The debut of Cecilia - "La Sicilia" - July '98

Cecilia Pitino is a complete singer, very creative, who possesses an extraordinary capacity to excite the public during her performances.

Paolo Di Grazia.

The warm, embracing sound of "Spunta 'na Rosa' and the passionate vocal ability of Cecilia Pitino remind one of the records that the unforgettable Rosa Balistreri recorded in the 70s for Fonit Cetra; this is not just a question of superficial resemblance, but rather of profound intention, and of love for one's own land."

Giancarlo Susanna.

La Sicilia Wednesday, 24 September 1997 - Performances

The modican singer Cecilia Pitino flies to Venezuela
Cecilia Pitino, a real Modican, folk singer, one of the most genuine interpreters of the popular traditions of our land, leaves today for Venezuela. There she will participate, at the Margarita Island, in the third «International Festival of Classical Theatre», which begins at the weekend and ends on the 5th of October. She will be accompanied, in her South American adventure, by the guitarist Pier Paolo Sichera and the percussionist Riccardo Gerbino. Cecilia Pitino will represent Italy; and the young Modican, known for her interpretations in dialect of the songs of our ancestors with a modern musical approach, is aware of the weight of such a role, which she is bearing, however, with great enthusiasm. «Would you like to know» - she enquires - «How it is that I'm being sent to Venezuela? It's simple. A friend who works in the theatre, at Rome, introduced my work to the director of the Festival of Margarita, who then came, incognito, to visit me at home. He was favourably impressed by my music and my interpretations. When I received the invitation, I could hardly believe it. It will certainly be a great occasion, that will allow me to experiment with new techniques of song; to go beyond the traditional. I have been scrupulously preparing, with the companions of my adventure, also because we are certain to be heard by many Ragusans who are over there for work reasons.» Cecilia Pitino has had many tributes for her talent. One of her most touching interpretations, «U Viersu» was used, in 1990, in the sound track of the film «The Kids of via Panisperna» by Gianni Amelio; two of her pieces were inserted by Armand Amar, collector of music and song for choreography, in the CD «La Traversée».

WORLD MUSIC - RECORD REVIEWS
CECILIA PITINO - "Spunta 'na Rosa"
Viceversa records, 1998

Set like a precious stone in the centre of the Mediterranean, Sicily has always been the land of meetings and exchanges between cultures that are only apparently distant. Cecilia Pitino reminds us of this with a very intense record, that even though it is based on the popular song of the island, opens itself to unusual sonorities that find place naturally in the flux of its music. For example, the fine clarinet of Carmelo Salemi in «Stidda Lucenti», or the vocal duet with the great Faisal Taher (Kunsertu, Dounia) in «E tu ronna». The warm, embracing sound of «Spunta 'na Rosa» and the passionate vocal ability of Cecilia Pitino remind one of the records that the unforgettable Rosa Balistreri recorded in the 70s for Fonit Cetra; this is not just a question of superficial resemblance, but rather of profound intention, and of love for one's own land."

Giancarlo Susanna.

PARMA GAZZETTE - Monday 14 June 1999

Mediterranean music in the CD by Cecilia Pitino
Our age of planetary communication - favoured by radio-television satellites - accompanies music with artistic images. Images that don't necessarily have to be those of a film; like those of the CD of Cecilia Pitino, evoking atmospheres both sunny and desolate.
Spunta 'na rosa, eleven pieces of pure Mediterranean music, treats music with 'philological' accuracy, inasmuch as it is seen as the direct expression of the culture of a people. To use more serious terminology, one would say an 'anthropological' attention.
The first piece is Stidda Lucenti, dedicated to Cesaria Evora, one of the greatest representatives of the Capoverdian culture, who sings in Portuguese with African rhythms and melodies; and Cecilia Pitino sings in Sicilian with the rythms and melodies of our South; Sicily - that of the country - that tells, in dialect, of centuries of domination, but also of revenge. Pitino evokes hints of the great Mediterranean Sea, that gathers the creative ferment of several landscapes, seas and civilizations. A stronger hint is that offered by the use "in mixture" of many instruments to be found over wide geographical areas, not simply "southern", but also "European": cellos and double-bass, for example, in the piece 'Na scocca d'oru, leave traces of chamber music.

