A mitaa strada de quell gran viacc… Dante e Carlo Porta tra musiche e versi, is a project that aims to celebrate both the 700th anniversary of the death of the author of the Divine Comedy and the 200th anniversary of the death of Carlo Porta, the excellent Milanese poet and the creator of a vernacular version of some of the songs from the Inferno.

Created in collaboration with the Piccolo Teatro di Milano - Teatro d'Europa, the performance forms part of “Quartetto OFF", a new segment of the programme of the Milan Quartet Society aimed at re-examining the confines between differing musical genres and artistic disciplines, “Those enlightened figures, such as Boito and Ricordi, who in 1864 founded the Quartet - stated the president Ilaria Borletti Buitoni - defined the first concerts held at the then Regio Conservatorio as “experiments”. We felt it opportune to recover that important and significant term and go back to experimenting”.

The show, which will be performed on the very day on which Dante’s anniversary is celebrated (14 September, with a second performance on the 15th), is an original interweaving of words and music. “When I imagined this project - stated Biagio Scuderi, the curator of Quartetto OFF - I immediately thought of Federico Tiezzi and Sandro Lombardi as ideal interlocutors. I studied the stagings of Dante by Tiezzi, beginning with that at the Fabbricone in Prato in 1989, and I understood that there was no-one better qualified to stage this event”.

In the performance, Sandro Lombardi lends his voice to Dante’s words, with Giovanni Crippa performing the translations by Carlo Porta. They will be joined by the mezzo/soprano Monica Bacelli and the pianist Orazio Sciortino for an elegant musical counterpoint that will examine the most meaningful passages in “Winterreise” by Schubert. The anxieties of Dante as he descends into the underworld and those of the Wanderer in his “Winter Journey” can only find relief in the beauty of the music and song. A new piece will also be played for the very first time for the occasion, composed by Orazio Sciortino and entitled Un dì si venne a me Malinconia per voce e pianoforte.