Art has a thousand shapes, a thousand colors, a thousand scents. There is no work of art that doesn’t run through more than one of our senses, creating a direct path to the soul. The colors of a painting all have a smell: that of tempera and pigment, of course, but also those each of us associates with them. Blue smells of salt, because of the ocean, red is sugar and iron, because it’s passion, but also blood. Green is grass, white is the clear smell of ice and snow. Think about it: it’s just like that.
And then, there are forms of art created with several types of art: music and singing, painting and writing, soul and matter. The Opera dei Pupi, Sicily’s traditional marionettes’ theatre, is certainly one of them. In it, we find the plastic, sculptural shapes of the pupi, their colors filled with symbolism, the manual ability of pupari and the thousand fantastic tales they tell us: they themselves are sheer poetic art, imbued with history and coming from a past as Sicilian as it can be. Then, we have the storyteller, the cuntore, with a voice which is music and rhythm, a methodic melody of letters and words, a door open on extraordinary adventures, but also on the most delicate, fragile, hidden part of our being.

Pupi marionettes have specific characteristics based on the character they represent (Copyright: Città di Parma)
It’s easy to see, then, why the Opera dei Pupi became part of the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List: it’s a spiritual art, made using history and craftsmanship as creative instruments.
In the world of Sicilian pupari, one family stands from all others: the Cuticchio family. Since the 1930s, they have been keeping the pupi tradition alive, even when it seemed like the world couldn’t care less for storytellers and their beautiful marionettes. Mimmo Cuticchio, the Associazione I Figli d’Arte Cuticchio’s maestro, didn’t only follow up on his father’s Giacomo’s steps, but brought at the heart of his — and his association’s — work the idea of educating future generations to the beauty of this old and unique art.

Maestro Mimmo Cuticchio with his Pupi (Copyright: Città di Parma)
We of L’Italo-Americano had the pleasure and honor to have a chat with Elisa Puleo Cuticchio, herself an important member of the family association who, with her words, led us through a world made of knights, artists and minstrels, truly precious and exceptional, that we all should get to know more.
The Teatro dei Pupi is a family tradition for the Cuticchios: tell us something about how you became pupari.
Everything started with Giacomo Cuticchio, class 1917, the father of Mimmo Cuticchio. His passion for pupi started when he was a child and began visiting often the theatre of the Grecos, a notable family of pupari. In 1933, Giacomo decided to open his own theatre, in Palermo’s Via Juvara. Then, during the War, he begins traveling through the island, bringing his itinerant shows all over Sicily, along with his wife Pina Patti.

Pupi of various sizes (Copyright: Città di Parma)
The two of them were to have seven children, all of them to become, in a way or another, part of the family activity. In 1969, Giacomo and his family finally decide to settle again in Palermo, where they opened their teatro dei pupi, L’Ippogrifo.
When Giacomo passed away in 1985, his eldest son Mimmo already had an independent career. Mimmo didn’t only want to be a puparo, an artist, he wanted to teach what he knew to the younger generations, so that the amazing art of pupi could live. This is why, in 1971, he had created the Figli d’Arte Cuticchio. The group was legally recognized as an association in 1977: this was an important moment for the Cuticchios and for the Opera dei Pupi, because it was the first time a troupe of pupari was officially recognized by the State.
Today, just like yesterday, our association deals with the artistic, performing and educational aspects of the teatro dei pupi, but also with the craftsmanship behind the art, that related to the production and decoration of marionettes and stage design. Indeed, in 1997 we opened a school for pupari and cuntisti — the storytellers for the Opera dei Pupi — and, since 1985, we’ve been holding a yearly festival dedicated to the art of pupi, La Macchina dei Sogni (The Dream Machine).

Maestro Mimmo Cuticchio with his Pupi (Copyright: Città di Parma)
In 2001, then, the Teatro dei Pupi became part of the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List. That was a pivotal moment for us and for our art as a whole.
In spite of UNESCO recognition, the teatro dei pupi remains little known among the wider public. Its essence and poetry, in particular, seem to be lost to many. Can you tell us something more about it?
Some say that the real root of the teatro dei pupi is Greek, because they think it comes from the work of ancient puppeteers operating in Syracuse at the times of Socrates. But the pupi we are familiar with today come from the 1800s.
The stories are those of medieval Chivalric Romance, of the kings of France, of the Orlando Furioso (The Frenzy or Orlando) and of the Orlando Innamorato (Orlando in Love). They tell about the wars and battles against the Moors of Spain. Characters recur and events are intertwined and this is visible in the marionettes as well: each character has his or her own color, his or her own special decoration or symbol on the armor and shield. This, too, is part of tradition.

