This lyrical scene for voices and solo strings is entirely based on Inferno’s Canto X. Here, in the city of Dis, Dante and Virgil meet Farinata and Cavalcante, and with the latter the author discusses the political situation in Florence.

The solo strings form the infernal background against which the characters sing: they draw a bleak and at times suffocating situation, highlighting the impossibility for the damned to escape their punishment.