An hour with Dante: in Purgatory

“The encounters I’m proposing are a continuation of the ones begun two seasons ago at the Teatro Arsenale. Having concluded the Inferno I am getting ready to set out on the path of the Purgatorio. My basic desire is to share with the public the joy that anunsophisticatedreading of Alighieri can give and the discovery that his poetry can accompany us and nourish us throughout our lives.

“I tackle the Divine Comedy from the point of departure that is best suited to me, the theater, feeling authorized to do so by the title chosen by Dante for his poem. Taken literally, the Divine Comedy reveals the action that generates it and, in my view, one of its profound meanings.

“With the intention of giving words back their substance and their action, without rhetoric or preconceived ideas and without entering into the boundless field of interpretations and commentaries, I explore the world of Dante’s language, its sound and its magic.

“Thus we will be able to see, hear and relive what the poet imagined and delve deeply into the mother tongue through the person who has been called its father.

“A surprise, I hope, a discovery and a somewhat different understanding of the greatest poem in Italian, the foundation of European poetry and thought. An invitation to the audience to set off on a journey with Dante through his words.”