The play begins with the sinking of Ulisse’s (Ulysses’) boat. Ulisse is saved by Almira, who was making a sacrifice to Minerva on the beach with a choir of young girls. The young woman falls in love with Ulisse and has him escorted to the Court of her father, Alcinoo (Alcinous). In the following scene, Delfo, Ulisse’s hunchback servant, comes out of the water on a dolphin’s back. Cirene, Almira’s fickle daughter, also falls in love with Ulisse, who is now staying at Court. The two sisters fight for the stranger’s love, while Ormindo, Cirene’s unhappy lover, learns that she is wooing Ulisse. The first act ends with a dance of gardeners, both male and female. Cirene speaks to Ulisse as she stands before her mirror: the prince confesses that he loves her, after Delfo made a few bawdy innuendos. Ormindo denounces his fickle lover to Ulisse, while Almira also confesses her love; her confession is echoed by Lisa’s farcical innuendos. Ulisse hesitates between the two sisters. Taking revenge on Cirene, Almira exposes her sister’s debauchery to Alcinoo, who swears that he will punish her. During a scene in which Ormindo draws Cirene’s portrait, the old nurse Lisa believes that the young man is pining for her. Disappointed when she learns the truth, she decides to take revenge on her rival by speaking in favour of Almira to Ulisse. Cirene’s father walks in on her as she is writing a letter to confess her love to the Prince of Ithaca. To save herself, she accuses Almira of having written the letter: Alcinoo disowns (his daughter) Almira. Ulisse, who received the letter which Delfo says was written by Almira, is at a loss to understand the situation, and he falls asleep. In his sleep, Minerva speaks to him and reminds him of his duty to his country and to his wife Penelope: when he wakes up, he decides to leave Phaeacia. Cirene, wearing a mask, dismisses Ormindo. Ulisse takes leave of Alcinoo and of his daughters. Alcinoo decides to marry Ormindo and Cirene, who refuses herself to her suitor: the king then offers him to marry his daughter Almira.

Not specified

Acciaiuoli Filippo (aka Gran Burattinajo)

Italy

Venice

Printed

Love

Shipwreck

Jealousy

Hospitality

Sister

Lyrical

Parodistic

Fantasy

Filippo Acciaiuoli, L'Ulisse in Feacia. Venezia: Francesco Nicolini, 1681 (title page).

Italian

King

Alcinoos

Young woman

Nausicaa

Prince

Lover (man)

Ulysses

Captain

Servant

Nurse

Minerva

Music

Play in verse

Dancing entertainment

Interlude

Love duet

Love story

Shipwreck scene

Love rivalry

Seduction scene

Board meeting

Soliloquy

Sleeping character

Letter

Masked characters

Dilemma

Dreamt scene

Deus ex machina

Flying machine

L'Ulisse in Feaccia

Ulysses in Phaeacia

Polichinelle and the Compère talk about a naval battle which has just taken place. A troupe of French and Italian comedians is attacked at sea by corsairs led by a French renegade. The latter brings them to Tunis. The actors put on a show for the Gouverneur (Governor), scare the audience with Arlequin’s mask and are sent to work in the fields. The actresses reject the Gouverneur’s advances (Governor). The renegade plans their escape, so that they can go back to France.

Rod and string marionette

France

Paris

Manuscript

Relationship between Christians and Muslims

Tunisia

Corsair

Slavery

Treason

Renegade

Harassment

Minor news

Agriculture

Censorship

Dramatic

French

Actor

Polichinelle

The Interpreter

Soldier

Pierrot

Messenger

Swiss

Léandre

Pantaloon

Arlecchino

Theatre within the theatre

Song

Avista

Prologue

Comical foreign accent

Dialogue with a character in the audience

Current affairs

Naval combat

La Prise d'une troupe de comédiens par un corsaire de Tunis au mois de septembre 1740

A troupe of actors captured by a corsair from Tunis in September 1740

Blind Boy, Cockatrice, and Columbus the Parrot are headed to Rome. The Magic Donkey refuses to walk because it is afraid of Cockatrice’s face, and until he wears a mask. At a crossroads where three different roads lead to Rome, they each decide to follow a different path and agree to meet at the Royal George, an inn. Columbus, disguised as a rich traveller, gets to the inn first. He uses the Magic Table to gift a delightful meal to all customers. After this meal, Columbus goes to sleep, and Oward, the innkeeper, switches the Magic Table with an ordinary one. In the morning, Columbus receives a telegram from the King of Rome, who is also the King of Europe, inviting him to his palace to meet his daughter, Princess Razzlemond, and to marry her. At court, Columbus tries to make another feast appear but fails. The innkeeper complains about his table being stolen, and Columbus is sent to prison.

