Leandro (Leander) meets Hero while she is working in Venere’s (Venus’s) temple: it is love at first glance for the two of them, and their love story develops according to chivalric standards. The romantic dialogue finds an echo in the more prosaic duo between Lesbia and Millo, the two servants. When Hero, faithfully devoted to the goddess, refuses herself to Leandro, he grabs her coat and rips it. She begs him to spare her honour and declares her love before she decides, driven by passion, to die in the breast of her new divinity. Arbace and his suite of singing hunters cross the stage. Lucilla, the fickle lover of Tigrane, placed by the latter in the care of Leandro, tries to seduce Leandro and fails. The first act ends on a burlesque note, with Millo followed by a choir of seamen singing and smoking. Arbace, who fell in love with Lucilla, is helped by Giocasta (Jocasta): she organises a (rigged) love game, for Tigrane and his lover. The game consists in proving one’s faithfulness by blindly finding a sign of love. While her lover is blindfolded, Lucilla can enjoy Arbace’s kisses. Then she pretends to have won the game and dismisses her lover; Giocasta is amused by women’s cunning. In the meantime, Hero, dressed as a gypsy, puts Leandro’s faithfulness to the test. Seeing Millo, she predicts that he will have a blissful future if he presents her at Court: introduced as a great magician to Lucilla, she is entrusted with the writing of a lover letter intended for Leandro. Arbace understands that his new lover has betrayed him, and Tigrane is sorrowful. Lucilla dances with her suite at the very end of the act. While Leandro is desperately looking for Hero, the latter, disguised as a gypsy, gives him Lucilla’s letter. She is convinced of his good faith because he rips the letter before even reading it. Leandro decides to join his beloved at night by crossing the water; Hero plans on waiting for him on the neighbouring beach. Unfortunately, Lucilla overhears the conversation between the lovers and asks Arbace to avenge her and to kill Hero. At night, Leandro is about to drown. On her cloud, Venere summons the choir of Nereidi (Nereids) and asks them to save him and take him up in the sky. Arbace wants to hit Hero, who is anxiously waiting for her lover; he kills Lucilla while Hero transforms into Leandro’s plant (oleander). While Lucilla is dying, paying the price of her wrongdoing, the lovers reunite in Elysium, by Venere’s side.

"On foot and by rod" puppet

Marionette with counterweight

Not specified

Badovero Camillo

Italy

Venice

Printed

Love

Jealousy

Gipsy woman

Deception

Drowning

Venus (Goddess)

Ovide

Lyrical

Heroic

Tragic

Fantasy

Farcical

Italian

Gli amori fatali

Lord

Favourite

Leandre

Priestess

Virgin

Hero (priestess)

Chaperon

Lover (woman)

Secretary

Lover (man)

Nurse

Servant

Venus

Guard

Hunter

Bridesmaid

Nereids

Love story

Thwarted love

Music

Seduction scene

Undressed character on stage

Erotic scene

Love rivalry

Dancing entertainment

Interlude

Smoke

Wandering

Disguised character (false identity)

Investigation

Hunting scene

Scene in the dark

Night scene

Metamorphosis

Apparition of a god

Deus ex machina

Clouds

Ascent to heaven

Flying machine

Il Leandro

Leander

Janbroche – a cloth merchant – forbids his daughter from selling anything while she keeps the shop in his absence. To all questions, she will have to answer “really, Mister, nay”. Polichinelle, sent by his master the Marquis to place an order for a suit, takes advantage of this repeated response to take her to bed with him. When he comes back, the merchant Jambroche finds her with Polichinelle and forces her to leave the house without her breeches (“culotte” – an article of clothing covering the body from the waist down to the knees). The Marquis demands that Polichinelle marry the young woman.

Rod and string marionette

France

Paris

Seduction

Sexual intercourse

Obedience

Ridiculous

Trade

Comical

French

Cloth merchant

The Interpreter

Pierrot

Polichinelle

Dancer

Marquis

Misunderstanding

Trap

Ballet

Dialogue with a character in the audience

Le Marchand ridicule

The foolish Merchant

Leander is in love with Leontine, the daughter of the rich Gebhard. Leander’s footman, Hanswurst, is in love with the maid, Katharinchen. Old Gebhard spends his time reading two books from the "Das Reich der Todten" (The Empire of the Dead) series, which collects imaginary conversations between dead people. He is against his daughter’s wedding. Leander only has a chance at marrying her if he learns the books by heart. The lovers decide to give a sleeping pill to Gebhard, to take him to the garden, and to make him believe that he died. They dress up to stage the chaos happening in The Empire of the Dead. Leontine, Leander, Katharinchen, and Hanswurst go to meet the old man one by one. They explain to him that they too died and that it was his fault. Gebhard thus ends up giving his consent for the wedding. Ernst, a cereal merchant from whom Leander sought advice, enters the stage to expose the trickery to Gebhard, who learns that none of them is dead.

