One hundred 33-second-long videos focusing on the 100 tercets from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy are at the centre of the ‘Istante Dante’ (Dante Instant) project showcased at the Italy Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka.

The project is promoted by the cultural institute and college Collegio Borromeo and by the I Solisti di Pavia, the musical ensemble of the Foundation Monte di Lombardia.

The idea has involved 100 Italian and international musicians and will include three concerts, running until September 4, with music by composers such as Schumann, Dvořák, Brahms, Chausson, focusing on the themes of the poem’s Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.

They will be performed by I Solisti di Pavia (the Soloists of Pavia), violinist Massimo Quarta and pianist Alessandro Marangoni, who is also the artistic director.

Quarta has already played at the auditorium during the congress ‘The time for justice, hope and eternety’ which introduced the project.

He was presented by the Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, Mario Vattani.

Marangoni moved the public with his performance and received a standing ovation.

‘Istante Dante’ is a project curated by Ludovica Rossi Purini and conceived by Valentina Lo Surdo.

Lo Surdo described it as an “incredible challenge” as “the Divine Comedy has never been read so quickly, horizontally in the era of Instagram but with the verticality that only music can give”.

A “great collective oeuvre” presented at Expo as a video which is, however, “at the same time, something that compares to live performances because nighttime events will describe what hell, purgatory, paradise are through music”.

Dante, however, isn’t only starring thanks to images and music.

The opening congress, in fact, focused on the idea of “adding a part of reflection, a sort of discussion involving people dealing with various disciplines to discuss the concept of time”, stressed Ludovica Rossi Purini.

According to the President of the Foundation I Solisti di Pavia, Sonia Selletti, this “dialogue has occurred in a contemporary light” in order to “to promote the valorization of music” and reach out to the public.

And this has occurred by “taking on stage talented performers who can interpret music” so as to also fascinate a “young public as well as entice” outsiders, noted Selletti.

Music “constantly carries with it time and brings it forward”, she added.

“The Collegio Borromeo promoted and supported this initiative with pride, determination and conviction”, stated President Vincenzo Salvatore, recalling that the institution’s role is to “educate talented young people, training them not only in their university career but also in the development of the arts, culture, science and music”.

And the presence at Expo of its representatives “is the tangible sign of how it is possible to be syncretistic in sciences and create occasions of debate and cultural dialogue and promote the training of young people of talent”, concluded Salvatore.