Malta’s Three Palaces Festival (2021)
“’The Three Palaces Festival, taking place between November 8 and 12, is online for a second time because coronavirus restrictions remain in place,’ says artistic director Michelle Castelletti, a singer, composer and conductor known for her interdisciplinary approach to the arts.
“Speaking about the theme of this year’s festival, Castelletti highlights that 2021 is the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, and the 450th anniversary of Caravaggio’s birth.
“Both have ties to Malta, with Caravaggio’s painting the Beheading of St John the Baptist commissioned for the Co-Cathedral of St John while Dante mentioned Malta in La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy).
“’Although it’s true that we aren’t certain he meant this island rather than a place in Italy,” she continues. “We were keen to celebrate both these artistic geniuses.’
“‘We also wished to celebrate the artistic talent here in Malta and use the festival to lift the community. I always say, we must find ways to dance in the rain,’ she smiles, ‘and so I asked for proposals combining dance, visual arts, drama, literature and music on the theme of sacred and profane, reflecting the contrast between light and dark found in Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro and tenebrism, and in the journey from hell to paradise together with Dante and his muse Beatrice who represents divine love.’
“Nel Mezzo Del Cammin, its title the opening line in Dante’s The Divine Comedy, tackles universal themes of love, integrity and the quest for knowledge with scenes from the Inferno.” [. . .] –Esther Lafferty, Times of Malta, November 7, 2021
The Festival also included other Dante-related performance pieces, including Of Hell and Exile, a performance piece on exile and displacement created by Russian artist Anna Akhmatova, and NoGravity’s Inferno, also featured on Dante Today (pictured above; see related sighting below).
Sighting Citation:
“Malta’s Three Palaces Festival (2021).” Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Elizabeth Coggeshall and Arielle Saiber, eds. November 28, 2021. https://www.dantetoday.org/sightings/three-palaces-festival/.