Saturday,
June 16, 2007
Roberto Benigni
Brings "Hell" to
The
ANNOTICO Report
Roberto
Benigni in his traveling show, called "Tutto Dante," is an unlikely hit featuring the
14th-century "Inferno" which has been filling up theaters and sports
arenas throughout
"The
Inferno," is the first and most popular of the three-part allegory
"The Divine Comedy" of a search for God (Hell, Purgatory,
Dante,
is studied in all Italian middle and high schools, and well known and
appreciated by all Italians. Benigni, however is one of Dante's greatest devotees and promoters.
Benigni's performance begins with the stand-up comic act. sparing few popular current targets, then segues smoothly
toward Dante, through a sketch that illustrates a nearly lost tradition he
picked up from his native small town in
From
there he sheds the comedian's skin and begins his introduction to "The
Divine Comedy," with the line that every Italian knows by heart: He
explains the beauty of the rhyming Dante poem. Phrase by phrase, he introduces
his audience to the complexities of the 24 rings of the "Inferno"
through Dante, who is guided on this spiritual and moral journey by the noble
Virgil, the ancient Roman author of "The Aeneid."
Then Benigni illustrates the fifth canto, or chapter, that
describes the tragic love story between Francesca and Paolo, condemned
for the sin of lust to pass eternity in the first of the descending rings of
hell.
Benigni chose to concentrate on
Canto V because it is the best known and would attract the most people to a
discussion of Dante in a popular setting. "Adolescents love it because it
talks about love and sex," he said. "Dante wants to clarify to
himself the nature of love, and he says that if you are mistaken about that
sentiment then you are mistaken with your whole life."
Benigni has thus far turned down
numerous offers to bring "The Divine Comedy" to
Still, he says,
in some way he would like to bring Dante to the
By
Sarah Delaney
Special
to The
Sunday, June 17, 2007
ROME When he
comes onstage, he resembles the Roberto Benigni that
Americans came to know in 1999, the one who hopscotched
on the backs of the chairs at the Oscars to claim his prize for "Life Is
Beautiful." He runs in stage right, wearing the slightly goofy grin that
shows up in most photographs, and starts in with lightning-quick banter that
spears politicians, the pope and whoever else might be in the news that day.
But as the
evening proceeds, the familiar rascal becomes earnest student, kindly professor
and, finally, tragic actor who sheds believable tears to the verse of Dante
Alighieri, father of Italian literature and unsurpassed hero for the
Tuscan-born comic.
This is the other
Roberto in his traveling show, called "Tutto
Dante," an unlikely hit featuring the 14th-century "Inferno,"
which has been filling up theaters and sports arenas throughout
The idea to bring
Dante, studied in all Italian middle and high schools, to popular venues comes
from the 53-year-old Benigni's conviction that the
Florentine poet (1265-1321) is thoroughly modern and that his personal quest is
universal. "When you fall in love with Dante, you see that he is
mysterious and popular all at once, like the universe, or like Bach -- simple
and complex at the same time," he said in an interview.
"The
Inferno," the first of the three-part allegory of a search for God (Hell,
Purgatory,
Benigni explains: "In Dante,
there is mystery and poetry, it's entertaining, and he shows us all the human
passions. But he doesn't say it from an old man's or moralist's viewpoint. He's
not trying to teach us how to live because he wants to understand himself. And
he tells us, humbly, that we, too, can make this journey. And it's a journey
that is longer, more difficult, more innovative and more important than
Armstrong's journey to the moon.
"In Dante we
find all the techniques of cinema, with an extraordinary precision, depth and
clarity," he adds. "He invented the rapid movement, all the
techniques of narrating a story, of set design, and film editing like [American
filmmaker D.W.]
Benigni's performance begins with
the stand-up comic act. The one-man-show format deprives Benigni
of a bag of tricks Italian television audiences know well -- grabbing the
crotch or jumping into the arms of the variety show host/straight man while
proclaiming, "Ti voglio bene,"
or, very loosely, "I love you." The absence of such trademark antics
are generally forgiven when he doesn't stray too far from his roots in
political satire (typically delivered with a bite but not a snarl).
His favorite
targets, former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi and the Catholic Church (despite a
brief youthful stint as a seminarian), are not spared in the first part of the
performance, nor is the current center-left Italian government. In a recent
performance before 4,000 people in
The show segues
smoothly toward Dante, through a sketch that illustrates a nearly lost tradition
he picked up from his native small town in
Benigni illustrates the fifth
canto, or chapter, that describes the tragic love story between Francesca and
Paolo, condemned for the sin of lust to pass eternity in the first of the
descending rings of hell.
The story is
ageless. Francesca is unhappily married to Paolo's brother; they innocently
read the story of Lancelot and Guinevere until passion overcomes them. They are
both killed by the cuckolded husband, Gianciotto, who
ends up in a lower ring reserved for those who commit the much more serious
crime of fratricide.
"It shows us
that we have to be educated in love, in respect. If no one tells us, no one
teaches us, how can we know?" he asks.
After the lesson,
Benigni recites from memory the poem in the original
medieval Italian called "vulgar" because Dante broke ground by
writing in spoken Italian, rather than the Latin used for literary purposes.
Through the
piteous description of the passion-bound couple's demise, Benigni
is completely transformed in face and demeanor, and is overcome, like Dante,
with compassion for their cruel fate. The audience is left spellbound, before
breaking into enthusiastic applause. He cites "Chaplin, the prince"
as his model, and said that for an actor, "the comic and the tragic always
touch." He said the ancient Greek and Latin principles -- explain,
entertain and move -- still apply to his idea of theater.
Benigni chose to concentrate on
Canto V because it is the best known and would attract the most people to a
discussion of Dante in a popular setting. "Adolescents love it because it
talks about love and sex," he said. "Dante wants to clarify to
himself the nature of love, and he says that if you are mistaken about that
sentiment then you are mistaken with your whole life."
He has thus far
turned down numerous offers to bring "The Divine Comedy" to
Still, he says,
in some way he would like to bring Dante to the
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