Pupi are still made using traditional techniques (Copyright: Città di Parma)
The way pupi are made remained unchanged since the 19th century: the body and the head are carved in wood, according to traditional models, that become unique thanks to the creative work of the puparo. The same is true for the armors, which are entirely handmade using traditional instruments and techniques. Here in Palermo, pupi are about 90 cm tall (3 ft) and weight between 6 and 10 kg (12 to 20 lbs). But they’re not the same everywhere: in Catania, for instance, they are taller, they can reach 130 cm (4 1/3 ft) and weight up to 30 kg (60 lbs).
And then, we have the characters. Their personality was, and still is, extremely important: they were all heroes, who mirrored people’s necessity to redeem their position of outcasts by identifying with figures of higher values and morals they also felt as their own: friendship, loyalty, courage.

Maestro Mimmo Cuticchio with his Pupi (Copyright: Città di Parma)
A very interesting part of your work is the cunto, the “tale,” which is typical of the teatro dei pupi: why is it so important?
The cunto is one of the very roots of the Opera dei Pupi and it’s not easy to describe. Narration takes place through a very specific type of metrics, which helps the cuntista to make the events of the story almost tangible, “physical.” The voice doesn’t simply tell a story, it shapes it and moulds it, it’s as important as the movements of the pupi themselves. It makes the tale alive.
Without a doubt, the art of cunto is complex, rooted as it is not only in the knowledge of each and every tale, but also in the personal creative afflatus and inspiration of the narrator. And it’s an exclusively oral form of art.

Opera dei Pupi became part of the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List: it’s a spiritual art, made using history and craftsmanship as creative instruments (Dreamstime)
Maestro Mimmo Cuticchio learned the art from Peppino Celano, one of the greatest cuntisti of our times and, today, he uses cunto for both chivalric tales and contemporary ones.
The opening of a pupari school as part of your Associazione marked an important moment in its history. What’s the value of such an education institution in today’s world?
The school opened in 1997, about 20 years ago. It was the first school for pupari and cuntisti in the world. It’s a three year, atelier-based course, that aims primarily at transmitting the immense cultural and artistic patrimony of the Opera dei Pupi to those interested in it. It’s in Palermo, at the Teatrino e Laboratorio dei Figli d’Arte Cuticchio. Our students, who at the moment are all between 18 to 26, don’t only learn the art of making pupi and of the cunto, but also get acquainted with other disciplines like drama, stage setting, costume making, lighting, direction and acting: in short, everything pupari need to do their job well.
The school has received the support and collaboration of the Comune di Palermo, and also of important international institutions like the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA), the Charleville Meziérès’ École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette and several Italian universities.
The last few years have witnessed a rise in interest, especially among the younger generations, in our ancient traditions, those that gave to Italian culture its variety and beauty: have you been noticing signs of this trend also for the Opera dei Pupi?
Between the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1980s, things weren’t rosy for the Opera dei Pupi. It was considered “old stuff,” but paradoxically not “old enough” to be interesting. For more than one generation, pupi have been nothing more than souvenirs. Today, however, people’s attitude has changed also, I believe, thanks to the work Mimmo Cuticchio has been doing with the school. His shows, which he brought all over the world, also helped. His work has been unanimously appreciated by public, critics and academics alike.
Without a doubt, this new interest in history and traditions positively helped our work, to the point that, as we already said, the Opera dei Pupi is today part of the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List. Mind, intangible heritage, that is, not the marionettes themselves, but all the theatrical techniques (use of the voice, dramatization, mise en scène) you pass on from father to son, from teacher to student.
Finally, tell us something about the Macchina dei Sogni…
The Macchina dei Sogni is our festival. Its first edition took place in 1984, to celebrate the 50 years of activity of Giacomo Cuticchio, Mimmo’s father. Since then, we’ve been organizing it every year, with shows, exhibitions and events all connected to the world of the Opera dei Pupi. The Festival lasts for a month and wants to bring attention to the world of pupi as a whole: to the cunto, to history, to craftsmanship. For the first 10 years, the festival took place in Palermo, then we moved around Sicily a bit, first to Sortino (Siracusa), then to Terrasini (Palermo) and, for a few editions now, we’ve been in Polizzi Generosa (Palermo).
Every year, La Macchina del Tempo hosts artists from all over the world who Mimmo, our Maestro, met during his trips.