Rosa Balistreri

He was born in Licata from a carpenter father and a housewife mother. From a very young age she was gifted with a strong and original vocal timbre which later allowed her to interpret Sicilian folk songs with a strongly dramatic tone.

He married Gioacchino Torregrossa, said Iachinazzu. It was an arranged marriage and after her husband lost his daughter Angela's trousseau in the game, Rosa tried to kill him and immediately went to constitute herself police. Gioacchino survived and Rosa was soon released from prison with parole. She did various jobs to support her daughter. She worked for a family from which she was later reported for theft and she was put in prison for another seven months. She got out of jail she moved to Palermo. Count Testa gave her work as a custodian / sacristan in the church of Santa Maria degli Agonizzanti, where she lived in her basement with her brother Vincenzo. Unfortunately she received the harassment of the new priest and, with the alms money, she left with her brother to Florence where she worked as a maid and her brother was able to open a shoemaker's shop, recalling her sisters Mariannina and Maria: one remained in Licata, the other, after yet another quarrel with her husband, took the children and joined Rosa. Unfortunately, her husband chased after her, and found her, killed her. The father hanged himself in displeasure. Rosa lived for 12 years with the painter Manfredi Lombardi, who presented it to artists such as Mario DeMicheli, Ignatius Buttitta, Dario Fo. In 1966 and 1969 she participated in the first two editions of the show I talk about it and sing directed by Dario Fo.

For about twenty years he lived in Florence and then moved in 1971 to Palermo. Left by Manfredi for a model, to support himself and her daughter who in the meantime for love had left the boarding school and was expecting a child, she sang for the Festa de l'Unità and recited in Stable Theater of Catania. In 1974 he participated together with other exponents of folk a Very song. Since 1976 she has often been accompanied by Mario Modestini, musician and composer, who wrote the music for his voice The ballad of salt (1979), by Hello (1982) and by Oh Bambule (1987)

He died at the age of 63, at the Villa Sofia hospital in Palermo following a brain stroke arrived during a tour in Calabria.

Rosa Balistreri is buried in the cemetery of Trespiano.

May 31, 2008 was organized Earth ca nun hear (that is to say Land that does not hear, piece excluded in extremis from 1973 Festival of Sanremo because it was not an unprecedented result), a tribute concert for Etnafest 2008, held in Piazza Università a Catania, which was attended by Rita Botto, Carmen Consoli, Giorgia, Patricia Laquidara, Nada, Marina Rei, Etta Scollo, Tosca, Paola Turci, Ornella Vanoni, Alfio Antico, Faraualla, Emma Dante, with the Etna Orchestra conducted by Except canton.

In 2017 it is produced and broadcast by Rai History for the series Italian the documentary film "Rosa Balistreri - a film without an author"By Marta La Licata, directed by Fedora Sasso, a monograph dedicated to the singer with the publication of some unpublished works and the testimonies and homage of intellectuals who collaborated with her, including Andrea Camilleri, Leo Gullotta, Othello Profazio, Gianni Belfiore.

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Technical sheet prepared by: Region of Sicily - Department of cultural heritage and Sicilian identity - CRicd: Regional center for inventory, cataloging and documentation and Sicilian regional film library