Puppet Characters Marionette Puppeteers

Puppet Characters
Tartaglia
Tartaglia is a mask from Naples; he stammers and his pronunciation is always hesitant on those
syllables which may give place to some funny misunderstanding. On the other hand, this same
imperfection allows him to prepare his tricks better.
He wears a green costume with horizontal yellow stripes and a grey felt hat. He has thick glasses
and a huge nose. His myopia symbolises his blindness towards what happens around him and
his intention to avoid any situation which might be dangerous.
Marionette Puppeteers
Giovanni Stignani (Argenta 1870 – Salzano 1926)
Giovanni Stignani was the husband of Luigia Salici (Fabriano 1875 – Treviso 1952), the daughter
of the marionette operator Ferdinando. After working with different companies such as the Lupi,
Colla, Santoro, Cagnoli and Gorno-Dall’Acqua, the couple founded a group of their own and
started to perform a special type of show where, using the traditional puppet theatre, they mounted
each marionette on a rod and moved their limbs by means of stiff rods called burattette. They
worked in the Veneto and Friuli areas of Italy and used Harlequin and Facanapa as main characters.
Many of the shows they used to perform were derived from the classical xix century repertoire
and in particular from that of the Reccardini company. Giovanni and Luigia had three children:
Tosca, Jolanda and Ines Carolina; the latter married Vittorio Braidotti and founded with him a
company called I burattini di Braidotti (Braidotti’s Puppets). They were forced to relinquish their
vocation for some time following the sudden death of Giovanni Stignani in 1926 and the family
ran a hotel in Treviso.
Vittorio Podrecca (Cividale del Friuli 1883 - Geneva 1959)
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Vittorio Podrecca was born into a family where patriotism (his father and uncle had fought
together with Garibaldi) and the love of culture and music were strongly sustained. He came to
the animation theatre through the marionette company of Leone Reccardini (the son of Antonio
who is thought to have invented the mask of Facanapa), but also worked with those of Striuli,
Salici, Fausto Braga, Gorno-Dall’Acqua, and – when he was a law student and used to go back
to Cividale for holidays – for the Mantuan puppeteer, Gaetano Viani. In 1905 his brother Guido,
who was then a music critic for the
weekly magazine L’Asino suggested
that he move to Rome, which he
did after graduating. In Rome he
became an attorney and lawyer but
never practised the profession as he
began to co-operate with various
newspapers and in 1911 he founded
the teenage magazine Primavera
and the music periodical Italia
Orchestrale.
In 1914, together with Luigi Fornaciari, who represented the music
society Ricordi, and the Neapolitan
marionette operator Luigi Santoro,
he rented the ex-stable of the
Odescalchi Palace and, with the
contribution of various friends,
transformed it into a hall which
could house four hundred people
and could be used for both puppet
and marionette shows; this was the
beginning of the Teatro dei Piccoli
(The Children’s Theatre). The orchestra pit was built in front of the
stage: Vittorio Podrecca, in fact,
made a decisive contribution to the
marionette musical. The first perVittorio Podrecca
formance took place on 22nd February 1914 and was preceded by a Prologue, which had been
written by Alfredo Testoni for the occasion; the marionettes were all dressed in tailcoats and the
show was made up of different performances; La sinfonia dei fanciulli (The Children’s Symphony)
by Haydn, La fata Morgana (Morgan the Fairy), which was performed by Ugo Campogalliani’s
puppets, La marcia per marionette (The Marionette March) by Gounod, La serva padrona (The
Servant Mistress) by Pergolesi. They were so successful that on 16th March the Teatro dei Piccoli
was invited to perform at the Quirinale and confirmed as a great company. Nonetheless, Luigi
Santoro was embittered about the fact his name was never mentioned in the enthusiastic newspaper
reviews and left the company to work on his own. He was replaced by Ottorino Gorno-Dall’Acqua
who, as Santoro himself had previously done, brought his repertoire with him. In this way the
company began to perform such pieces as La gran via (The Great Road) and, when the theatre
opened after the summer break, Crispino e la comare (Crispino and the Old Wife), Arlecchino sui
letti volanti (Harlequin on the Flying Beds), La pianella perduta nella neve (The Slipper Lost in
the Snow), L’amore delle tre melarance (The Love of Three Oranges), Il barbiere di Siviglia (The
Barber of Seville), L’elisir d’amore (The Love Potion), Il trionfo di Giuditta (Judith’s Triumph).
Since its very beginning, the Teatro dei Piccoli implied cooperation between the art of animation
and different artists such as Trilussa, Bruno Angoletta, Mario Pompei, Enrico Trampolini, etc.
It gave voice to children both by involving them as critics (a box had been placed in the hall so
that the young public could leave their written comments) and by organizing art exhibitions.
Podrecca was the focl point of this organization: he used to attend every show and take note of
eventual mistakes or imperfections which could jeopardise the dramatic tension; these he would
write down in a special notebook to communicate them to the marionette operators, musicians,
singers, electricians, etc.
When Italy entered World War I in 1915, Podrecca was called to the front where he organised
animation shows for the soldiers; the theatre was closed until October, when he opened a new
season with Puss-in-Boots, which was followed by regular performances of marionettes and
puppets. On 15th April 1918 the show I balli plastici per marionette (Marionette Plastic Dances)
by the futurist artist Fortunato Depero was performed.
During the summer of 1919 the Teatro dei Piccoli went on their first Italian tour; in 1922 they
crossed the Ocean and in 1923 performed in London; by then they had so many engagements
that Podrecca (who in the mean time had married the soprano Cisse Vaughan, alias Lia) decided
to split the company in two in order to cope with them all. But the company was never to return
to the Odescalchi Theatre: it was the tours that assured them their living. In 1937 the Piccoli
performed some shows in Italy before leaving for Brazil: they were to come back fourteen years
later, after travelling all around America. Their success was always determined by the rhythm:
under Podrecca’s direction, the music was renewed according to the different tastes of the public,
even though the single sketches did not vary. It is also important to underline that the company
included some of the best marionette operators of the time, such as Pavero, Braga, Gorno, Corsi,
Prandi, and others.
In those years they certainly obtained great success, but also suffered from money troubles and
homesickness. In 1951 they were back in Italy and performed at the Augustus Theatre in Genoa;
in that same year they undertook a planned Italian tour and Vittorio underwent his third operation
for duodenal ulcer (the other two he had had in Argentina). From that moment onward, Podrecca
took care of the administration of the company from his home in Rome and entrusted its
management to Carlo Farinelli, his wife’s son from her first marriage.
In 1956, after the music critic Adolfo Salazar had defined the Piccoli as «ideal symphony
interpreters», Podrecca founded the Nucleo, a company of marionette operators formed by
Giannina Donati, Gioacchino Gorno, Elisa Leonardi,
and Guido Jannotta; the
shows they performed were
Retablo by Manuel de Falla,
Ma mère l’oye by Ravel,
Pierino e il lupo (Peter and
the Wolf) by Prokoffief.
During the last months of his
life, Podrecca had to face
both disagreements and
tensions within the original
company entrusted to Farinelli, who felt threatened by
the new Nucleo company.
Podrecca’s final success was
a contract for a Russian tour
he managed to draw up: it
was the first time an Italian
company had been called to
work in the Soviet Union.
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A play of Vittorio Podrecca