On 5 and 13 September, the city of Ravenna will host a series of events on the occasion of the upcoming 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri.
On 5 September, in the presence of the President of the Republic, the celebrations will begin at 8.30 pm with the solemn reopening of the Poet’s tomb and the nearby quadrarco of Braccioforte. The ceremony will be preceded and followed by the performance of musical compositions that refer to Dante’s work. The vocal ensemble Voces Suaves will perform “Quivi Sospiri” by Luzzasco Luzzaschi from the Secondo libro de Madrigali a cinque voci (1576) in which verses from Canto III of “Inferno” are set to music; Joanne Metcalf’s “Io sono amore angelico” will follow from “Il nome del bel fior” (1988) with verses from Canto XXXIII of “Paradiso”. Subsequently, in Piazza San Francesco, the pianist Yulianna Avdeeva will perform the “Fantasia quasi Sonata – Apri’s une Lecture de Dante”, by Franz Liszt, while the baritone Luca Micheletti and the pianist Davide Cavalli will propose “Il conte Ugolino” from canto XXXIII of the “Inferno”, by Gaetano Donizetti. At the end, the actor Elio Germano will read canto XXXIII of “Paradiso”.
On 13 September, as part of an articulated program of events, we highlight the choral dramatic action of Marco Martinelli and Ermanna Montanari (Ravenna Teatro – Teatro delle Albe) with the citizens of the Dante yard; the ceremony of the offer by the Municipality of Florence of the oil for the votive lamp at the tomb and the lecture by Professor Carlo Ossola, President of the National Dante Committee.
The events scheduled for 5 and 13 September in Ravenna can be followed in live streaming on the page www.ravennafestival.live, in the special section https://www.ravennafestival.live/en/live-stream-eng/