France – "Dante inside Bach" with Paolo Dirani
The 21st Week of the Italian Language in the World – the annual cultural international event organized under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic in collaboration with the diplomatic/consular network and the Italian Cultural Institutes abroad – takes place from October 18 to 24.
The theme of this edition is “Dante, the Italian”, as part of Dante's 700th anniversary celebrations.
Opening the program of the events organized in Strasbourg, on October 18 the Italian Cultural Institute proposes A riveder le stelle (Dante inside Bach) by Paolo Dirani (at 07:30pm).
It is the latest work by Paolo Dirani –pianist based in Bologna in constant search of diverse and contaminated expressive forms.
In this concert-show for piano and narrator, Dirani blends and mixes the works by two of the world most celebrated, immortal artistists –Dante Alighieri and Johann Sebastian Bach– and stages a sort of affectionate dialogue between two worlds of very remote origins, seemingly beyond each other's reach, but nevertheless joined by a deep-set and enchanting gasp.
The lyrics (projected onto a big screen) have been selected from renowned verses of the second and third Cantica of Dante's Divine Comedy, the Purgatory and the Paradise. They follow the Inferno, the underground universe thronged by eternally damned souls. On his way out “a riveder le stelle”, a new world of redemption opens up in front of Dante. He then steps even further and manage to experience the bliss of Heaven. The musicality of the verses winds its way along a dynamic path leading towards both redemption and celestial, divine contemplation. In this style the tercets merge into the harmony of the musical score, as if embarked on a journey in search of an obscure promised land.
The musical pieces are mainly Sarabands. They are gentle, slow movements carefully selected from Bach's works for keyboard. They range from the Well-Tempered Clavier to the Partitas, from the English and French Suites to the Toccatas, from the Concertos to the well-known Goldberg Variations.
Actor Carlo Varotti accompanies Paolo Dirani on piano.
The concert is presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Strasbourg in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Strasbourg.
Italian Cultural Institute in Strasburgo