Originally, I conceived “The Inferno” series of videos as a Broadway-type musical. If you viewed these videos from the past two months, you watched my interpretation of Dante’s “Inferno” Cantos 1 through 18. Most of the lead vocals either represented a group of sinners and their plight, or Dante himself. Because I perform all of the vocals, I really try to “get into character,” as they say, and give each vocal performance a unique interpretation.
Today, the vocals represent Virgil, who is one of the main characters in the Inferno. My approach for Virgil gives him a somewhat wiser, world-weary tonality. It sounds different and much older than the vocals I give Dante, for instance, because appropriately enough, Virgil is chronologically much older than Dante. Speaking from experience, Virgil invites our pity and sorrow for the souls of the landscape he sings about as he and Dante travel toward Circle 8, the Malebolge, of the Inferno.
On Broadway, more than one character gets the vocal spotlight, for a signature piece, in a musical play. Today, my Virgil, (like Leon Redbone or Tom Waits beforehand,) gets the spotlight.