The Onofrio Company

Giuseppe Onofrio was born in Genoa in 1925 to Maria Cima and Giacomo Onofrio (1904 - 1964), a descendant of a family of circus artists. When Giacomo was thirty years old, he broke his leg and had to give up his life as an acrobat. During his hospitalization he became fascinated by puppet theatre, obtaining some small puppets from the nuns of the institute and improvising shows for the patients.

The success he achieved made him continue this activity, and he passed on his artistic knowledge (both as a contortionist and as a puppeteer) to Giuseppe and his daughters Luigia (1927) and Portesina (1930).

After working together for a long time, in 1955, the members of the Onofrio family went their separate ways. Luigia and Portesina continued with their circus activities, while Giuseppe, who was already working in his father’s theatre, settled in Concesio in the province of Brescia and devoted himself completely to puppetry.

During the winter he would stay at home, while in the summer months he toured with a pavilion capable of holding up to six hundred people, with his wife Fulvia Picardi and their children Giacomo and Fernanda who helped him with the operations, while the voices were his alone. He worked mainly in Lombardy, sometimes arriving in Verona and as far off as the Canton of Ticino.