Tito Schipa
The
Italian tenor Tito Schipa (
1888 –
16 December 1965) is considered one of the finest
tenore di grazia (lyric tenors) in
operatic history. He was endowed with a natural, sensuous voice which he deployed with great intelligence and taste.
Schipa was born
Raffaele Attilio Amedeo Schipa in
Lecce in late 1888. (His birthday was recorded years later as
January 2 for conscription purposes.) [
1] He studied in
Milan and made his operatic debut at age 21 in
1910 at Vercelli. He subsequently appeared throughout Italy and in
Buenos Aires. In
1917, he created the role of Ruggiero in
Puccini's
La rondine.
In
1919, Schipa traveled to the
United States, joining the
Chicago Opera Company, singing with it until 1932, whereupon he appeared with the
Metropolitan Opera from
1932 to
1935 and again in
1941. From
1929 to
1949, he continued to perform regularly in Italy, and returned to Buenos Aires in
1954. In
1957, he toured the
USSR.
Schipa's repertoire eventually encompassed about 20 Italian and French opera roles, such as
Massenet's
Werther,
Donizetti's
L'Elisir d'Amore and
Cilea's
L'Arlesiana, where he achieved his best results. In concert, Schipa performed art songs as well as Neapolitan and Spanish popular airs.
Schipa made numerous recordings during his career, including a famous recording of
Donizetti's Don Pasquale in
1932, which was one of the first complete opera recordings, and is still in circulation.
Tito Schipa was an early exponent of that peculiar breed of tenor who conducts. Today
Plácido Domingo carries on that tradition. Although some considered Schipa's voice to be ordinary in size and timbre, he caused riots in the streets on some occasions not only by his superior musicianship but a solid, masterful techinque. Today's artists like
Andrea Bocelli could learn a great deal from his exquisite use of head voice. Schipa trained to sing
without amplification.
Schipa died in
1965 at age 77 in
New York.
*
TitoSchipa.it, English translation of Italian site run by the Schipa family
