From today, subscribers to the “Corriere della Sera” will be able to listen to the 10 episodes (produced in collaboration with Audible) that the correspondent and columnist has written and interpreted and which will be released daily until 25 July
The best way to (re) discover the modernity of Divine Comedy it is and will always remain the same: (re) read it. But we of the Corriere della Sera, in collaboration with Audible, we invented another one, using the most innovative means of communication of this era: the podcast. From today, it will be available for listening (for subscribers to the Corriere della Sera and for subscribers to the podcast and audiobook platform) the new series «Dante Italia», with the voice of Aldo Cazzullo, the production of Carlo Annese and the collaboration of Francesco Giambertone.
(The series is available here: find the trailer below and, here, the first episode).
In a sense, the correspondent and columnist of the Corriere della Sera Sara for the listeners of this podcast what Virgil is for Dante: a guide. Because, for many, the Divine Comedy it may seem like the famous “dark forest” in which the poet gets lost at the beginning of his work. To prevent something like this from happening, Cazzullo builds his story on two pillars: the first is a clear and informative language, full of continuous references to the present, precisely to remind the listener how decisive Dante was in the formation of our cultural heritage (starting from the language), but above all how many of the events he lived or told are useful or interesting today.
The second pillar is the format of “Dante Italia”. Aldo Cazzullo breaks down the Divine Comedy in 10 episodes (of at least 50 minutes each), identifying each time a theme that runs through the entire work, disappearing and reappearing in each of the three Canticles. Which are returned to the listener with a further element of originality: the readings of the original verses, in fact, are entrusted to a female voice, that of the actress Viola Graziosi.
And that’s not all. To make the story even more complete, in each episode Aldo Cazzullo called a guest with him, who for professional history, for simple Dante’s passion or for both things is an expert on the theme of the episode.
For example: the first, listenable from today (for subscribers to the Courier service, while those who are subscribed to Audible can immediately access the complete series), is entitled “An Italian in Hell” and tells about our country (which at the time of Dante did not exist as a nation but was only a set of entities more or less large and more or less at war with each other) through all the places that the great poet mentions. And to support Aldo Cazzullo in this Giro d’Italia there is Giulio Ferroni, emeritus professor of Italian literature at the University of Rome La Sapienza and author of the essay “Dante’s Italy” (published by La Nave di Teseo).
The second episode (listenable from July 17) is entitled “Divina” and tells the female figures of Dante’s poem with the help of one of the greatest Italian actresses: Piera Degli Esposti. Another actress, Chiara Francini, in the third episode («Eterno amore», 18 July) he will accompany Aldo Cazzullo in pursuing that sentiment that Dante sang with definitive verses. On July 19, in the episode dedicated to the devils (“The evil ones”) another unmistakable voice appears: that of the singer Piero Pelù, which with Aldo Cazzullo is carrying around Italy «A riveder le stelle», a show dedicated to Dante.
In the fifth episode («The other Odyssey», July 20) it is Professor Eva Cantarella to describe the figure of Ulysses, protagonist of one of the most famous moments of the whole Comedy. In the sixth episode (“The power of poetry”, 21 July) the philosopher Massimo Cacciari converses with Aldo Cazzullo about Dante and one of his obsessions: politics. While Father Enzo Fortunato, director of the Press Room of the Sacred Convent of Assisi he intervenes in the seventh episode («Papale papale, 22 July) dedicated to the Popes that Dante places in Hell or in Purgatory. The next day, July 23, another religious: the bishop of Reggio Emilia, Monsignor Massimo Camisasca integrates the story of Cazzullo on the theme of Evil, embodied by the figures of Count Ugolino and Lucifer. And instead Vittorio Sgarbi (in the episode «Eternal Beauty» of 24 July) to explain art through Dante’s eyes. To close the series, with the episode that can be listened to from 25 July, is the theologian and philosopher Vito Mancuso, to which Aldo Cazzullo asked to deepen the concepts of Purgatory and Paradise.
July 16, 2021 (change July 16, 2021 | 07:25)
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