Fresh from an evening with the Marionettes myself I have
noted with interest Mr. Asquith's comments (in the new volume of H. H. A. letters) on Signor Podrecca's inimitable entertainment as he saw it eleven years ago. I agree with him that what he calls the series of dis- connected stunts were the cream of the performance (particularly of course the grand piano item, which I saw last in Warsaw sonic years ago), but I should rate a little higher than he did the grand opera item. " Then, alas," his verdict runs, " they plunged into a full-grown modern Italian Opera, in three acts—full of trills and caratinas, and all the familiar tricks of that most arid form of composition : the singing being supplied by unseen and full-throated ' humans ' behind, while the poor marionettes strutted and gesticulated in dumb show in front." But what, after all, can marionettes ever do but strut and gesticulate ? And they do it so incredibly well.
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