Carnival has already arrived! The craziest celebration of the year and the most loved by children! Ocarina is crazy about Carnival – masks too, especially classic ones – which derive from the Commedia dell’arte and popular traditions.
One of our favorites characters, among the oldest ones, is Harlequin, originally from Bergamo, a nimble servant, a bit of a slacker, cunning and cheerful, with a colorful costume.
It seems in fact that Harlequin was the son of a very poor woman, who was forced to send her son to school wearing clothes full of holes and patches. One day, during a celebration, the other mothers saw the sad child looking so battered, and decided to embroider a dress all together using scraps of fabric they had at home.
Brighella is the other mask of Bergamo, the antagonist of Harlequin. As the name suggests, Brighella is a grumpy guy, a liar and always ready to plot for his own benefit.
Then there are the Venetian masks, Pantalone and Colombina, father and daughter who embody their city: Pantalone is a penniless old merchant always complaining about the lack of money; Colombina is instead a faithful and very intelligent maid, able of deceiving her gruff father and, sometimes, even her masters.
From Naples comes Pulcinella with his humped nose and a black mask that contrasts with his white clothes. Clumsy and playful, Punchinella embodies all the spirit of his city!
But surely Ocarina’s most beloved mask is Stenterello who, not by chance, has his origins in the city of Florence and embodies the typical characters of the Florentines: chatty, always ready to joke, impulsive, very witty but also fearful…
The Tuscan public gave him his name: stenterello is in fact the one who “seems to have hardly grown up”. The character is the symbol of the low extraction peasant who fights adversity and injustice to the sound of jokes and pointed gags. His clothing fully reflects his character: his socks are of different colors, he wears a blue jacket with a red and black checkered lapel, short pants and tights to the knee, a vest with dots and a boat-shaped hat.
Stenterello is frail, puny, shabby and short, just like his creator Luigi Del Buono, a watchmaker of Piazza del Duomo who left his workshop to devote himself to an artistic career. At the end of the 18th century, Del Buono achieved success by bringing to the scene the famous mask of Florence in the Theater of Borgo Ognissanti.
And still today, if you come to Florence and pass by via Borgo Ognissanti, 4 you will find a plaque that remembers the mask of Stenterello where you can read: “In this building the Theater of Borgognissanti had its seat in 1778 where Luigi Del Buono (1751 – 1832) created the mask of Stenterello, a popular Florentine character who was a prankster, a joker and a witty character who has remained in the city’s memory”.
