Teatro Dei Pupi

excerpts from: Background to the Sicilian Puppets by Antonio Pasqualino

The opera dei pupi is the traditional Sicilian marionette theatre. At the height of its popularity at the turn of the century, Sicily boasted 25 puppet theatres, as well as two or three nomadic ones. The Sicilian puppets differ from other marionettes in the plays presented, in their technique, their figurative style, their décor and their speech. Their subjects are mainly long cycles, vicissitudes presented in installments based on epic-chivalrous literature and particularly on the Carolingian cycle. The programs of the opera dei pupi are often concerned with deeds of charlemagne, his ancestors and his descendants. However, the repertory of the puppeteers also includes other stories of chivalry, historical events such as Roger the Norman Conquers Sicily, The Sicilian Vespers, The Story of Victor Emanuel and Garibaldi and a number of Shakespearean subjects such as Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Macbeth. It also features tales of bandits, which include: Antonio Di Blasi Known As Testalonga, Giuseppina the Brigandess, Marziale the Murderous Brigand, Varsalona, Pasquale Bruno, two different versions of the Beati Paoli, and the lives of the saints, including: St. Genevieve. Sometimes programs also include representations of the Passion and the Nativity.

A Social Context
	The Success of the opera dei pupi was linked in the past with its natural audience, namely the population of the poorer quarters of the city and of the villages, who followed the plot by installments every evening for months and months. This audience has been eliminated by competition and by the mass media. The rejection of traditional culture on the part of those who have only just attained relatively comfortable economic well-being in an industrialized society is a well-known and well-documented phenomenon, especially in connection with popular music.
The elements of oldtime culture are considered symbols of poverty, while the culture of the masses is identified with riches. Only after a considerable number of years and, sometimes only with a new generation, is interest in popular culture renewed, stimulated by an awareness of one's own roots in the past. This has not yet happened in Sicily and thus the traditional audience of the opera dei pupi has been replaced by tourists and the middle classes in search of local colour. A show based on a series of episodes cannot convey its message to the audience through a single evening's performance: tourists and those Sicilians who behave like tourists in their own-city, are unlikely to come back once their curiosity has been satisfied. They only see the exterior aspects of the performance. In the face of an audience which is present at the show without the capacity or desire to interpret its meanings, the event is weakened and like an empty sack can no longer rmain upright. This has had a negative effect on the character and quality of the performances, including many puppeteers to put on shows for one evening only, all based on spectacular effects. Without knowledge of the sense of the episodes presented, the world of the opera dei pupi, very distant from us in time, paranormal, full of monsters, dragons, mermaids and magical spells and battles between Christians and Saracens, appears a childish entertainment which every now and then can be enjoyed out of curiosity, even by adults on holiday. To study the problem of the significance assumed by chivalrous culture and to try to understand its social function renders the enjoyment of the show a rewarding and interesting experience. For example, the myth of the Paladins of France did not represent a world of pure evasion to the social group who enjoyed it. The marionettes exemplified the hopes, the struggles, the victories and the defeats of their own existence. The History of the Paladins of France expressed the ideology of the poor in a gumat of emotions running from resignation to revolt.