Loreena McKennitt said (see link above) that Dante's Prayer is "a beautiful prayer that came from a hell". On a cold December, 1995, trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway, Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy kept running though her mind, especially in Siberia where "many fields of the Gulag were installed which made it a living hell for hundreds of thousands of human beings". Remembering the trip to hell that Dante made in The Divine Comedy, she wrote this prayer.
At the beginning and end of the song the St Petersburg Chamber Choir conducted by Nikolai Korniev, performs Alleluia, Behold the Bridegroom from the Lamentations of Holy Week (which we missed this year) from the album Russian
Easter. Loreena McKennitt, who wrote the melody and lyrics of Dante's Prayer, begins singing at 2:04.
Since no one has commented, I will comment myself. This is hauntingly beautiful, forcing one to deeply reflect on life here while on Earth and life in the Hereafter, that is, eternity with God or eternity with the Evil One. Choose.
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