Durante and the Bad Loves is a musical take on Dante’s Divine Commedy, where the mountain of Purgatory becomes a mirror of Christian moralism in Norway and in western societies in general. Dante has reached the mountain of Purgatory, where souls are purged and prepared for Paradise. Passing though the 7 Terraces, each corresponding to a deadly sin (pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, lust), we encounter fictional characters which represent them and their divine counterparts (humility, benevolence, patience, diligence, generosity, temperance, chastity). It’s a sort of human zoo, in which these sins and virtues merge in a very elementary and touching manner, providing an opportunity to speak about the most basic of human drives, which go beyond the Christian value system. Dantes real name was Durante, and «the bad loves» in the title, a rough translation of Dante’s mal amor, are the passions that distract

humans from divine righteousness. This emotional kaleidoscope is mirrored in the music, which irreverently plunders melodies and harmonies from Purcell, Vivaldi, Rossini, Schumann, Puccini, Wagner

and others, as well as the soundtracks of A Clockwork Orange and The Wizard of Oz. The ‘classical’ string trio heard in Bad Dante Bad English Bad Opera is replaced by 4 Moog analogue synthesizers, creating a sound world somewhat reminiscent of Wendy Carlos and other pioneers of early electronic music. The show dives freely into Dante’s 700 year old text, exploiting its narrative richness while adding wit and pace, in search of what a medieval perspective can bring to the interpretation of our time and its new invasive moralism. Durante and the Bad Loves creates a dialogue between the two eras, which lately feel as close as they are far apart.

“Surprisingly entertaining, full of humour and puns and room for much thinking.”

Klassekampen

“A consistent duality of calm and uneasiness, of superficial and detailed, of

suggestion and obvious, and everywhere the humour about all the seriousness”

Norske Shakespeare