The voice of Cecilia is present in all the pieces: it is the ancient lament of the Sicilian people, made of anguish and resignation, but also of hope. It has incisive acute tones, between sobs and lyricism - a caressing sing-song that is accompanied by that of Faisal Taher in certain songs. A voice that recuperates the "traditional" melodies, re-elaborated with new accents through the expressiveness of the South-eastern Sicilian dialect: 'U Spiculaturi evokes long-past times, when work was only manual and exhausting, and there were no computers to help. The song, rarified in harmony and melody, recreates all the desolation of this wandering trade. It is a well-made CD, even if it would have been pleasant to be able to read the texts of the songs, to appreciate the flavour of the dialectic language in words alone. It is a CD to be listened to often, in order to better "digest" the many flavours that Cecilia Pitino offers with such generosity.

Paolo Scivoletto

The Modican artist interprets the music of "mare nostrum" Cecilia, the form of the song, by Mariolina Marino

I meet Cecilia Pitino, at her home one morning last summer. If it is true that our houses speak of us, then that of Cecilia connects me instantly to the character. A house-studio, a house-laboratory of ideas, a house-archive which has a lot to tell about Cecilia's world; rich in travels, meetings, projects of artistic adventures suspended between tradition and innovation. She has two great passions: dance and song, arts that she has been able to practise and live, mingling the languages of each with each, and trying to find experimental pathways. The essence of her art is, without doubt, the Mediterranean, seen above all as a link to her land, but also as the will to explore and to re-interpret sonorities, styles and traditions that belong to the rich reservoir represented by the musical cultures that centre on "mare nostrum".
Cecilia has a career of over twenty years behind her, and a rich curriculum whose highlights were the fruit of travels and meetings, but she has also read deeply and listened carefully to music, in order to create relevant choreographies, and to re-launch popular song in a renewed, more evocative form. The texts she has written in the presentation leaflets for several performances of theatre-dance created and produced by her - "Wolakota" (1992), "New perfumes of an ancient island" (1993), "I will call you by name" (1995), "The echo of the earth" and "We are chaos or harmony" (1997), "Tales" and "Between Heaven and Earth" (1999) - are extremely indicative of how she has been able to give significant cultural weight to her creations, and of how she has succeeded in communicating this to many young actors, as well as to the keen, numerous public that has followed her for years. In parallel to the research work she has done on the body and its expressiveness, there is an analogous work of research and study of the songs of our tradition.
Since the times of "Folk proposal", a group born in Modica in '78, Cecilia Pitino has given voice, in the most literal sense of the expression, to the popular songs of the County of Modica, both to the traditional ones and to those written by Carmelo Assenza (text) and Giovanni Bergamasco (music). Our songs have thus travelled, and have arrived in Switzerland, France, Spain and also in Venezuela, where she participated, in 1997, in the third edition of the "International Festival of Classical Theatre". Years of concerts and collaborations with famous musicians, from Carlo Muratori to Faisal and Riccardo Gerbino, with a gallery of successes not dictated alone by the intrinsic beauty of the texts or the fact that folk music is enjoying a particularly happy period, but due above all to the talent of this artist, of great scenic presence and noteworthy vocal impact. The choice of the arrangements, however, should not be underestimated; of 'ethno-world' cut, these can be enjoyed in full on the recent CD "Spunta 'na rosa".
But Cecilia does not stop here. The use of her "live" voice in theatre-dance shows - directed by musicians and choreographers such as Etienne Schwarcz, Armand Amar, Jean Pierre Cei, Ramon Oller, Serge Ricci and Anne Marie Porras - and in experimental works such as "Giufà and his shadow" by Franco Scaldati, directed by Riccardo Caporossi. Among her impending commitments are a workshop on popular song for the Cultural Centre "Mobility of the Arts", which she will give together with Grazia Dormiente, authority on the ethno-phonic patrimony of our region, and Elisa Turlà, expert in the vocal technique "Voicecraft" EVTS, and a participation in the Festival "Montpellier Dance".
I say goodbye to Cecilia after having chatted with her between watching a video and listening to a record, thanks to which I feel I have got to know her. The strong impression that remains with me after this meeting is of the force and energy with which she works and creates, to make her land known through song and dance.