In Dal Catai a Parigi. Angelica alla corte di Re Carlo (From Cathay to Paris. Angelica at King Charlemagne’s court), Mimmo Cuticchio revisits a canonical episode of the Sicilian opera dei pupi. In order to write this text, he drew his inspiration not so much from the scripts of Sicilian puppeteers and their direct source (Giusto Lodico's La storia dei Paladini di Francia , 1858-1860), but rather from Ariosto’s Orlando and from Boiardo’s Orlando innamorato. Angelica gets back her Oriental traits (she was a native of Cathay, which corresponded to Northern China, but she usually was represented as a Native American in the opera dei pupi productions). Cuticchio alternates between scenes with pupi (controlled in sight of the audience and whose voices he interprets) and cunto parts (Sicilian technique of improvised narration).

A cuntista (storyteller) relates that Carlo Magno has thrown a party for the birth of his first child, gathering the paladins of France and foreign knights. Princess Angelica arrives accompanied by her brother Argalia and four giants. Angelica and Carlo Magno make a deal: the first knight to defeat Argalia in a spear duel will get to marry the princess, but those that will be defeated will be made prisoners. Every paladin and every foreign knight want to fight. Malagigi, the necromancer, discovers Argalia’s deception. He has a magical spear and Angelica has a ring that will make her invisible and will help her escape. Malagigi, however, does not manage to warn the paladins, for he too has succumbed to Angelica’s beauty and has thus been made prisoner. After Astolfo (the first knight to lose the spear duel against Argalia) comes the Spanish Ferraù who does not admit defeat and ends up killing Argalia. Astolfo and Angelica manage to flee.

At the Royal Palace, Carlo Magno is desperate because an enemy army is besieging the city of Paris and most of the paladins (including Orlando) have gone looking for Angelica. Carlo Magno entrusts the command of the army to Rinaldo. In the meantime, Angelica falls in love with Medoro, a pagan soldier, and Orlando goes mad when he finds out that they love each other. Astolfo finds a hippogriff which takes him to the moon. The cuntista relates that Astolfo finds Orlando’s lost spirit on the moon. He then interrupts his story and announces that he will continue it later.