Jason lands in Colchis with Teseu (Theseus) and an armed escort; he seeks to obtain the Golden Fleece. As he admires the King’s beautiful daughter, Medeia (Medea), and her cousin Creúsa, his servant Sacatrapo is coveting Arpia, Medeia’s servant. Sacatrapo, hidden inside a sideboard, overhears Medeia declaring her love for Jason to her servant. Jason promises to marry Medeia if she helps him find the Golden Fleece. But he is in love with Creúsa: he declares his love to his servant and entrusts him with inquiring into the young woman’s feelings. The King is sceptical about the motifs of Jason’s coming and asks Medeia to find out about his true intentions. Because Jason urges her to, Medeia carries him on a cloud to the enchanted garden. On Pegasus’s back, Jason enters the garden, where he fights against a fire-breathing dragon; laid down, the dragon disappears into flames. Medeia summons Sacatrapo thanks to a dragon who spits the servant out of its month. Casting her spells, she makes the flowers of the garden move and transforms them into nymphs (which Sacatrapo sees as donkeys). Jason confirms again that he loves Medeia, even though he is thinking about Creúsa. Jason is preparing to flee with Teseu and asks Sacatrapo to go fetch Creúsa. The servant tells the King that Jason stole the Golden Fleece from him. Medeia, abandoned, confides in Creúsa. The young women order Jason to explain himself. The King asks Medeia to vouch for Jason; she agrees. Sacatrapo meets Medeia: mistaking her for Creúsa during a night scene, he reveals that Jason is unfaithful. Furious, Medeia buries him slowly to feed the dragons with him, and replaces his head with a donkey’s. He must look for his head in the depths. Arpia fools Sacatrapo by promising that he will discover a donkey with golden droppings; this donkey is said to be kept by an ant. Sacatrapo is determined to kill the ant and steal the donkey using the hat given by Arpia, which should make him invisible. Medeia walks in on Creúsa and Jason during a romantic duo scene; she buries her rival inside a mountain. The King begins a war against the Argonauts: Sacatrapo arrives with a rag on his head and believes that he is invisible. He and Jason are taken prisoners. Riding a chariot drawn by dragons, Medeia divides the armies with a river. The King disowns his daughter, as she raises a tower from which she defies him. While Sacatrapo believes that he has found a treasure, snakes come out of the chest he is dragging: he has once again been fooled by Arpia. Creúsa and Jason flee during a night scene, but Medeia unleashes the winds, leading to a storm scene, so that they are forced to go back to Colchis. The King pardons Jason, offers him to marry Creúsa and promises to kill Medeia, who escapes on a cloud.

Not specified

António José Da Silva (António José da Silva, aka O Judeu)

Portugal

Lisbon

Printed

Magic

Dragon

Golden Fleece

Theft

Treason

Love

Unrequited love

Mock-heroic

Lyrical

Parodistic

Fantasy

Farcical

Summary of the play Os Encantos de Medeia (edition of 1759)

Portuguese

Jason

Theseus

Prince

Nephew

King

General

Medea

Princess

Creusa

Niece

Maid

Servant

Guard

Soldier

Choir

Enchantment

Set that comes to life

Avista

Metamorphosis

Flying machine

Love rivalry

Clouds

Fighting a monster

Character represented in animal form

Night scene

Stormy scene

Shipwreck scene

Animated natural element

Battlefield scene

Battle against a sorcerer

Entering with vehicle

Splitting of the body

Headbutt

Spying scene

Thunderbolt

Apotheosis

Final wedding

Dancing entertainment

Music

Ballet

Os Encantos de Medeia

Medea's Spells

Prince Abdal and his servant Kasper are lost in an enchanted forest. Kasper eats all the supplies while his master cannot satisfy his hunger. For three years, the prince has been searching for a woman who appeared to him in a dream. Then the king of the dwarfs and his subjects appear to the two men. The woman they are looking for is Princess Olanda, who is held captive in the forest by the magician Brandarbaran. They decide that Kasper will kill the magician, while Prince Abdal saves the princess. They are both given magical objects, and the dwarfs offer to help them. Kasper goes back to court using an invisibility cloak, and delivers fake news – that his master has died – then disappears. Olanda has been held captive for three years in Brandarbaran’s dungeon. Although she was treated like a princess in all respects by her maid Margaretha, she was raised by poor people. Brandarbaran tries to seduce her, but she resists him. Since this will cause him to look powerless, he decides to kill her. Prince Abdal and Kasper are at the foot of the dungeon, and about to fulfill their mission. Pimperle and Pitschkerle, two dwarfs, come to their aid and put the dragon to sleep. But Kasper does not succeed in killing the magician: in fact, the dwarfs did not wish him to, because Brandarbaran is actually Olanda’s father! Brandarbaran gives Kasper and Olanda their blessing. The maid Margaretha recognises Kasper: he is her husband, who ran away years before. They reconcile after quarrelling several times.

