Sicilian puppet theater
| Sicilian puppet theater | |
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Intangible cultural heritage 
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| Marionette theater in Alcamo |
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| State (s): |
 Italy
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| List: | Representative list |
| Number: | 00011 |
| Admission: | 2001/2008 |
The Sicilian Marionette Theater (in Italian Teatri dei pupi or Opera dei pupi ) is a puppet theater that uses artfully made marionettes to depict events from the Middle Ages. It is part of Sicilian folk art .
history
The Sicilian puppet theater developed in the first half of the 19th century. It originated from the tradition of the cuntastorie , the street singers who performed great knight reps. Starting from Acireale , there were soon famous puppet theaters in Catania and around Palermo .
The performances of these theaters were popular diversions in the everyday life of the population and provided daily topics of conversation. Comparable to today's soap operas , the audience knew the different characters of the puppets and knew exactly the current status of the plot, which was performed in sequels.
Taken into the background due to the competition from television, the puppet theater regained importance with the increasing interest in old traditions and with growing tourism.
Plot of the plays
Traditional content of the plays are incidents about Charlemagne and his paladins or about King Roger II . Many pieces follow the plot of the Roland song or the epic Der Rasende Roland .
It is essential to make a clear distinction between good and bad characters. Against the backdrop of a castle, noble, brave knights in shining armor fight against enemy villains. Young princes and wise kings are just as much a part of the plot as the beautiful princess or the innocent maid from the people. Recurring and popular characters include the knights Orlando and Rinaldo , Charlemagne, the lover Angelica and the narrator Gano de Magonza .
A barrel organ sounds in front of the tiny wooden stages as background music . The mostly adult audience fires up the mood by booing the bad guys and cheering for the heroes with loud clapping.
Puppets and puppeteers
The game is played with wooden puppets up to 150 centimeters in size and up to 20 kg in weight , which are handmade and very detailed. In the heyday of puppet theater, artists all over Sicily competed for the most beautiful and imaginative characters.
The puppeteers, the Pupari , are theater manager and director, stage and costume designer, carpenter and tailor in one person. In addition, not only dexterity but also physical strength is required of them in order to move the marionettes as skilfully as possible using iron bars and to give them a powerful voice.
Theaters and museums
Famous puppeteer families perform today mainly in the metropolitan cities of Palermo and Catania and the Free Community Consortia of Syracuse and Agrigento .
There are a number of well-known puppet theaters in Palermo with daily performances. The Museo Internazionale delle marionette Antonio Pasqualino and the Museo Etnografico Siciliano Giuseppe Pitrè exhibit many of the old, hand-made dolls. Other museums worth seeing with traditional puppets are in Acireale , Caltagirone and Randazzo .
The Sicilian marionettes are now also mass-produced for tourists and sold in souvenir shops and markets.
Intangible cultural heritage
In 2001, the Sicilian Puppet Theater was inscribed by UNESCO on the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity , and in 2008 it was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity .
Individual evidence
literature
- Eva Gründel and Heinz Tomek, Sicily , DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2005, ISBN 3-7701-5599-8
- Horst Reimann, Sicily's small folk theater opera dei pupi , Nold, Frankfurt, 1995, ISBN 978-3-922220-66-4
Web links
- Sicilian puppet theater on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Section website ( English and French ).
Representative List : Sicilian Puppet Theater (2001) | Canto a tenore (2005) | Traditional violin making in Cremona (2012) | Processions with shoulder shrines ( Macchina di Santa Rosa in Viterbo, Varia di Palmi in Palmi, Gigli di Nola in Nola and Faradda di li Candareri in Sassari) (2013) | Mediterranean cuisine ( Italian cuisine ) (2013) | Vite ad alberello on the island of Pantelleria (2014) | Falconry (2016) | Art of Neapolitan Pizza Making (2017)