Tchaikovsky and Dante

I think that when most people think about the composer known as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, they think of pretty ballet tunes and stories of magic and love.

What many people don't realize is that he wrote some dark pieces as well as perky ones.  In fact, he took Canto V from the Inferno part of  Dante's The Divine Comdey and made it into a symphonic poem.  This piece is simply called Francesca da Rimini after the adulterous woman whose tortured soul appears along with that of her brother-in-law Paolo in the canto.
This story takes place in the second circle of Hell.  Dante and the shade of Virgil descend from the first circle (known as Limbo), and enter the second circle. They encounter Minos, the judge of the damned.  This monster resembles a man, but has a long tail with which he delivers his verdict.  The lost soul comes before him and confesses all of its sins.  Then Minos wraps his tail around himself x number of times to say how far the soul should descend.  Once judged, the damned soul is hurtled downward to whichever level has been decided.  Minos rages at Dante (who is still alive at the time of his visionary journey through hell), but Virgil rebukes the monster.  Minos then allows them passage.
The two poets then arrive at a precipice.  The world around them is dark and hideous.  Before them whirl the souls of the lustful; those who had let their appetites sway their reason.  As they were inconstant and led by raging passions life, so in death they are blown about for eternity by winds of a monstrous storm.  Among them are Semiramis(1) Dido(2), Cleopatra(3), Helen of Troy(4), and Achilles(5).  Dante notices two souls being blown together and asks to speak with them.  Virgil approves and Dante calls the two souls over.  They come and reveal that they are Francesca and Paolo.  She had been given in marriage to one Giovanni Malatesta, but fell in love with Paolo, his younger and handsome brother.  The two committed adultery and were later murdered by Giovanni.  When Dante hears their tragic tale of sinful love, he faints for pity.
NOTICE: Francesca and Paolo are together in Hell not because they still love each other.  Not a chance.  What Dante really means by putting them together in Hell is that they add to one another's agony.  When Francesca says "There is no greater sorrow than to remember a time a of great joy in a time of great pain", she really means "To remember that time is to remember that we sinned greatly".  They must whirl through eternity looking at each other's bodies and remembering their sins thinking "For that, alas, I went damned" (I decided to quote John Ciardi directly at that point). 

Tchaikovsky does a wonderful job portraying the story the instrumental music.  In fact, his was used as the script for Sergei Rachmaninoff's opera about the same story.  Listen to the music very closely.  The strings in particular portray the infernal hurricane.  The annotations in the video can do a better job of explaining than I can. 
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(1) The Assyrian queen was notorious for having many lovers
(2) The legendary queen of Carthage swore a vow of faithfulness to the ashes of her husband Sicheaus.  However, she fell in love with Aeneas when he landed at Carthage.  When he left, Dido slew herself on a funeral pyre that she built.
(3) Despite being an intelligent and very able ruler (she was well-versed in nine languages), she used sex appeal as part of her political strategy.
(4) The legendary queen of Sparta and wife of Menelaus fell in love with Paris who then carried her off. Their adulterous love was what started the Trojan War that lasted ten years.  
(5) The mythical hero of the Greeks developed a passionate love for Polyxena, one of King Priam's daughters.  He actually joined the other side so that he could marry her, but en route to the wedding he shot in the heel by Paris, and his heel was the only weak spot on his body.