Pupi Fratelli Napoli

        Since I obviously can't show one of Salvatore Rizzo's marionette performances, I have found one on You Tube from Sicily. I have read that there were three distinct marionette traditions in Italy: from Palermo and Catania in Sicily, and from Naples. The marionettes from these regions are distinguished by size and by style of manipulation, whether from the top or from the sides. These are the Napoli brothers from Catania, descendants of Don Gaetano Napoli, who opened his theater in in Italy in 1921. Salvatore Rizzo had been operating his American theater on Dante Place for almost twenty five years by then!

The marionettes that Salvatore Rizzo owned and used look similar in size to the ones we see here.
   
        Rizzo's shows were probably not as elaborate as this one. There are at four strong men performing here; if you watch them instead of the marionettes, you will see them wiping sweat from their brows, and note that they are all pretty muscular! Rizzo would have had his sons helping, and would have spoken all of the lines himself. I have not been able to find out whether he had music or not, but I did find an article from the newspaper that described the excitement at Rizzo's performances that was created during battle scenes. Rizzo would stamp his feet on the hollow boards behind the stage during the clash, the same as these Napoli brothers do. The audience would shout for their hero, and there would be the sound of clanging shields and swords. All of Rizzo's shows were in Italian as tradition dictated. Even non-Italian speakers (of whom there were none in Rizzo's theater) can get caught up in the excitement of a Sicilian marionette performance, as you can see.
       For those with shorter attention spans or less patience, the excitement of battle starts at 4:26 :)

The newspaper article from Buffalo also notes that the marionettes usually needed repairs after each performance!

       Has anyone been to Italy and seen one of these performances in person? I'd love to hear from you!