The opera is made up of two tableaux. In the first, El Titetero (the puppeteer) invites the audience to watch the farce to come. In the second, he provides a brief summary of what has happened earlier and reveals the scheme that is being plotted by two characters – Doneta and la Tía (her aunt, who is played by a puppet with the baritone voice of le Titerero’s actor). The two women are planning to trick a third character – Lindísimo. All through the opera, the puppets are the singers’ doubles: a dialogue takes place between the two levels of the opera. In the first scene, Doneta complains to the Tía about the wishes expressed in the testament of her very wealthy uncle – doctor Cerote. For her to receive her inheritance, he said she must marry a vain and elegant man: his nephew Lindísimo. Lindísimo does not wish to marry Doneta either, and he devises a plan to avoid marrying her. On their first encounter, he explains that don Cerote’s widow also died and that she had made modifications to his testament: Lindísimo will only receive his share of the inheritance if he does not marry Doneta. La Tía and Doneta are distraught, as they believe they have been disinherited. After Titerero’s speech at the beginning of the second tableau, the Bridge of Sights appears in the hand-puppet booth. It is first crossed by Lindísimo’s puppet then, without his noticing it, by Doneta’s, who hides behind a venetian mask. In a lavish salon, Lindísimo writes notes that he then distributes in town: he asks to meet with the most beautiful woman in Venice. Doneta finds one of these notes. She follows the Tía’s advice, puts on a mask and goes meet Lindísimo. They both engage in a game of seduction after which Lindísimo succumbs to Doneta’s advances and proposes to her. Doneta removes her mask and, despite being taken by surprise, Lindísimo accepts this outcome. In the end, le Titerero asks the following question: “What is best in love? Knowledge, innocence or experience?”. The three characters reply in unison: “The most charming one is the one wknows the most”. The libretto ends with an unspoken sentence, which can only be discovered upon on reading it: “And we are almost certain that once this little comedy is finished, they will marry, and she will cheat on him.”

Not specified

Spain

Madrid

Printed

Inheritance

Arranged marriage

Seduction

Trickery

Venice

Puppeteer

Narcissism

Comical

Tomás Borrás, Fantochines. Madrid: CIAP, 1931 (cover page)

Spanish

Masked characters

Reciter

Aria

Instrumental tune

Dialogue between actor and puppet

Fantochines

Small string puppets

Doña Caracolines, the wife of the merchant Don Berrendo, flirts with Infiernillo more than she should. Infiernillo is a shop assistant who writes sentimental poems to court her. The parrot of the house, Hermógenes, observes them. Don Berrendo comes back from his trip sooner than expected. Don Cristóbal gives him the order to clear his name. But as Don Berrendo tries to come closer to the lovers, a strange power stops him. The puppeteer (Titiritero) appears to remind them that they are not the masters of their own movements, but that they are handled by him. An argument starts, with the puppets demanding their independence and fighting for the author’s will against the manipulation of the puppeteer. The puppeteer disappears. Don Cristóbal explains to the audience that this conflict is the same conflict as the one between external reality and the reality invented by art, and he demands that the performance goes on as if nothing had happened. Don Berrendo has regained his freedom of movement and throws himself at Infiernillo. He beats him to death with his stick, accuses his wife of being unfaithful and is preparing to make her suffer the same fate as Infernillo when two Guards appear and stop him. Don Cristóbal discourses on the misfortune caused by women’s romantic desires, but Doña Caracolines tries to seduce him and to give him a kiss. Don Cristóbal resists: he asks for the curtain to fall in order to hide this indecency. Doña Caracolines claims her right to rebel against the author just like Don Cristóbal has rebelled against the Puppeteer. Then she becomes even more affectionate and Don Cristóbal eventually yields to her kisses.

Glove-puppet

Actor and puppet

Valencia

Love

Unfaithfulness

Freedom

Revolt

Playwright

Farcical

José Ricardo Morales, Burlilla de don Berrendo. Madrid: Taurus, 1969 (front cover)

Don Cristobita

Parrot

Guard

Neighbour

Seduction scene

Apparition of the puppeteer

Blow-with-a-stick

Metatheatre

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Burlilla de Don Berrendo, Doña Caracolines y su amante

Little jest with Don Berrendo, Doña Caracolines y su amante

Mademoiselle (Miss) Félicité, a foreign doctoral student, pays a visit to Morched – a master puppeteer – to buy his puppets. Her request is categorically denied because, in Morched’s eyes, puppetry is ancestral work. However, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the authorities censored traditional Iranian culture and Morched is forbidden from practicing his trade. In spite of this prohibition, he decides to use his puppets one last time to tell the love story between Pahlévâne and Sarvé-Nâz Khânome, which will soon be made impossible because of the Mullahs, who support their friend Mobârak (“a mischievous servant”). Unable to destroy his puppets, Morched – just before he dies – decides to entrust them to Mademoiselle Félicité, who will be able to keep the memory of his work alive.

France

Puppets

Student

Power

Transmission

Religion

Current events

Daily life

Bans

Political context

Death

Epic

Dramatic

Frédéric de Manassein, cover art for Mémoires d'une marionnette.