''La Commedia'' is an opera in five parts composed by

Louis Andriessen Louis Joseph Andriessen (; 6 June 1939 – 1 July 2021) was a Dutch composer, pianist and academic teacher. Considered the most influential Dutch composer of his generation, he was a central proponent of The Hague school of composition. Although ...

. A retelling of Dante's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

'', the multi-language libretto was constructed by Andriessen using extracts from Dante's poem as well as several other sources including the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

and the poetry of

Joost van den Vondel Joost van den Vondel (; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch poet, writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still most ...

. Andriessen describes the work as a "film opera" and collaborated closely with film director

Hal Hartley Hal Hartley (born November 3, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and composer who became a key figure in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and '90s. He is best known for his films '' The Unbelievable T ...

in its development. ''La Commedia'' premiered on 12 June 2008 at the Koninklijk Theater Carré in Amsterdam.Swed, Mark (20 June 2008)
"'Commedia' is more than a little divine"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

''. Retrieved 23 January 2017.

Performance history

Following its Amsterdam premiere, ''La Commedia'' was performed in 2010 in

concert version A concert performance or concert version is a performance of a musical theater or opera in concert form, without set design or costumes, and mostly without theatrical interaction between singers. Concert performances are commonly presented in c ...

but with the same cast and musicians at the

Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand ...

in Los Angeles and

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

in New York. It received a further concert performance in London at the

Barbican A barbican (from fro, barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer fortifications, defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Europe ...

in 2016 performed by the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...

with Cristina Zavalloni and

Claron McFadden Claron McFadden (born 1961) is an American soprano. McFadden studied voice at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, finishing her degree in 1984. She gained international fame when making her Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut in t ...

reprising their original roles as Dante and Beatrice.Hewett, Ivan (15 February 2016)
"Louis Andriessen - Total Immersion / La Commedia, Barbican, review: 'a beacon in contemporary music'"
''

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''. Retrieved 23 January 2017. The opera won the 2011

Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition The Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition () is an annual prize instituted by Henry Charles Grawemeyer, industrialist and entrepreneur, at the University of Louisville in 1984. The award was first given in 1985. Subsequently, the Grawemeyer Awar ...

, and in 2014 the recording of the premiere production was released on CD and DVD.Clements, Andrew (2 July 2014)
"Andriessen: ''La Commedia'' review – a rich, important achievement"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. Retrieved 23 January 2017.

Roles

Reception

Ivan Hewett of ''The Telegraph'' wrote, “Like all Andriessen’s best pieces, this showed a man constantly engaged, in the most passionate terms, with the unfathomable dichotomies of human life; passion versus rationality, matter versus spirit, life and death.” Andrew Clements of ''

'' rated the Dutch National Opera set four out of five stars and argued, “The tone is wonderfully varied – sometimes profoundly serious, sometimes wildly exuberant or irreverent – matched to a score that is equally diverse and eclectic.” In the ''

'', Mark Swed lauded it as a “profoundly moving, if slyly unsentimental, meditation on life, love and death ..it is Andriessen’s “Italian” opera and has the depth, musical richness and (I predict) lasting power of late Verdi.” Swed praised “the humor, the ingratiating jazziness, the terrible fury and, in the end, the ravishing grace of the later scenes.“ In a 2019 poll of critics and editors of ''The Guardian'', the opera was ranked the seventh greatest classical composition of the 21st century, with Clements referring to the score as “wonderfully polyglot”.

References

External links

Andriessen, Louis: La Commedia (2004-08)

Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments. Formed in 1930 throu ...

(scoring and synopsis) *Allenby, David (2008)
"Louis Andriessen interview: Creating ''La Commedia''"
Boosey & Hawkes {{DEFAULTSORT:Commedia, La Operas 2008 operas Operas by Louis Andriessen Multiple-language operas Operas based on works by Dante Alighieri Works based on Inferno (Dante) Works based on Purgatorio Works based on Paradiso (Dante)