On the occasion of Dantedì (Dante’s Day), approved last year by the Italian Government to celebrate the Sommo Poeta in Italy and around the world, the Instituto Italiano de Cultura of Madrid pays tribute to this true giant of letters by organising in the Chamber Hall of the National Auditorium of Madrid the concert La Vita Nuova by Nicola Piovani. Cantata for narrator, soprano and small orchestra, which will take place on 25 March at 19:30.
The work, composed and conducted by the great Italian composer Nicola Piovani (pictured), winner of the 1999 Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score for Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful, is based on the work of the same name by Dante Alighieri. The cantata, performed by a voice narrator, soprano Valentina Varriale and the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, is inspired by Dante Alighieri’s extraordinary work of youthful poetry, in which Nicola Piovani’s music accompanies the text narrated by Matteo Gatta, who plays Dante, with an extraordinary interweaving of music and vocalisations that recreate the unapproachable sighs suggested in the most famous sonnets of “La Vita Nova”.
