Cockatrice is made aware that he must not look at himself in a mirror, otherwise he will die. As he wants to admire his own beauty, he runs away and visits a painter to get a portrait of himself painted. To flatter him, the painter portrays him like an English gentleman. Blind-Boy finds Cockatrice and takes him away with him without paying the painter. Blind-boy tells Cockatrice that Columbus the Parrot and himself met a very old man named Old Man Adam, who owns a donkey, a table, and a stick which have magical powers. All three of them go to Old Man Adam’s house, and Old Man Adam gives them the objects as presents as they will lose their magical powers should they not change owners.

String marionette

Not specified

Craig Edward Gordon

Italy

Marina di Pisa

Printed

Portrait

Magic

Enchanted object

Wealth

Forest

Meals

Donkey

Mirror

Narcissism

Runaway

Magical words

Thief

Father

Fantasy

Comical

English

Cockatrice

Basilic

Blind Boy

Blind

Parrot

Columbus

Pretty Polly

Painter

Adam

The Magic Donkey

Table

Stick

Monologue

Hidden character

Blind character

The Painter and the Three Magics

Le Peintre et les trois objets magiques

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.”