Don Giovanni all'Opera dei pupi (Don Juan at the Opera dei pupi) is a show for pupi and cunto (Sicilian improvised tale) written by Mimmo Cuticchio in 2022. The show is inspired by Mozart’s Don Giovanni and is one of several lyric operas adapted by Cuticchio. It shows the way in which Cutticchio relates the opera dei pupi and the opera. His goal is not to perform operas with pupi, by giving them the voice of the singers, but rather to alternate between sung parts with music and scenes played by pupi as well as moments of cunto.

In this play, the valet Leporello relates to his master Don Giovanni’s story to popular Sicilian characters (characters from farces of the opera dei pupi) and to a cuntista played by an actor outside the little pupi stage, who speak with them as he interprets their voices. Some parts of Leporello’s tale are represented using pupi, inside or outside the stage, and songs from Mozart’s opera are played in some scenes.

In Palermo, outside an inn, several characters are waiting for the cuntista who, like every evening, will recount a new episode of the history of French paladins. When he arrives, Mastru Ramunnu relates the battle between Rinaldo and Gattamugliere, interrupting his story halfway through to collect money. Tistuzza comes on with Leporello, whom he met on the boat from Naples to Palermo. The cuntista and the other characters ask him to recount the adventures he had in Spain, while serving his master Don Giovanni – a count and a seducer.

Don Giovanni killed the Commandeur (Commandant), the father of Donna Anna – the woman he wanted to seduce. Then the valet helped Don Giovanni get rid of Donna Elvira – his master’s previous conquest. While Leporello lists all the women his master conquered to Donna Elvira, the pupo Orlando kills several Saracens. Don Giovanni seduces Zerlina again and, during a masked ball, Leporello is nearly knocked unconscious in his master’s stead. Don Giovanni defies even the dead and invites the statue of the Commander for dinner. The statue arrives and leads Don Giovanni to Hell. Don Giovanni wants Leporello to go with him, because he hopes to find new women in Hell, but the valet rebels against his master in the end and goes to Palermo.