Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Master Chorale Los Angeles Philharmonic Thomas Adès: Dante

Thomas Adès’ Dante—a ballet score in three parts based on Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia—was recorded by the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel at a concert performance last spring at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Nonesuch Records releases the album, the work’s premiere audio recording, on April 21, 2023. Dante was first performed at the Royal Opera House as part of Wayne McGregor’s The Dante Project for the Royal Ballet, with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and with designs by visual artist Tacita Dean.  The piece’s three parts are “Inferno,” “Purgatorio,” and “Paradiso.”  Dante is inspired by the alternately chilling and sunlit landscapes of La Divina Commedia. Written in the fourteenth century, this seminal Italian poem recounts an initiatory journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise. McGregor and Adès bring the medieval Christian fantasy to life with a narrative arc about a young woman named Beatrice who embodies a promise of love and hope. Opéra National de Paris, where Dudamel is Music Director, performs The Dante Project this April and May; the London Philharmonic features Dante’s first part performs “Inferno” performs on a February 22 concert program conducted by Adès.