Pulcinella
Polichinela (in Italian Pulcinella, in Neapolitan Pulecenella) is a character from the Commedia dell'arte. Within the group of the zanni (servants or servants) she is she, with & # 34; Coviello & # 34;, one of the main characters of the plot in the Neapolitan model.
Origin of name
Portrait, mask and origin
The RAE notes that the name comes from the sound "paolocinelli", referring to Paolo Cinelli, a Neapolitan comedian of the XVI century. Another thesis, just as legendary, ensures that the name comes from Puccio d'Aniello, a Neapolitan peasant who, after fighting with some comedians, ended up joining the company. A third proposal grants the official baptism to Silvio Fiorillo, a Capuan actor of the Cinquecento. Popular tradition makes it derive from "pullicinello" (little chicken), hence —or perhaps because of it— that Pullichinela moves like a cackling, short-legged pot-bellied chicken.
As a theatrical figure, he has been related as a synthesis of various characters in the Atelian farce, the "Maccus", the "Dossennus" hunchbacked, the "Papus" The eater and the clumsy "Bucco". The Etruscologist Alain Hus, based on a painting in the Tomb of the Augurs in Tarquinia, proposed the origin of Polichinela from the "Pannuceatus" of the Atelan comedy.
Character
Polichinela, astute and philosopher (physically Socratic and resigned Senequista), is a "zanno" with a special capacity for adaptation and extensive experience in beating and being beaten. Hunchbacked, potbellied, and with a huge hooked nose (physical attributes of his stooped appearance and his deeply wrinkled black half-mask), he is nonetheless an excellent orator and singular singer. He is the only one who has kept the original white costume, common to the "zanni".
The character embodies the Neapolitan commoner, the simplest man, the one who occupies the last place in the social scale, the man who, although aware of his problems, always manages to get out of them with a smile.
He is called to represent the soul of the people and their primitive instincts, he almost always appears in contradiction, so much so that he has no fixed traits: he is rich or poor, he adapts to all trades as well as being a faithful servant, here he is a baker An innkeeper, farmer, thief, and seller of miraculous concoctions, he is either a bully or a coward, sometimes exhibiting both traits simultaneously in mocking the powerful.
The quality that best distinguishes Polichinela is his cunning, and it is precisely in his proverbial cunning that he manages to find the ability to solve the most disparate problems that arise, always in favor of the weakest at the expense of the powerful.
Another of his famous characteristics is that he can never shut up and that is where the expression "Polichinela secret" which is something that everyone knows.
Polichinela represents a character who has acquired all the symbols and meanings of the popular and peasant world and has taken to all stages of Italian theaters, and beyond, a repertoire full of movements, gestures, acrobatics, typical dances and rituals of the Neapolitan gestural code. In fact, they accompany him in the theater and carnival scenes: the broom, the horn, the cowbells, elements that for the Neapolitans have propitiatory value and antidote against the evil eye and bad luck.
Character evolution
In the 18th century, Polichinela grew a beard and mustache, and a tall hat with raised brims (continuing the gallinaceous symbolism). In the French version, Polichinela evolved into the evil dwarf who first changed his headdress to a kerchief, like Pierrot's, and finally got his hat back, now with two rooster feathers. In the stage space of the puppet theaters of working-class Lyon of the XVIII century, "polichinela" (substitute puppet) became "Monsieur Guignol".
Main performers
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Nicknamed Il re dei Pulcinella (The King of Pulcinellas), Antonio Petito was the best-known Pulcinella of the century XIX, inventor of his modern costume and author of numerous comedies dedicated to this mask, often inspired by current issues of the Neapolitan society of his time.
The great successor of this mask was the actor, playwright and stage director Eduardo De Filippo, a comedian from a family of great 'comedians' dialects and considered the greatest representative of the Commedia dell'Arte in the XX century. Born the natural son of Eduardo Scarpetta, in 1981 he was appointed Senator for Life of the Italian Republic.
Throughout the 20th century, the character was also played by other famous actors such as Achille Millo, Gianni Crosio, Tommaso Bianco, Nino Taranto, Enzo Cannavale, Rino Marcelli, Peppe Barra, Armando Marra, Massimo Ranieri and Massimo Troisi.
Pulcinella Immortality
Only three "zanni" have achieved 'immortality' beyond the scholarly or professional knowledge of the world of theater and art. Harlequin and Colombina, who became eternal lovers in the halls of many museums around the world, masks that street theater and the most imaginative ballet of the century XX, jumped into the gallery of types from the history of Western painting. The other immortal (still alive in the Neapolitan carnival), stayed in the theaters until becoming meat in a long list of actors or rags and pasta in innumerable puppeteer altarpieces in halls and gardens. With the many names and faces of him, the & # 34;pulcinella & # 34; it is sunrise and sunset of scenic mime.
Stravinsky's Pulcinella
A beautiful echo of that immortality was Igor Stravinsky's Pulcinella, a ballet based on a play of the century XVIII, with the old Polichinela as the protagonist. The ballet premiered at the Paris Opera on May 15, 1920 under the baton of Ernest Ansermet. Dancer Léonide Massine created the script and choreography, and Pablo Picasso designed the original costumes and sets. The work was commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev. Stravinsky himself wrote about this composition:
«Pulcinella was my discovery of the past, the epiphany through which the whole of my late work became possible. It was a look back of course, the first of the many love stories in that direction, but it was also a look in the mirror. »
This idea was taken up and revised by two expert dancers from the New York City Ballet, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, who staged it on the occasion of the 1972 Stravinsky Festival, with Robbins playing the leading role.