Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi Honors Dante with Allegorical Staging

The Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto presents Piero Maccarinelli's staging of Dante's Divine Comedy, focusing on the first day of the poem. The performance transforms the ancient ruins of San Simone into a dark cave reminiscent of Plato's allegory, designed by Fabiana Piccioli and Sander Loonen in white, black, and red tones. Sound by Franco Visioli uses death drums, muffled laments, and crackling to mark the journey. Maccarinelli emphasizes the earthly dimension of the poem, using contemporary costumes to highlight the universality of sin. The director interprets ignorance as a sin, a refusal of knowledge that hinders spiritual fulfillment, drawing parallels to today's erosion of critical thinking by technology. The cast includes Luca Lazzareschi as Dante, Massimo De Francovich as Virgil, Manuela Mandracchia as Beatrice and Francesca, and Fausto Cabra as Minos, Charon, Pluto, and Ciacco. The show runs with solemn, dramatic rhythm, driven by the power of words. Maccarinelli, trained as an architect, respects the linguistic structure of the Comedy, making it the main dramaturgical element and sending a subtle message about the recovery of the Italian language.