Review: San Diego Rep’s ‘Dante and Beatrice’ another big leap for Hershey Felder’s film series
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On Sunday, Hershey Felder kicked off the second season of his musical film series “Live from Florence” with the premiere of “Dante and Beatrice in Florence”, which was co-presented by the San Diego Repertory Theater.
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, the actor, playwright, and pianist stopped performing his solo pieces at Rep and other theaters across the country to focus on producing live-streamed performances from his home in Florence, Italy. In short, Felder has come a long way from his first “Live from Florence” shows, which were initially constrained by the technical challenges of digital streaming and the limits of trying to translate a theatrical story for the camera.
With the debut of the second season, Felder has moved away from the theater to become a full-fledged filmmaker. He wrote both the screenplay and the score for “Dante and Beatrice in Florence”, directed the film, played the piano, and sings and plays two roles.
The 90-minute film shows stories in two timelines, the true and unfortunate story of the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri from the 13th Mrs. Beatrice.
The cinematography, gold-colored lighting, sumptuous costumes, and beautiful Florentine setting give the film the luxurious look of a Renaissance painting brought to life. The huge cast includes a Florentine children’s choir, the film actress Debi Mazar, an orchestra and several opera singers, including the Los Angeles soprano Hila Plitmann as both Beatrices. On-site filming includes scenes filmed along the Arno River at the Ponte Vecchio, as well as scenes filmed in the historic Chiesa di Dante and the Baptistery of St. John, built in 1265.
Felder’s script is part of a history lesson on Dante’s importance for Italian literature and language, Dante’s love for Beatrice, his unhappy marriage to Gemma Di Manetto Donati (played by Olivia Merchant) and his exile from Florence. The modern love story has a mysterious plot. The film is also a love letter to Florence, its people and its religious and cultural traditions. And because Felder is a composer and musician, it offers performances of opera arias, sacred music and original love songs.
Felder wove lines from Dante’s epic masterpiece “The Divine Comedy” into the film. For those unfamiliar with the massive three-part work, it is the story of Dante’s imagined journeys through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, with the help of the poet Virgil and the spirit of Beatrice. It’s heavy stuff. Keeping track of the two stories and how “The Divine Comedy” fits into both of them gets a little confusing, but in the end things do become clear.
San Diego Rep will present Felder’s next music film “Mozart and Figaro in Vienna” on January 9th. This is followed by “The Verdi Fiasco”, shot on March 27th in Venice; “The Assembly” was filmed in San Diego on May 29; “Chopin in Paris” on August 7th; and “The Crazy Widow (of Moses de Leon)”, filmed in Spain on October 16th. The season finale, scheduled for December 18, will be a new composer story chosen by subscriber voting. “Dante and Beatrice in Florence” is now available for on-demand screening for US $ 50 on hersheyfelder.net.
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