DK Travel : Sicily : Performing arts

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Palermitan School

Palermitan puppets are around 1 m (3 ft) tall. They are entirely manipulated by strings, have movable joints and can raise their face guards and draw their swords at will. Because they are lighter, they are more easily manipulated and their sword fights are much more lively. The stage of the Palermo-style theatre is a deeply recessed space with room for many characters and backed by elaborately decorated scenery.
Piazza Olivella

At night the piazza between Teatro Massimo and via Cavour fills up with university students hanging out in the many bars lining the square.
Renato Guttuso

From Bagheria, Guttuso (1912–87) painted energetic canvases that spoke out against the Mafia and Fascism and illustrated Sicilian peasant life.
Salvatore Quasimodo

Born in Modica, Quasimodo (1901–68) wrote anti-Fascist works in a political climate that made it necessary to disguise his message. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1959.
Santa Maria dello Spasimo

Lo Spasimo is a bombed-out church that acts as an amazing venue for an art gallery and a full programme of films and concerts (classical, contemporary, jazz), romantically staged in the roofless nave and garden space out the back.
Stories

The most traditional subjects are derived from the epic poems of the Carolingian cycle, retold by Ludovico Ariosto in his 1516 Orlando Furioso . Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne and his paladins battle for Christianity against the Saracens and Turks and raucous sword fights abound. Other productions relate the lives of the saints, stories of bandits, Shakespearian themes and local farces.
Teatro Antica di Segesta

At one of the most spectacularly sited theatres of the ancient world, experience Greek tragedy and comedy, modern dramatic productions, orchestral music with the Sicilian Symphonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of Teatro Massimo, plus world music from various guest artists. The theatre runs a full season with performances staged nightly from early July through to the end of August.
Teatro Biondo Stabile

Founded by the Biondo brothers in 1903 as a centre for experimental theatre, it is still fulfilling its mission.
Teatro di Verdura

A summer season of opera, ballet, concerts and plays is presented in this outdoor theatre in the garden of the former villa of the Prince of Castelnuovo.
Teatro Luigi Pirandello, Agrigento

The ornate civic theatre of Agrigento was inaugurated in 1880 as the third largest theatre in Sicily after the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and the Teatro Bellini in Catania. The venue was dedicated to the Agrigento native playwright Luigi Pirandello on the 10th anniversary of his death in 1945 (see Luigi Pirandello). The season runs from November through May with performances of modern theatre and dance, as well as, of course, productions of works by the great playwright himself, such as Six Characters in Search of an Author .