Page 31 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Sicily

A POR TR AIT OF SICIL Y  29

The Opera dei Pupi
Pupi are large Sicilian wooden
puppets operated with rods.
They date from the 1600s
but became a huge success
only in the late 1800s. The
traditional “puppet opera”
stories narrate the adventures
of Charlemagne and his
paladins, but there are also
The original script of Il Berretto a Sonagli more modern topics
by Pirandello (1917) Sicilian puppets, now sought after by revolving around Garibaldi
antiques dealers and King Vittorio Emanuele.
Sicilian Theatre Famous puppeteers included
Greco, who was based in Palermo, and the Grasso family from
Sicilian theatre is most Catania, renowned craftsmen in their own right.
closely identified with Luigi
Pirandello, but there is also
a rich tradition of theatre in Classical Theatre again performed in Sicily. In
Sicilian dialect. This theatre 1913, Count Mario Tommaso
form dates from the Middle in Sicily Gargallo and his fellow
Ages, but its greatest Ancient theatre in Sicily Syracusans, including archaeol­
interpreters were can boast a great genius as ogist Paolo Orsi (see pp144–5)
active in the late 19th its adoptive father, since decided to champion the
century. Popular Aeschylus (525–456 BC), who production of Aeschylus’
actors included is regarded as the inventor Agamemnon. The premiere
Giuseppe Rizzotto of Greek tragedy, spent was held on 16 April 1914
(I Mafiusi de la long periods on the island and since then, with the
Vicaria, The and died here. A number exception of wartime, the
Mafiosi of the of his works were first Greek Theatre in Syracuse,
Vicariate, produced in Syracuse (see one of the most beautiful in
1863) and pp142–3). Sicily was the world, has remained a
Giovanni therefore well acquainted venue for ancient theatre –
Grasso, and with, and assimilated, thanks to the efforts of the
in 1903 the the subject matter of Istituto Nazionale del Dramma
publisher, Greek theatre: freedom versus Antico (National Institute of
playwright destiny, the sense of divine Ancient Drama, see p143).
and, later, film power and human suffering, Many famous theatre person­
director Nino the anguish of the tragedies alities have participated in
Martoglio and the excoriating, bitter these productions over
founded Sicilian playwright Nino satire of the comedies. the years, including poets
the Grande Martoglio (1870–1921) Classical theatre declined Salvatore Quasimodo (see p27)
Compagnia with the fall of the western and Pier Paolo Pasolini as
Drammatica Siciliana. Luigi Roman Empire, and it was translators, and the actors
Pirandello also began his not until the 20th century Giorgio Albertazzi and
theatre career with comedies that the great tragedies were Vittorio Gassman.
in dialect, such as Il Berretto
a Sonagli (1917), but he
gained international renown
in the 1920s with his plays
written in Italian. In 1921
he wrote Six Characters in
Search of an Author and, the
following year, Henry IV.
In these plays, probably his
greatest, Pirandello deals
with the themes that made
him world­famous: the rela­
tionship between illusion and
reality, existential hypocrisy
and the need to find a
profound identity. Programme of the Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico, set up in 1925

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