After writing about bunraku(文楽), a traditional Japanese puppet show, Matt (my friend from Texas) and I had a fun conversation about puppet shows around the world.
When I told him that I think puppet shows are one of the oldest forms of entertainment, he replied he thought shadow plays were older. He was right, and we learned many countries have that tradition. It's very interesting that even though China has it, Japan wasn't influenced by China. We don't have traditional shadow play culture.
Then, we started researching traditional puppet shows from different countries. I didn't know that there are two types: puppets and marionettes. For example, Sesame Street is a puppet show, while Pinoccio is a marionette one. While looking up online, Matt found a very interesting marionette performance from Sicily, Italy, called Opera dei Pupi. Since we both love Italian culture, we were so excited to learn about it.
It was created in the 18th century, so compared to bunraku, it's about 200 years younger, but both have been certified Intangible Cultural Heritage. When I watched this video clip, I immediately loved it! There are knights, dragons, princesses, and more, and all looked wonderfully old! I'm a huge fan of antiques and fantasy, so there were full of my favorite things in the video. Watching this video clip felt like watching a movie, and I was truly impressed by the performance. If you're curious about Opera di Pupi, you can watch more here.
While watching , I couldn't help but think I wish I could understand Italian. If could, how much I could enjoy these video clips. Although my bucket list is already full, I'd decided to add watching a real Opera di Pupi to it.
One more thing that once the show came to the US, and you can watch the scene here.
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wow, that's way more intricate than I was expecting! Reminds me a bit of stop motion cinema, like The Nightmare Before Christmas or Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Thanks for sharing. I like marionettes and so I loved watching the videos.
@via-chan The Nightmare Before Christmas is my favorite! I love Corpse Bride too. Actually, I'm a huge fan of Tim Burton. He's genius!
@CloudyDe You're welcome! It's mesmerizing, isn't it?
Puppetry in Northern Italy and Naples is much older than Opera dei Pupi in Sicily.
The most famous character (all over Italy) is by far Pulcinella, or Pulecenella in Neapolitan. He's a staple of Neapolitan culture. Pulcinella is both funny and quick-witted. However, the show is primarily aimed at children. Adults love it too, but the main target audience is children.
Another famous Italian puppet character is Arlecchino. He's particularly popular at carnival.
@Simone Thank you for the comment! I used to go to the Northern part of Italy and how I could miss it! I have a favor to ask as a Italian culture lover, would you write about the characters a little bit more and the puppetry in North and Naples? If you write about them on your journal entries, I'd love to read!!!
The thing is that I know very little about this topic. I would need to do some research beforehand, which would inevitably take up a lot of my time. Also, I'm not really into puppetry. Ultimately, I'd just be summarising Wikipedia articles. I hope you'll understand.
@Simone- Thank you for letting me know. Off course, I totally understood. I also don't want to do that if I'm not so interested. It kills our time. I'm sorry that I asked it.
👍 Don't be sorry! I really appreciate that you're such a fan of Italian culture.
@Simone- Thank you, Simo!