Il viaggio, DanteUraufführung

The Divine Comedy – a monument of European culture whose seven hundredth anniversary is being celebrated this year – is both a worldpoem synthesising all knowledge and the concrete account of a life immersed in the depravity of its time: Florence in the year 1300 with its political and religious quarrels that almost led Dante to the pyre. In Il Viaggio, Dante Pascal Dusapin (Passion, 2008) and Frédéric Boyer offer an intimate journey through this reputedly unadaptable collection, which itself narrates the journey of an exemplary being through all aspects of human life until he achieves fulfilment in light and joy. Dante travels from the circles of Hell and their litany of the damned – which climax is his encounter with Lucifer – to Heaven from which Beatrice’s enigmatic laughter emanates. Kent Nagano conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of the Opéra de Lyon. Claus Guth – for the first time at the Festival d'Aix – places his protagonist between life and death in a space that bears an uncanny resemblance to our contemporary world.