Divine Comedy in Music to Highlight Cultural Connections at Expo Osaka

Osaka: Classical music and Dante’s poetry will provide an opportunity to highlight the universal value of culture as a bridge connecting populations while taking Italy and the northern Italian city of Pavia outside Europe’s borders thanks to a project to be hosted by the Italy Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka on September 2-4.

According to Ansa News Agency, the project ‘Istante Dante in Expo’ (Dante Instant at Expo), promoted by the cultural institute and college Almo Collegio Borromeo and by the Foundation I Solisti di Pavia, the musical ensemble of the Foundation Monte di Lombardia, has involved 100 Italian and international musicians in the interpretation of 100 tercets from Dante’s poem The Divine Comedy.

The concerts, with music by composers including Schumann, Dvor¡k, Brahms, and Chausson, will be inspired by the themes of the poem’s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. They will be performed by I Solisti di Pavia (the Soloists of Pavia), violinist Massimo Quarta, and pianist Alessandro Marangoni.

In addition to the music, the project will also feature cultural events including a panel discussion with Ludovica Rossi Purini and jurist Vincenzo Salvatore, the president of Almo Collegio Borromeo in Pavia, on ‘The time for justice’, and Nagoya University’s scientist Francesco Buscemi on ‘The time for research’.

The project was conceived in 2023 by Valentina Lo Surdo and planned by Ludovica Rossi Purini with the artistic direction of Maestro Alessandro Marangoni. “The Solisti di Pavia’s participation in the project Istante Dante at Expo 2025 Osaka expresses, in a word, the success of a cultural reflection through art, thought, and dialogue joined by musical language”, commented Sonia Selletti, president of the Foundation I Solisti di Pavia.

The occasion provided by Expo 2025 Osaka is “unique and extraordinary to value talented people and initiatives, in agreement with our main institutional aim: promoting merit”, concluded Vincenzo Salvatore, president of Almo Collegio Borromeo.