reader…You must decide how well the story is told.
An old Christian drama in a new form.
Boccaccio brought La Divina Commedia to Florence’s church of San Stefano in 1373. DANTE DRAMATISED
might be presented over a few days around Easter.
Requirements
A choir (15?) and a few instrumentalists (wind - perhaps not string).
A composer. An arranger of mostly ecclesiastical music.
Actors: some Italian-speaking, most playing multiple roles.
© G.P.Kennedy 2006 © A.S.Kline © G Petrocchi
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