8.Theatres, “Opera dei Pupi”, Folklore and Medieval and Religious Performances.

Read Italiano version

The “Teatro Massimo” in Palermo, the largest in Italy and the third in Europe, is a great tourist attraction both for its monumental beauty and for its important centre of production and performances. Throughout the whole year the theatre stages high level operas, ballets and concerts: a season of truly unmissable emotions. The “Opera dei Pupi” is the renowned Sicilian theatre and has been registered among the masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of the UNESCO humanity for some years. The places where it is possible to see a performance are many. To know them, click here.
In Palermo in Piazza Antonio Pasqualino N. 5, the International Museum of Marionette is the place that may enchant the child inside each of us. Not far from the Museum the small Theatre “Ditirammu” stages “Assatrasi”, a show addressed to tourists. “Assatrasi” “tells about popular traditions with dances and songs during the four seasons, according to an old almanac of popular customs and rituals.” Numerous folk traditions are renewed and perpetuated throughout the years with historical pageants and spectacular religious  events. Among the most interesting there are: Santa Rosalia festival in Palermo, “ la Sagra della Spiga di Gangi” ( the feast of the Ear of corn in Gangi), Arbëresche Easter in Piana degli Albanesi, “ il Ballo della Cordella “ in Petralia Sottana, il Ballo dei Diavoli in Prizzi, “il Maestro di Campo”in Mezzojuso…