Puppet Theater

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The repertory of Sicilian puppet theater consists of medieval and Renaissance chivalric narratives that were adapted into prose in the nineteenth century. Giusto Lo Dico’s Storia dei paladini di Francia (1858–60), a prose compilation of over 3000 pages, provided an uninterrupted narrative stretching from before the birth of Orlando to after the battle of Roncevaux. In 1895–1896, Giuseppe Leggio extended Lo Dico’s popular work by adding even more episodes. This expanded Storia dei paladini, reprinted several times in the early 1900s, follows Christian and Saracen knights across three centuries of romance epic, including Andrea da Barberino’s Reali di Francia and Aspramonte, Tasso’s Rinaldo, Cieco da Ferrara’s Mambriano, Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato, Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and Cinque canti, Francesco Brusantino’s Angelica innamorata, and Pulci’s Morgante maggiore.
Although puppeteers still primarily use La storia dei paladini as the basis of their chivalric plays, some have also returned to the original poems. The three most popular episodes performed today are the battle between Rinaldo and Orlando for Angelica (from Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato), the madness of Orlando (from Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso), and the battle of Roncisvalle (from Pulci’s Morgante Maggiore and other versions of the story). Many Sicilian puppet theater companies and museums have their own websites and/or Facebook pages:

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Select bibliography:

Alberti, Carmelo. Il teatro dei pupi e lo spettacolo popolare siciliano. Mursia, Milano, 1977.

Carocci, Anna. “Metamorfosi del tema dell’esilio: tradizione, rivoluzione e continuità dai romanzi cavallereschi all’opera dei pupi.” World Epics in Puppet Theater. Edited by Jo Ann Cavallo. AOQU 4.2 (2023).

——. Il poema che cammina: La letteratura cavalleresca nell’opera dei pupi, Palermo: Edizioni Museo Pasqualino, 2019.

Cavallo, Jo Ann. “Encountering Saracens in Italian Romance Epic and its Folk Performance Traditions.” Teaching Medieval and Early-Modern Cross Cultural Encounters Across Disciplines and Periods. Eds. Lynn Shutters and Karina Attar. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2014. 159-78.

—. “The Ideological Battle of Roncevaux: The Critique of Political Power from Pulci’s Morgante to Sicilian Puppet Theatre Today.” In Luigi Pulci in Renaissance Florence and Beyond. Eds. James K. Coleman and Andrea Moudarres. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017. 209–32.

—.“Malaguerra: The Anti-state Super-hero of Sicilian Puppet Theater.” AOQU (Achilles Orlando Quixote Ulysses). Rivista di epica 1 (July 2020): 259-294. https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/aoqu/article/view/13907/13061

—. “L’Opera dei Pupi e il Maggio epico: due tradizioni a confronto.” Archivio antropologico mediterraneo, anno V/VII (2002-2004), n. 5/7. 157-70. Update and translation of “Where Have All the Brave Knights Gone?”

—. “The Resilience of Sicilian Puppet Theater: Present and Future.” Athenaeum Review 11 (spring 2025): 87-99. https://athenaeumreview.org/essay/the-resilience-of-sicilian-puppet-theater/

—. “Sicilian Puppet Theater: Alterity or Diversity?” Representing Alterity through Puppetry and Performing Objects. Edited by John Bell, Matthew Isaac Cohen, and Jungmin Song. The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the Puppets Arts Program, University of Connecticut, 2023. 1-25. https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/ballinst_alterity/14/

—. “Six Characters in Search of a Puppeteer: Sicilian Opera dei pupi.” Bodies of Enchantment: Puppets from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Eds. Jill Baird and Nicola Levell. Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 2021. 124-41.

—. “Where Have All the Brave Knights Gone? Sicilian Puppet Theater and the Tuscan-Emilian Epic Maggio.” Italian Culture 19.2 (2001): 31-55.

Li Gotti, Ettore. Il teatro dei pupi. Florence: Sansoni, 1957.

Lodico, Giusto. Storia dei paladini di Francia cominciando dal Re Pipino sino alla morte di Rinaldo. 3 vols. Naples: Bideri, 1909.

——. Storia dei paladini di Francia cominciando da Milone conte d’Anglante sino alla morte di Rinaldo. 4 vols. Palermo: Gaudiano, 1858–1860.

——. Storia dei paladini di Francia cominciando da Re Pipino fino alla morte di Rinaldo. Edited by Felice Cammarata. Catania: Clio-Brancato, 1993 (vols. 1–9); and Brancato, 2000 (vols. 10–13). Reprint of 1970–71 edition, edited by Felice Cammarata, based on Giuseppe Leggio’s extended edition first published in 1895–1896.

McCormick, John, with Alfonso Cipolla and Alessandro Napoli. The Italian Puppet Theatre: A History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011.

Majorana, Bernadette. Pupi e attori. Ovvero l’opera dei pupi a Catania. Storia e documenti. Biblioteca teatrale. Memorie di teatro/20. Bulzoni, 2008.

Napoli, Alessandro, ed. Immaginare Ariosto in Sicilia: Orlando e Peppininu, Astolfo e Rodomonte. Gli archivi di Morgana 12. Palermo: Associazione per la conservazione delle tradizioni popolari, 2009.

——. Il racconto e i colori: “Storie” e “cartelli” dell’Opera dei Pupi catanese. Palermo: Sellerio, 2002.

Pasqualino, Antonio. Dal testo alla rappresentazione. Le prime imprese di Carlo Magno. Laboratorio antropologico, Università di Palermo, 1986.

—. L’opera dei pupi. Palermo: Sellerio, 1977.

——. “Il repertorio epico dell’opera dei pupi.” Uomo e cultura 2, no. 3–4 (1969): 59–106.

—-. Rerum palatinorum fragmenta. Ed. Alessandro Napoli. Palermo: Edizioni Museo Pasqualino, 2018.

—-. Le vie del cavaliere dall’epica medievale alla cultura popolare. Milano: Bompiani, 1992.

 

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See individual pages for Sicilian puppet plays, scripts, interviews, documentaries, and puppets.