Long applause from the audience greeted the staged reading of 'The Voices of Dante', performed by Toni Servillo, which took place at the Olympia 'Maria Callas' Municipal Theatre in Athens on Monday 25 November. Numerous film and theatre personalities were in the audience, including writer Petros Markaris, Prof. Claudio Longhi, director of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, and baritone Tassis Christoyannis, director of the Maria Callas Theatre. Also present were family members of the late director Theo Angelopoulos, "one of the greatest masters of European cinema" to whom Servillo dedicated the evening with these words.
Guided by the text of one of the most important contemporary Italian authors, Giuseppe Montesano, Servillo gave voice to some emblematic characters of the Divine Comedy.
"Dante's works, and the Divine Comedy in particular, represent an extraordinary and unique cultural heritage that deserves to be continuously enhanced and promoted," said the Italian Ambassador to Greece Paolo Cuculi. "Making this literary masterpiece more and more accessible to everyone today, through a contemporary and highly topical reinterpretation of it, is a challenge that only two great artists such as Toni Servillo and Giuseppe Montesano could successfully tackle. Le voci di Dante was born on the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, and was presented in Athens thanks to the synergic work of the Italian Embassy in Greece, the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens and the Piccolo Teatro of Milan.
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