A relevant part of Western culture was handed down to our times thanks to the storytellers. Charachters wandering through the provinces and the cities, telling the romanticized deeds of great warriors and leaders, the heart-beats of troubled loves and what was going on in the neighbouring towns and provinces. During Internet and mass-media age the role of the storytellers slimmed down, to the point of becoming a treasure to be preserved and put under the wing of UNESCO. Well, at least that's what happened to a great storyteller, best said 'cuntista' rather than 'cantastorie', and puppeteer of the Sicilian 'Opra dei Pupi' (Pupi puppets theatre, note that it's not 'opera' as for the opera houses, but 'opra', more likely to resound the adventures of the heroes), Mimmo Cuticchio, an artist that can enchant and make the deeds of the chansons de geste come alive in pure Sicilian dialect incredibly absolutely comprehensible thanks to the ancient knowledge of the cuntisti. In 'cunto' there is the epic poem, the singing and a syncopated musical rythm similar to modern rap that make it an extraordinary instrument of artistic communication that can cross borders and barriers as it includes the most ancestral element of tales and of Western culture, the narrative storytelling.
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