String marionette

Germany

Saxony

Manuscript

Dwarf

Jail

Hunger

Enchanted forest

Magic object

Father-daughter incest

Dramatic

Comical

First page of Die Zwerge, c.1750.

German

Queen

Commanding officer

Master of ceremonies

Magician

King of the dwarfs

Dwarf (female)

Apparition

Stream of consciousness

Scene of recognition

Fake news

Die Zwerge

The dwarfs

The action is set in China. It begins inside a cave, where the genie Zelou has been turned into the Mostro Turchino (Blue Monster) after having offended the Wise Men of the Sacred Mountain. Zelou will only be freed if he passes this curse to someone else. He unleashes a storm on the lovers Taer and Dardanè and thus separates them. The young girl, Dardanè, is turned into a young man named Acmed; Zelou reveals that she will have to defeat three plagues which are ruining the kingdom of Nanquin if she wants to reunite with her lover Taer: the Mostro Turchino, the Cavaliere Fatato (Enchanted Knight) and an Idra (seven-headed Hydra). These three plagues appeared in the kingdom when the king Fanfur remarried with the beautiful slave Gulindì. Dardanè, looking like the prince Acmed, arouses Gulindì’s love; when she is rejected, the latter forces Dardanè to defeat the plagues. Then, Zelou meets Taer and tells him about Dardanè / Acmed’s fate and about the threats that loom over the kingdom. He invites Taer to enter the cave to read a book which relates his misadventures; then, Zelou summons the Wise Men and passes the Mostro’s appearance onto Taer. Thanks to the Mostro Turchino / Taer’s valuable advice, Dardanè / Acmed defeats the plagues. The Mostro Turchino lets himself be chained, without struggling; the Cavaliere is overcome and, when Dardanè kills the Idra, she also kills Gulindì. Just before she dies, the latter accuses Dardanè / Acmed of having poisoned her. Dardanè / Acmed is sent to jail with the Mostro Turchino. When she is about to be taken to be put to death, the Mostro Turchino reveals the young woman’s true identity, thus breaking the spell which was keeping her in a male body. The Mostro must die, since he has not managed to make Dardanè fall in love with his grotesque appearance; however, just before it is too late, she declares her love to him and the spell which bound Taer to the Mostro’s body is also broken.

Italy

Milan

Monster

Change of identity

Change of gender

Test

Scourge

Il Mostro Turchino, Teatro delle marionette di Giuseppe Fiando, 1815 (cover page)

Italian

ossia un esempio di vera fedeltà

Genie

Slave

Colombine

Gerolamo

Balanzone

Tartaglia

Brighella

Captain

Knight

Executioner

The Blue Monster (Il Mostro Turchino)

Apparition of a genie

One character replaced by another

Fight

Aside

Death on stage

Il Mostro Turchino

The Blue Monster

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.

All audiences

Jealousy

Spell

Virtues

Initiation tests

Fantastic

Incantation

Confinement

Fight with an animal

Versified passages

Dance

Il Noce di Benevento

The Walnut Tree of Benevento

Three women – young Janet, her mother, and her grandmother – take refuge in a stable while a storm and the temptations of St. Anthony are raging outside. Janet asks in vain to be explained what these temptations are. Saint Anthony (called Anthony Perkins) is in a cell and only has his Halo, his Clock, and his Calendar as friends. He prays to Zeus to send him temptations, for they never reach him. Time flies, and he ends up dying of boredom. Shortly after Anthony’s death, the now old Queen of Sheba enters his cell, accompanied by Gustave Flaubert. The Queen of Sheba dies, disappointed that she could not tempt Anthony. Flaubert asks two eunuchs to bury them. Cleo di Patra appears in the sky, surrounded by angels. The play ends with a great ballet and a funeral cortege.