Gianguir rebelled against his father and was disowned: he lost his right to the throne, which is now promised to his son Cosrovio. Gianguir married Zama, a woman of humble birth who convinced him to marry her daughter Miraca to Cosrovio. Her brother Asaf is the sultan’s favourite. Cosrovio turns down this proposal because he is in love with Alinda (the princess Semira, Gianguir’s sworn enemy); she convinces him to reclaim the throne bequeathed by his grandfather and take up arms against his father. His friend Mahobet, the captain of the guards, tries to remind him of his duty. Cosrovio and Asaf fight before Gianguir’s eyes. To avenge himself after being humiliated, Asaf tells Semira that Cosrovio will marry Miraca; she promises him her love out of jealousy. When ordered to either marry Miraca or to surrender and die, Cosrovio takes up arms: Gianguir finds out about this betrayal and demands that Mahobet’s head be brought to him for having helped his son. Mahobet saves himself by taking Gianguir hostage. He is accused of high treason and Gianguir deprives him of his rank, even though Agra is in danger. The army is handed to Asaf. Semira, using the name Alinda, feigns cooperation: she promises that she will marry Asaf and denounces the enemies of the kingdom to set herself free. Gianguir tells Cosrovio that Alinda is in love with another man. Cosrovio thinks that she has betrayed him, but as soon as Alinda is free, she reveals that Semira will not keep the promises made by Alinda, and that she is Cosrovio’s wife. The two lovers reunite. Semira sends her future husband to the battlefield and Asaf is defeated: when all seems lost for the king, Gianguir arrives—Mahobet has freed him. Zama tries to convince him to forgive his son, and Mahobet says that a rebellion will start if he kills him. At the very last moment, Gianguir chooses to be magnanimous: Semira walks in on the father and son reconciling. She asks to be killed at the same time as her husband, but Gianguir spares them on Zama’s advice. He declares her sultan’s wife and marries Semira and Cosrovio. The choir celebrates this beautiful day.

String marionette

Not specified

Zeno Apostolo

Italy

Venice

Printed

Succession

Rebellion

Forced marriage

Favourite

Tyrant

Heroic

Melodramatic

Epic

Gianguir, 1748 (title page)

Italian

Emperor

Prince

Princess

Wife

Brother

Captain

Confident

Music

Chorus

Play in verse

Love story

Public announcement

Crowd

Duel scene

Love rivalry

Parade

Off-stage combat

Disguised character (false identity)

Fight

Arrest scene

Revelation

Final wedding

Gianguir

The play is a series of short scenes. Putschenelle fights with a blind man who has hit him with his stick, throws his child out of the window, and knocks his wife unconscious. Then we see him stroking his dog Phylax. The next scene depicts two Moors dancing, which Putschenelle eventually joins in on: he knocks out both dancers. He gets on a horse, which throws him off, and the doctor arrives, and they fight with sticks. An officer recruits him to become a soldier, but Putschenelle proves too undisciplined and, when he has had enough, chases the officer with his stick. He is finally arrested and sentenced to death, but he hangs the executioner himself with a curse. The devil arrives, they fight, and Putschenelle kills him.

Glove-puppet

Germany

Hamburg

Printed summary

Stick

Animal

Horse

Infant

Father

Household

Couple

Murder

Serial murder

Soldier

Army

Military

Discipline

Insubordination

Justice

Cruelty

Gallows

Farcical

German

Leben und Taten Putschenelle, der sogar den Teufel aus der Welt geschafft

Blind

Mrs Putschenelle

Child

Black Man

Doctor

Officer

Sbire

Executioner

Devil

Address to the public

Intervention of the audience

Song

Blind character

Domestic scene

Blow-with-a-stick

Dialect

Hanging scene

Final intervention of the devil

Dance

Putschenelle ist tot, vivat Putschenelle!

Putschenelle is dead, long live Putschenelle!

Casper goes to the magic factory to learn magic tricks. The magician shows him some, but Casper is so crude that the magician soon doesn't know what to say, whereupon Casper calls him a donkey. They fight, one with his stick and the other with his broom. Casper defeats the magician. A policeman comes to arrest him, but Casper knocks him out and hangs him on the gallows. His wife blames him, they argue and fight.

Young audiences

Sonneberg

Magic

Silliness

Triviality

Vulgarity

Violence

Police

Assassination

Broom

Ironic

Kasperl

Magician

Policeman

Word for another

Comic equivocation

Stichomythia

Versified passages

Brawl

Murder on stage

Casper will Zauberer werden

Casper wants to become a magician

The puppeteer apologises to the audience because he is not ready to perform Macbeth: instead, he will perform an unpublished comedy by Goldoni, The Jealous Emigrant (which is, in fact, a fake written on purpose by Brunello). But one of his glove puppets, Arlequin, disagrees and organises a rebellion, convincing the other puppets to perform Macbeth. The tragedy begins, but Arlequin, who has dared to step out of his role, must die like Macbeth. The same applies to his antagonist King Duncan, who - as we discover at the end - is no other than the puppeteer himself.