Buy and Bring as souvenir one... by isolina_it
Buy and Bring as souvenir one of the typical 'Pupi'!The opera dei pupi is the traditional Sicilian marionette theatre.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. Sometimes programs also include representations of the Passion and the Nativity.
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. The Theatres of the opera dei pupi were generally set up in warehouses or stables with roofs supported by arches or sometimes in wooden huts. The spectators sat on rough wooden benches, fastened to the ground on police orders. The seats in the front row were reserved for children and the walls were, and are, decorated with posters. While the public comes flocking to the box-office, where the owner's wife generally sat and still does, a barrel-organ plays while chick peas, toasted pumpkin seeds and fizzy drinks are sold. Then the show begins at its usual slow pace, slow because of the numerous changes of scene and consequent intervals. The overseer used to keep order by whacking disturbers of the peace with a long bamboo cane.