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Dublin Dante Summer School // An Opera on Dante’s life – with Patrick Cassidy

In 2000, film producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis asked Irish composer Patrick Cassidy to write an aria for an opera that did not exist. The subject: Dante’s love for Beatrice, as expressed in La Vita Nuova. The resulting aria, “Vide cor meum”, was featured in a pivotal scene in Ridley Scott’s film Hannibal. It would go on to be used in numerous other films and television shows, as well as become one of the most frequently recorded pieces of contemporary opera music. Now, around that beloved music, Patrick Cassidy has written an entire opera. The new opera dramatises the poet’s passion for Beatrice, the tragedy of her loss in youth, and his fantastical journey through the inferno and purgatory to be reunited with her, based on the events – and sung entirely from Dante’s own words – in the Vita Nuova and the Divina Commedia. The opera will premiere in Italy for the 2021 celebrations of the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death. Patrick Cassidy will give us the chance to get a first glimpse into his approach to this very special and monumental endeavour.

Patrick Cassidy is an Irish orchestral, choral and film score composer. He came into prominence with the release of The Children of Lir, the first major symphonic work written in the Irish language. He currently resides in Los Angeles, where in addition to his concert work and compositions he scores films and documentaries. Notable credits include: Hannibal, Veronica Guerin, Confessions of a Burning Man, Salem’s Lot, King Arthur, Layer Cake, Che Guevara, Ashes and Snow, Kingdom of Heaven, The Front Line, L’Aviatore, The Irishman, Calvary, 1916 The Irish Rebellion.

Free admission, booking recommended.

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We are delighted to announce the launch of the first Dublin Dante Summer School (DDSS) which will run for three years, June 2019-June 2020-June 2021. 2021 will then mark the anniversary of Dante’s death with a special edition of our School. The project has received collaboration and financial support from Dublin Unesco City of Literature, the Italian Institute of Culture and the Italian Embassy in Dublin, The National University of Ireland, TCD Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, TCD School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, Trinity Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCD School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, UCD College of Arts and Humanities, The UCD Foundation for Italian Studies.

The launch of the first Irish Dante Summer School based in Dublin is meant to attract national and international attention to the Italian language, literature and culture through the study and teaching of Dante’s Divine Comedy, one of the poetic masterworks of Western culture.

The Summer School will consist of 4 days with morning lectures and afternoon workshops held by internationally renowned scholars in the field of Dante studies and IIC, TCD, UCD members of staff. Students and scholars from Ireland, the UK, Europe and the US will participate, too. The theme of this year is Dante’s Inferno: The Medieval Text and its Afterlife.

Reservation no longer available

  • Organized by: IIC
  • In collaboration with: Dublin Unesco City of Literature, the Italian Inst