PALERMO'S OPERA DEI PUPI

     

 

While touring Sicily, we went to see a puppet show Palermo’s Opera dei Pupi—actually a marionette show—a traditional form that developed in Sicily at the beginning of the 15^th century. I expected to see something similar to Pinocchio; instead I learned that the stories told are primarily about medieval adventures such as Charlemagne and his knights, the Norman knights of King Roger of Sicily and the Saracens. There are about three hundred tales included in this element of Sicilian folk culture.

     On the day we visited, Charlemagne sent Ruggiero to Rome—as he travels he meets and kills a dragon. Ruggiero then rescues the lovely Aladina, a lady held captive by a giant, who intends to sell her as a slave. The giant is quickly dispatched by Ruggerio and his soul is claimed by the devil. Ruggerio and Aladina make their way to Pinamonte Castle where Pinamonte—a pagan nobleman—poisons our hero and then stabs him to death. God and the angels appear and receive Ruggiero’s soul. Aladina informs Charlemagne who sends Orlando and Rinaldo to avenge Reggiero. A battle is fought with the pagan army—when the bloody conflict ends—Orland and Rinaldo are the victors and Pinamonte meets his well deserved end.

     Made of wood and cloth with metal trappings, they are made by families who specialize in making and presenting marionettes in their theatres and require highly developed skills learned over years of hard and dedicated work. One of Palermo’s best pupi creators are the Cuticchios—the family has been prominent as both puppeteers and      craftsmen generation after generation.  The marionettes are carved, painted and decorated and controlled by strings. They work against a backdrop of canvas painted in long-established Sicilian colors. After the show, the audience is invited to learn about the armored and helmeted marionettes. The show was recognized as a Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO.

Bests,

Elise

Ancient Theatre, Tyrants and Olympic Games

     In Sicily’s largest and oldest Greek theatre, Teatro Greco in Syracuse, and the island’s second largest, the Greco-Roman Theatre in Taormina, the words of playwrights from Euripides, Sophicles and Aristophanes to Epicharmus, the “Father of Greek Comedy,” and Aeschylus, the “Father of Tragedy,” have been heard for more than two milleniums.

     Syracuse, founded in 733 BC, became the region’s capital and was considered the third most important city in the Mediterranean. On the north side, in the archeological park, the Teatro Greco lives on Temenite Hill in the ancient district of Neapolis.  Designed by the architect, Damocopos, the theatre was hewn from rock with hammer and chisel, during the reign of Hieron I, in the 5^th century. The first performances were tragedies performed in groups of three (trilogies) united by a common theme. Each play was followed and ridiculed by a satyr drama, a low comedy with a mythological hero and a chorus of satyrs.  The chorus, a group of actors, recited in concert and commented on the play’s action.  Dance movements were sometimes performed to the accompaniment of musical instruments.

     The city of Syracuse, under Hieron’s rule, was widely honored for its arts and letters; odes celebrated Hieron’s victories; one a tribute to his triumph at the horse races in the Olympic Games held in 476 BC.  Hieron’s court invited and played host to two rivals, Pinder, the Greek lyric poet, and Aeschylus, the first of the great Greek dramatists, who preceded Sophicles and Euripides.

     Aeschylus added a second actor to interact with the first creating dialogue and involved the chorus in the action of the play.  Twelve years after fighting the Persians at Marathon in 472 BC, he wrote “The Persians,” a war story told from the perspective of the defeated. At the invitation of King Hieron, in 471 and again in 469, Aeschylus, traveled to Syracuse where he produced and stage-managed his highly acclaimed play. He is believed to have written ninety plays, seven have survived including “The Persians,” “Prometheus Bound,” and the “Orestie” trilogy.  In 476 BC, he wrote “The Women of Etna,” to celebrate the founding of Etna by Hieron I. Legend tells us death claimed Aeschylus, on his final visit to Sicily, when an eagle mistook his bald head for a rock and dropped a tortoise on his pate. A monument was erected in his honor; the memorial mentions the battle at Marathon but not his plays.

     The dramas were presented as part of religious celebrations held in the spring and fall that lasted from sunrise to sunset. The entire population attended, socialized, gossiped and exchanged the latest news before the performances. 

     Restored and enlarged by Hieron II in the 3^rd century BC, the theater could seat 16,000. Nine sections with names of rulers and Gods etched into stone enabled the audience to find their seats. Today, sneakered feet trod the stage where sandal-clad actors dedicated their performances to Greek Gods and performed for an audience that included tyrants, winners of the olympics and philosophers.

Villa Romana Del Casale

Visit the Villa Romana del Casale, constructed on a terrace, about three and a half miles from the town of Piazza Amerina in Sicily and you’ll discover a sumptuous display of Roman mosaics. The Villa, built around 330 AD, was the heart of a great landed estate built on the remains of an older Villa; today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Though the Villa suffered damage during the time of the Vandals and Visigoths and endured through the Bysantine and Arab eras, the residents fled to Piazza Amerina, in the 12th century, when a landslide of mud covered the retreat and hunting lodge. The awesome magnitude and quality of the Villa indicate its possession by an individual of high rank and eminence, perhaps a Senator or a member of the Imperial family, perhaps the Emperor himself-the mystery of who has not been solved. A few of the spectacular mosaics and columns were found at the beginning of the 19th century and there were major excavations between 1950 and 1960 with 60 rooms excavated in 1952.
A must-see, well-preserved mosaic, created by African artists, is titled “Coronation of the Winner,” and features trim, young women exercising with balls, discus and hand weights. The winner holds a palm leaf and a crown of roses. The fashionable female athletes are dressed in the same style bikinis worn on the beach by sun worshippers today. When it comes to fashion, everything old is new again.
Enter the site and follow a walkway through the rooms including the baths – a group of dressing rooms where a tired guest could relax with a massage then indulge in a plunge bath located by the frigidairium decorated with a mosaic of sea nymphs, tritons and boats rowed by accommodating cherubs. Past the atrium is the peristyle-an open court in a Roman house-surrounded by rooms used for public and private activities. Stop to gaze at and photograph one of the most impressive, The Corridor of the Great Hunt, a mosaic of hunts for animals that pits hunters against tigers, ostriches and elephants.
Orpheus playing for the animals in the Hall of Orpheus-the Hall was once a living room-while the Room of the Dance displays a mosaic of dancing women and the Cubicle of Fruits with its geometric mosaic was used as a bedroom. From a balcony, you can gaze at a mosaic of a circus with its chariot race.
There are four levels: mosaics cover 30 rooms, 12,500 square feet of floor space. Unearthed during the excavations are a gym, dining room and an audience hall plus thermal baths where guests could frolic and a vomitorium for those who frolicked a bit too much.