Witches and spirits dance around the walnut tree. Canidio the evil spirit provokes a hurricane in order to gain control of the beautiful Dorilla, Roberto’s wife, who gets lost in the woods and falls asleep. Canidio transfers her spirit into the body of a deer. Martinazzo, the good spirit, challenges Canidio. The servant of Dorilla and Roberto, Arlequin, meets with his master: they see a dreadful deer and want to kill it but Martinazzo warns them that Dorilla is inside. He gives them the opportunity to join her. Arlequin and Roberto discover Dorilla resisting to Canidio’s flirting. Roberto wants to save his wife but he is bewitched just like Arlequin and they both end up paralyzed and mute under the walnut tree. Martinazzo frees them and explains how to kill the deer with a magic arrow. Roberto and Martinazzo free Dorilla, while Arlequin talks to an ugly old lady who promises him that he will be rich if he marries her. He gives in to greed and accepts, but the old lady is actually a demon. Roberto and Martinazzo defeat Canidio but Arlequin is locked in a cage with him. Dorilla reunites with her husband. Martinazzo frees Arlequin and sentences Canidio to live in a dark cave.

String marionette

All audiences

Italy

Manuscript

Jealousy

Spell

Magic

Virtues

Love

Initiation tests

Fantasy

Fantastic

Comical

Italian

Apparition of a genie

Stormy scene

Incantation

Spying scene

Confinement

Fight with an animal

Metamorphosis

Versified passages

Dance

Il Noce di Benevento

The Walnut Tree of Benevento

The story takes place in Grenada at the beginning of the 16th century. Juan Ramero, a former soldier in the army of Isabella the Catholic, is now a bellringer in a church in town. On the twentieth anniversary of the Reconquista, the inhabitants of Grenada gift a bell made with gold and silver to the old mosque, which was turned into a Catholic church, so that Juan Ramero can ring it to celebrate this anniversary. But Saïd le Maure (the Moor Saïd), who fought Juan Ramero, comes back to avenge himself. He accuses him of having stripped him of his house and of having killed his son. Since then, he became a magician by making a deal with the devil Satanas, and he took advantage of the gullibility of Lola, the servant, to get into the house. In fact, Saïd’s son is not dead – on the day of the last battle between Christians and Muslims, Juan Ramero came across three men fighting over the baby’s crib. Juan Ramero saved him, baptised him under the name Andrès and raised him as his son. However, Saïd knows nothing about this and wants to kill Juan Ramero, his daughter Carmen and Andrès, whom he believes to be Ramero’s son. He makes a deal with Satanas, who grants him the power to transform humans. Saïd chases Juan Ramero and his children in the desert, where he turns Carmen into a myrtle and Andrès into a roebuck. Juan Ramero reveals the whole truth to Saïd. To redeem himself, the latter calls upon Azaël -Satanas’ enemy – who gives the children their original form back. They all make peace and go back to Grenada to start a new life.

Not specified

France

Paris

Orientalism

Bell

Religion

Revenge

Friendship

Foundling

Exile

Dramatic

Adolphe Joly, La Cloche du diable (title page)

French

Devil

Magic spell

Comic distortion of language

Aside

Apparition of the Devil

Aria

La Cloche du diable

The devil's Bell

In the spring, around 1840 in Paris, Jean-François Billembois, a young artisan-carpenter, struggles to find the words to describe to his friend Pancrace the show he saw the night before at the Théâtre des Funambules. Nanette, a sweet young girl, arrives and reminds Billembois that he promised to take her on a walk to Montmorency the following Sunday. But Billembois finds an excuse to break his promise. When Pancrace expresses surprise at this change of heart, Billembois confides that he is madly in love with the beautiful Zéphyrine, an actress at the Théâtre des Funambules, but that he loses his nerve every time he sees her. His friend Pancrace invites him for a drink to cheer him up. Across from Billembois's shop, in a former mansion, a mysterious foreigner, Mr Tenorio, has taken up residence. Pursued to his home by Anaïs, an old bigot, Tenorio instructs Jasmin, his servant, not to let anyone in. Old Anaïs accuses Tenorio of using the church to spy on the prettiest women and seduce them with his devilish ways. After a torrent of curses, Anaïs faints in front of the seducer's door. She is rescued by some women and taken to the herbalist, Mrs Fouillechat. In the evening, on the deserted street, Ratapoil appears, a strange figure in uniform who knocks on Tenorio's door and introduces himself as the Commander. But Jasmin does not let him in. In the back room of the herbalist-witch's shop, Billembois, in despair, complains to Madame Fouillechat that none of the potions or talismans she has given him have made Zéphyrine fall in love with him. She attempts an incantation, but is regularly interrupted by the arrival of other customers. She then asks Billembois to go home and perform a ritual by plucking three hairs, which she will incorporate into a love cake intended for Zéphirine. Meanwhile, Jasmin comes to fetch rejuvenating enemas for his master and a remedy for his fear. When questioned by Mrs Fouillechat, he reveals that Mr Tenorio is in fact the famous Don Juan (albeit aged), who fled Spain to escape the vengeance of the Commander he killed. But the Commander has found Don Juan and has been knocking on their door every night for a week. Jasmin, proud to serve such an illustrious master, makes Mrs Fouillechat swear to keep the secret. When Billembois returns, Mrs Fouillechat changes her plan and sends him to her neighbour Mr Tenorio, so that he can teach him the secret of the secret of making women love him. Meanwhile, Jasmin complains to Mrs Fouillechat that rejuvenating enemas she preapared for his master are ineffective. Offended, Mrs Fouillechat publicly reveals that Tenorio is none other than the famous Don Juan, now ravaged by old age. Hearing this, the other women, fascinated by the presence of the mythical seducer, bombard Jasmin with questions about him and end up quarrelling. Meanwhile, Zéphyrine manages to break into Tenorio's house. In the countryside, in Montmorency, near a guinguette, everyone is gathered together, walking, playing music, singing, dancing or flirting. Zéphyrine allows herself to be seduced by Don Juan and regains her confidence. Billembois falls in love with Nanette, whose purity of soul he perceives, and immediately forgets Don Juan's secret. The Commander has followed Don Juan's trail to Montmorency. Don Juan sees Nanette and wants to seduce her, but she rejects him, calling him ‘old’. It is then that Don Juan accepts the Commander's punishment, as his life as a seducer is over. Hailed as the glory of having been Don Juan's last mistress, Zéphyrine is courted by the wealthy Arthur. While Billembois is overjoyed to have found true love, Nanette seems lost in her thoughts, and her last line refers to the colour of Don Juan's eyes.

Il Noce di Benevento

La Cloche du diable

Le Miroir aux alouettes (variation sur le mythe à Don Juan)

Conte fantastique en cinq scènes pour marionnettes