Fun, suspense, love and battles, coup de théâtre and everlasting stories. This and much more can be seen at the Opra dei Pupi. The typical Sicilian puppets in medieval armours have various declinations linked to cities and family traditions.
In Ortigia, a theatrical city within a city, the adventures of the paladins are told and performed by the Sicilian pupi of the Compagnia di Pupari Vaccaro-Mauceri.
The plot is developed episode by episode with a thrilling rhythm and a narrative strenght that is a real joy for kids and adults and that, obviously, arouses curiosity on how the episode will continue.
The story of Angelica in Paris, in which the malicious aims of the belle that bewitches and charms the paladins to put in practice her father's vendetta is unveiled, is a great intellectual pleasure.
Each family of 'pupari' has something that differentiate their puppets and stories from the ones of the other families. The uniqueness of the Syracuse Sicilian pupi is the unbroken nexus with the masques and suggestions, even stylistic, of the Greek theatre.
A typical mask of the Greek tragedy is used to personify the souls of the Hades, that are all-accomplished charachters, not ghosts as in the Shakespearean Hamlet, but actual and real presences in the charachter's lives. Nothing to do with spectres tales, it's much more an integral part of a continuous and constant connection between past, present and future, a polyphonic conversation that oversteps the time and body limits to become an essential part of the story and of everyday life.
Ortigia's Sicilian pupi are, moreover, a great example of cultural intersections, and almost all the defining elements of the Mediterranean popular identity are represented and staged with a strong rhythm and a vivaciousness that fully expresses the spirit of Ortigia, probably the oldes city built on the coasts of the Mare Nostrum.
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