His emergence during the late 1970s was as the spearhead of an Italian Neo-Romantico group, founded with two other composers, Lorenzo Ferrero and Carlo Galante.
[1] He has composed operas, chamber music and symphonic works which have been performed by important Italian orchestras and concert societies.
The most notable feature of the opera was the insertion of a recording of Italian pop singer Peppino di Capri, which caused quite a sensation.
At a later stage Tutino's works were conceived so as to deflate attention from their style; rather, they aimed at obtaining a politically correct and socially relevant consensus – as shown by his participation to the collective Requiem Mass for the Victims of the Mafia given in Palermo in March 1993, on the eve of judges Borsellino and Falcone's mafia killings, or by works like Song of Peace, and Vita ("Life") – a free operatic rendering of Mike Nichols's movie Wit, dealing with illness and death.
Tutino has also composed a ballet, Richard III; a musical comedy, Il gatto con gli stivali (Puss in Boots); and a Kyrie and Agnus Dei for the Jubilaeum celebrations at the Vatican in August 2000, thereby disclosing a hitherto unknown religious commitment.