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Speaker: Francesco Ciabattoni (Georgetown University / I Tatti)
In this talk, Francesco Ciabattoni will explore the musical journey within the text of Dante’s Commedia. It ranges from the perversion of sacred chants that shakes Hell to the sorrowful psalms performed with effort by the penitents, and finally to the glorious polyphonic performances of the blessed. To conclude the presentation, the audience will listen to excerpts of sixteenth-century madrigals based on the Commedia (Luzzaschi, Marenzio, Merulo) to demonstrate how composers utilized Dante’s text to represent different registers and moods in five-part polyphony.
Francesco Ciabattoni is Full Professor of Italian Literature and Director of Global Medieval studies at Georgetown University. After graduating from the Università di Torino, he received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University. His research focus lies on Dante and the middle ages, and the interplay of music and literature. He has published many essays on Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Valla, Pasolini, Berto, and Italian songwriters. His latest monograph, Dante's Performance. Music, Dance, and Drama in the “Commedia", was published by De Gruyter in 2024. Among his other appointments are Book Review Co-Editor for Quaderni d'italianistica, Secretary of the American Boccaccio Association, and Councilor of the Dante Society of America.
Image: Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (detail of Hell panel), c. 1490–1500. Museo del Prado, Madrid
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