String marionette

Craig Edward Gordon

Marina di Pisa

Journey

Theft

Meals

Magic

Royal audience

Europe

Comical

Satirical

English

The Magic Table

Queen

Cockatrice

Basilic

Parrot

Blind

Table

Donkey

Innkeeper

Cook

Postman

Peasant (man)

Chambermaid

Herald

Trumpet (military man/woman)

Courtier

Guard

Prompter (theatre)

Instrumental tune

Aria

Monologue

Compartmented stage

Inn scene

Apparition

Parade

Object coming to life

Personified object

Antiphrase

The Roman Adventure - Part One

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.”

Spain

Madrid

Inheritance

Arranged marriage

Seduction

Trickery

Puppeteer

Narcissism

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

Spanish

Reciter

Dialogue between actor and puppet

Fantochines

Small string puppets

The play opens with a “Prologo in cielo” (prologue in the sky) during which the Teatro Vagante (an itinerant theatre) is brought down from the fly towers to the stage: the Teatro Vagante is at once a cave, a house, a cradle, a cart and a theatre. The actors have seen the theatre of the gods, which they have to try recreating now because “a mystery must be revealed”. The mystery is about a country where people are insatiable and keep wanting to eat fresh meat, even though resources are scarce. There are no cattle, an epidemic has broken out in the countryside and rubbish produced by their residents is piling up in the suburbs. This jungle of metal is thought to be the home of spirits called “rottamat”, which people believe to be responsible for the disappearance of several villagers. Everyone praises the butcher for his excellent meat, but he turns out to be an evil character who commits murders to supply meat for his shop. Just like the devil, he takes on numerous shapes: he is simultaneously the Butcher, the Father, the crazy man Matteo and the Emperor. Every morning, the Mother and the Father (the Butcher himself) wait for the butcher’s shop to open so they can buy the best meat, even when their son is in a hospital after having been attacked by the Father. The Mother flirts with the Butcher – who embodies her erotic ideal – until she becomes his victim. Nobody suspects the Butcher. Or maybe everybody keeps quiet so they can keep enjoying his excellent meat? The killings go on until all the villagers have eaten one another. Ultimately, only the Watchman understands that the Butcher is behind the murders, but even he is killed in the end. According to the actors of the Teatro Vagante, only hope remains: “even hell can be transformed – I hope”, one of the actors declares.

Glove-puppet

Shadow theatre

Brescia

Consumer society

Meat

Pollution

Famine

Cannibalism

Death

Ecology

Evil

Tragic

Grotesque

Giuliano Scabia, Fantastica visione, stage direction by Alessandro Marinuzzi, 1993.

sopra il taglio e la vendita di carne con cenni alla questione degli attori, dell'arte, del teatro e del mercato generale degli oggetti nel disarmonico presente

Butcher

Apprentice

Mother

Father

Student

Police officer

Fool

Smuggler

Puppet

Butterfly

Shadow

Voice

Emperor

Minister

Valet

Angel

Metatheatre

Political allegory

Double characters

Hidden corpse

Dialect

Blow-with-a-stick

Fight

Flying character

Dead talking character

Apparition of the Devil

Apparition of an angel

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Chase

Tragic irony

Stabbing

Murder on stage

Scene of recognition

Splitting of the body

Revelation

Scene in the dark

Dream

Thunderbolt

Fantastica visione

Fantastic vision

The protagonist, Franz, is a young Viennese scientist who, during a hypnosis session conducted by Mesmer, learns that his cousin Angèlica, with whom he is in love, is in great danger. He decides to go to her rescue and, after many adventures, arrives in Budapest to find that she has just died. Convinced that she has been hypnotised by the alchemist Adam Le Fay, he keeps her body in ice, brings her back to his laboratory and tries various experiments to resurrect her. He fails and is accused of her murder by Napoleonic troops who have just entered Vienna. Sentenced to death, he is saved at the last moment by Le Fay who explains to him that if one of them dies, the other also perishes. They duel, Franz throws himself on Le Fay's sword, and both die at the same time. It is clear that they are two sides of the same personality, symbolising the conflict between rationalism and superstition.