Battaglia tra Bradamante e Ruggero e Marfisa (Battle between Bradamante, Ruggero and Marfisa) – the Riconoscimento (Recognition) between Ruggero and Margisa as brother and sister – is inspired by a long series of plays about the adventures of Charlemagne’s paladins, which used to be played by the opera dei pupi. In the 1970s, as their traditional audience was disappearing, puppeteers from Palermo began putting on shows inspired by a single episode of this cycle. At the time, Anna Cuticchio wrote several shows about the female paladin Bradamante, to which her theatre was dedicated. In her shows, Bradamante accomplishes feats usually attributed to male paladins – she fights against animals, saves a princess’ or a soldier’s life and duels for love. This version from March 1985 begins with a duel which does not appear in another version of this show (Battaglia tra Bradamante e Marfisa) – the duel opposing Mandricado and Ruggero for Hercules’ insignias (in fact, the insignias the two knights are battling for belonged to Hector, one of Ruggero’s ancestors).

In King Agramante’s camp, where the Moorish knights have gathered to fight Carlo Magno, Rodomonte and Mandricardo decide to challenge each other in a duel for Doralice’s love. But Ruggero does not want Mandricardo to fight under Hercules’ insignias, which he claims for himself. At the end of the duel, Mandricardo dies and Ruggero is seriously injured.
In a wood, while she waits for her lover Ruggero, Bradamante kills a rhinoceros. Then she kills a snake and, by doing so, saves a soldier’s life. The soldier tells her that Ruggero is going to marry Marfisa. Bradamante then goes to Agramante’s camp. She challenges Marfisa in a duel. After separating the two duellists, Ruggero chases Bradamante to explain that he has missed their rendezvous because of his injury. Marfisa hides and eavesdrop on their conversation, and so discovers that Ruggero is in love with Bradamante. Ruggero and Marfisa are about to battle when the ghost of the magician Atlante appears and reveals that they are the twin children of the Christian king Ruggero di Risa. Ruggero and Marfisa reconcile, decide to be christened and go with Bradamante to Carlo Magno’s court.