The Divine Comedy

:This article is about the epic poem; see also derivative works below.

Derivative works

Visual arts

• The 1911 silent film L'Inferno, directed by Guiseppe de Liguoro, starring Salvatore Papa and released on DVD in 2004, with a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream; see IMDb reference; Silent era.com.
• The 1935 motion picture Dante's Inferno directed by Harry Lachman, written by Philip Klein and starring Spencer Tracy.
• The interpretation of hell in the 1998 film What Dreams May Come is heavily inspired by Dante's Inferno.
• Project Dante, of the Polish artist Dariusz Nowak-Nova, is an example of how the Internet and new technologies can contribute to the formation of various approaches to literature, and a new way to conceive the book.
• Contemporary artist Jennifer Strange offers dynamic charcoal drawings inspired by the Inferno and Purgatory in the Commedia Inspired by Dante.
• Wayne Barlowe's book, Barlowe's Inferno, containing paintings of Hell and an accompanying narrative, is partially inspired by Dante's Inferno.
• ', a video game in the Devil May Cry series, very loosely based on the Divine Comedy by the use of allusions, including the game's protagonist Dante, and other characters like Vergil and Cerberus.
• The 2005 BBC drama series , which focuses on a serial killer who takes inspiration from the Inferno to punish his or her victims.
• Purgatorio - Illustrations by Shlomo Felberbaum

Literature

• Abandon All Hope, a contemporary retelling of Dante's Inferno, in which a young woman requests permission from God to travel to Hell.
• Authors Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote a modern sequel, Inferno, in which a book author who dies during a fan convention and finds himself in Hell. He escapes with the aid of various characters he meets along the way (including Benito Mussolini and Billy the Kid). He eventually decides to stay behind in Hell and convince its inhabitants that they can be allowed to leave if they repent and learn enough about themselves.
• The Dante Club is a novel by Matthew Pearl which tells the story of various American poets translating The Divine Comedy in post civil war Boston. At the same time, a killer takes inspiration from the punishments in Dante's Inferno.
• Author Mark E. Rogers used the structure of Dante's hell in his comedic novel Samurai Cat Goes to Hell. Rogers' take on the Inferno is a violent, pun-laden, parodical conclusion to his series of Samurai Cat books. It also has Nazi dinosaurs.
• Author Nick Tosches's In The Hand of Dante weaves a contemporary tale about the finding of an original manuscript of the Divine Comedy with an imagined account of Dante's years composing the work; see official website.
• Author Monique Wittig's Virgile, Non (published in English as Across the Acheron) is a lesbian?feminist retelling of the Divine Comedy set in the utopia/dystopia of second-wave feminism.
• Geoff Ryman's The Child Garden, set in a Socialist future London, deals with, in part, an opera adaptation of the Comedy which uses holography.

Music

• Franz Liszt's Symphony to Dante's Divina Commedia (completed 1856) has three movements: "Inferno", "Purgatorio" and "Magnificat" (originally the third movement was to be called "Paradise": dissuaded by Wagner on this plan, Liszt completed the work by a "Magnificat"). Liszt also composed a Dante Sonata (started 1837, completed 1849).
• Actress?Supermodel Milla Jovovich, as Milla, released her debut album under the name The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy consists of a collection of acoustic pop and folk songs drawn from Jovovich's Slavic background.
• Italian progressive rock band Metamorfosi has released two concept albums based on the Divine Comedy, Inferno and Paradiso.
• An Irish band called The Divine Comedy, centered on Neil Hannon, also exists. In some level, their music style has influences of poetry in general.
• Robert W. Smith's (ASCAP) The Divine Comedy is a four-movement symphony for wind ensemble which depicts four stages of Dante's journey in a tone poem-like symphonic structure. The movements are entitled "The Inferno," "Purgatorio," "The Ascension" (though it is not one of the books of the actual work by Dante, the composer felt it appropriate to separate Dante's experiences in Eden from his climb up Purgatory Mountain), and lastly "Paradiso."
• Heavy metal / power metal band Iced Earth paid tribute to the poem with an epic song entitled "Dante's Inferno". Clocking in at 16 minutes and 29 seconds, and featuring long instrumental sections, abrupt tempo changes, and a pseudo-Gregorian chant choir, the song is found on the 1995 album Burnt Offerings.
• Punk legend Mike Watt's third solo album, The Secondman's Middle Stand (Columbia Records, 2004), is a concept album (he likes to call it a "punk opera") that derives its structure from The Divine Comedy, with three sections of three songs each. He tells his story of a prolonged illness he suffered a few years earlier, each section denoted to be "Hell" (a metaphor for Watt's illness), "Purgatory" (his recuperation), and "Paradise" (celebrating his healing).
• F.M. Einheit of Einstürzende Neubauten and Andreas Ammer collaborated on an experimental recording called Radio Inferno that adapts The Divine Comedy in the format of a radio play.
• Industrial band Skinny Puppy used an illustration found in the Inferno as the cover to their single "Dig It".
• Progressive metal band Symphony X also pays tribute to the poem with an epic song entitled "The Divine Wings of Tragedy", although it contains some passages of famous classical music, such as The Planets by Gustav Holst.
• Thrash metal band Sepultura's new album will be based entirely on The Divine Comedy. It is entitled Dante XXI, and is expected to be released in 2006
• Zao refer to the Divine Comedy on their 1999 album Liberate te ex Inferis, covering the first five circles of the Inferno.
• Thom Yorke of the pop band Radiohead has also referenced Dante's Inferno as a recurring source of inspiration for his music and many references to the poem can be found in the band's lyrics.
• Tangerine Dream has released albums setting the first two parts of The Divine Comedy to music: Inferno is a recording of a live performance at the St Marien zu Bernau Cathedral in 2001, and Purgatorio is a studio album from 2004. Both feature an unusual mix of female vocals and their trademark electronics. The conclusion of the trilogy, Paradise, is to be released in 2005. A DVD was released of the 1911 film by Giuseppe de Liguoro set to the album Inferno in 2005 in the United Kingdom. http://www.silentera.com/DVD/infernoDVD.html

Sculpture

• The Gates of Hell sculptural group by Auguste Rodin.