Adaptation of The Divine Comedy
Actor Mario Micallef will be performing his work, Id-Divina Commedia, as part of Notte Gozitana, which is being organised by the Department of Culture of Gozo. Based on Alfred Palma’s exhaustive translation from the original, Id-Divina Commedia is an...
Actor Mario Micallef will be performing his work, Id-Divina Commedia, as part of Notte Gozitana, which is being organised by the Department of Culture of Gozo. Based on Alfred Palma’s exhaustive translation from the original, Id-Divina Commedia is an accurate adaptation in free verse. The monologue will be delivered by Micallef in dramatic form.
Based on Alfred Palma’s exhaustive translation from the original, Id-Divina Commedia is an accurate adaptation in free verse
Dante started work on his masterpiece in 1306 and most probably took the best part of the remaining years of his life to finish it. He called this work Comedia, but those that came after him renamed it Divina Comedia. The addition was apt, not only giving a better indication of the matter treated in it but also heightening the reverence the author deserves. These people almost knew this work was meant for posterity.
What we now admire as incredibly fantastic and imaginative in modern-day sci-fi and sword and sorcery books and movies, Dante had already projected in the beginning of the 14th century. Monsters, demons, swamps, talking trees and the lot can be found in his epic poem.
It is a vision in which the poet himself journeys through the kingdoms of damnation, purification and beatitude, namely Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, so the human soul passes through the gloom and obscurity of sin to the glow and sparkle of salvation .
With incredible skill, Dante unites the factual with the allegorical, and with the support of religious and moral essentials, manages to scribble a story on a totally figurative line. Thus, Virgil is the human reason and Beatrice personifies Faith. Each character that one encounters when reading the masterpiece has a specific meaning, latent or manifest, that the poet wishes to convey.
All this is done without the danger of a tumble into some monotonous abyss.
The Divina Comedia not only elevated Dante to a higher and much bigger status than that of his contemporaries, but assured him of a designation which is of similar relevance today, 700 years later, namely, as the author of one of the biggest and most precious literary works ever.
Id-Divina Commedia will be performed on Saturday in Straight Street, Victoria, at 7.30pm. Viewing is free.