String marionette

Hofmann Anton

Germany

Augsburg

Manuscript

Hell

Death

Reading

Illusion

Wedding prevented

Father

Dialogue of the dead

Poster from Joseph Peter Seelig, Augsburg, circa 1820 (Stephan Oettermann: Ankündigungs-Zettel von Kunstreitern, Akrobaten, Tänzern, Taschenspielern, Feuerwerkern, Luftballons und dergleichen, Wiesbaden 1993, no. 1683)

German

Die bestrafte Einbildung, oder: Das Reich der Todten mitten im Reich, der Lebendigen

Rentier

Fiancée

Chambermaid

Merchant (man)

Fiancé

Hanswurst

Disguise

Illusory world

Final wedding

Monologue

Cross-dressing

Das Reich der Todten

The Empire of the Dead

Catarina, a matchmaker, tells Zeferino, a barber, that the young Filomena would like to marry him. Zeferino is delighted and rewards the matchmaker with one hundred escudos to buy snuff. Filomena, singing, comes in to deliver bread. Zeferino confesses his love for her and promises to marry her and to never beat her. They both sing and dance. Zeferino wants to take advantage of Filomena’s charms and announces that she will have to work after her wedding, contrary to her hopes. He takes a stick and beats her. She runs away, and Zeferino tells the audience that other young women could suffer the same fate.

Single rod marionettes

Adults

Portugal

Borba

Évora

Wedding

Money

Women's condition

Matchmaker

Erotic

Portuguese

Aria

Blow-with-a-stick

Filomena e Zeferino

The rich Niflanguille goes to buy a bag of coal. He comes across the hungry Pierrot, who asks for his help in vain. The coalman cheats Niflanguille out of the weight of the bag. Pierrot hides in the bag and beats up the coalman, Niflanguille and the servant. Back home, Niflanguille looks for a sword to pierce the recalcitrant bag, but Pierrot gets it out in time and forces the servant to take his place. While Niflanguille pierces the bag and his servant with it, Pierrot runs away with a bag of money. A Gendarme wants to hang Niflanguille for murder, Pierrot for theft and the coalman for swindling. Pierrot kills the Gendarme and puts him in the sack, which he throws away, while Niflanguille flees through the window. Pierrot kills the coalman to avoid sharing the money, then orders wine which he pays for by beating the innkeeper with a stick. The Commissaire arrives with Niflanguille; he hangs Pierrot, but confiscates the money to punish the bad rich man.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Charcoal

Hunger

Poverty

Swindling

Contempt

Punishment

Bad rich

Didactic

Coal merchant

Domestic servant

Constable

Police Superintendant

Hidden character

Running gag

Hanging scene

Le Sac de charbon

The Bag of Coal

Arlecchino, a shopkeeper from Bergamo, travels to Venice to marry Angiola, Pantalone’s daughter. During the journey, as he is sleeping in a shed, he is robbed and caught in a fire. He loses both the money and the paperwork needed for the wedding. Pantalone discusses with Tartaglia who asks him if his son Florindo could marry Angiola, but Pantalone says that she is already betrothed to Arlecchino. Tartaglia repeats this to Florindo, who is still determined to marry Angiola. He asks Faccanapa for help. Faccanapa intercepts Arlecchino and, using various ploys, diverts him from Pantalone’s and Angiola’s house. He is first awarded the token of recognition that was meant for Pantalone, then, he shows Arlecchino the asylum and says that he has to go there; he then makes him believe that his betrothed is an ill beggar; he then seizes Arlecchino’s ring so as to sell it and tells him that, in order to get the money, he has to go to the prison. Finally, he has him arrested for possessing a weapon, which was hidden in his bag by Faccanapa, and he makes him bribe the guards to be freed. To pull it all off, Faccapana introduces himself under a new name every time, and tells Arlecchino that, even though he looks like the wrongdoer who has just tricked him, he is just someone who wants to help him. Arlecchino believes him every time. As all of this happens, Florindo convinces Pantalone that he is Arlecchino, and marries Angiola. In the end, Faccanapa puts Arlecchino in a bag to get rid of him once and for all. However, Pantalone realises that something is wrong, and a free Arlecchino tells his version of the story. Florindo and Faccanapa explain that they did all of this to defend the love between Angiola and Florindo. Pantalone decides to solve the problem, and make Arlecchino marry his daughter’s servant, Colombina, with whom Faccanapa is in love; Florindo will find him another wife.

Le disgrazie de Arlechin, ed. Chiopris.

Venetian

Pantaloon

Young woman

Young man

Lover

Colombina

Maid

Arlecchino

Facanapa

Brighella

Innkeeper

Thief

Old woman

Mendiante

Aside

Word warping

Comic stuttering

Confinement

Deceived naivety

Le disgrazie de Arlechin

The misfortunes of Harlequin

Martin is secretly in love with the beautiful Eleonora Lambriani, a mysterious dancer with a legendary reputation. However, he has already sworn his love to Sophie. When Martin prepares to leave in order to offer his life and his money to Eleonora, his cousin Cassian arrives at his house. Initially inconsolable because of the departure of her lover, Sophie changes from the virtuous girl to the woman expressing her desire for Cassian, then she elopes with him by jumping out of the window. Martin dies by the hand of Cassian, poor as a church mouse, as he has lost all his money in a dice game against Cassian.

Il Leandro

Le Marchand ridicule

Das Reich der Todten

Filomena e Zeferino

Le Sac de charbon

Le disgrazie de Arlechin

Der tapfere Cassian

Puppenspiel in einem Akt

L'ogre espantatotsitotes

Dal Catai a Parigi

Angelica alla corte di Re Carlo

Teste calde

Storie del Risorgimento