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Students and scholars were treated to a lesson of a lifetime when Oscar-winning actor and director Roberto Benigni combined clowning with culture and linguistics with body language and laughter with silent awe as he took to the University’s stage to share his passion for Dante’s La Divina Commedia in a spectacle that captivated the audience.

It was a one-off opportunity, during what turned out to be not only a settimana dantesca, but also Benignasca, to watch the divine comedian in action – something Italian universities have not had the pleasure of enjoying.

Sir Temi Zammit Hall was packed with Faculty of Arts students, who had first preference for tickets, but also academic staff and others, while those who did not manage to squeeze into the hall spilled out into the university’s campus to watch the show on a maxi screen.

The anticipated serata dantesca – which aroused even more interest after Mro Benigni’s hilarious antics and oratory skills at Tuesday’s supposedly solemn conferment of a Doctorate of Literature on the irrepressible actor – saw him dissect the 33rd canto of Dante's Paradiso, marking the end of his journey, followed by its sublime recitation by heart.

Intended to last around 90 minutes, his interpretation and explanation of the canto alone ran into 40 – so in depth and passionate was his commentary on every verse, transporting the 700-year-old poet into the 21st century, and highlighting the relevance and modernity of what Mro Benigni repeatedly termed “the greatest poem in the history of humanity”.

Certain terzine were mind-blowing and could send him to the madhouse, Mro Benigni described, transmitting his enthusiasm.

Mro Benigni, now doctor, has embarked on a successful series of performances, Tutto Dante, on Italian TV, which have attracted as many as 13 million viewers.

The serata dantesca started off with a comic discussion in the form of an examination on the La Divina Commedia between the Tuscan jester and the eminent Dante scholar Robert Hollander, Emeritus Professor of European Literature at Princeton University and the founding director of the Princeton Dante Project, considered to be an international authority on the subject.

The joint performance of the two experts was a first – and the University of Malta was the stage for their anticipated debut, which saw them seesawing between intellectual heights and hilarious lows.

Dott. Benigni was failing the test and Prof. Hollander warned that he was fast becoming Mister again as the comedian turned to the cameraman for assistance and the slapstick took over, leaving the audience in fits.

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