Roberto and Dante

Italian actor and comedian Roberto Benigni (also famous for his exuberance at the 1999 Oscars) brings his stand up Dante act (Tutto Dante, here in Italian) to the US. He begins by reciting a canto (from memory) and then humorously interpreting it to our modern day. (sound familiar?) He will be in the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC this Saturday. Other cities on his eight show tour include Montreal, QC (two shows); Boston, MA; Toronto, ON; and and Quebec City, QC, before concluding on June 12 in Chicago, IL. (Review from the NY Times)

His words at a recent interview really encapsulate the power of Dante's Comedia, as one of the greatest works ever written: “We need to have the nerve to understand why a man with a big nose 700 years ago had the heroic shamelessness to write. Really this is the most daring, bold poetry ever. In 2,000 years of Christian poetry they never surpassed this. They never produced such a scandal of beauty. Never, never, nobody.”


Benigni recites the very beginning of the Comedia with the first lines of the Inferno.