Tito Schipa

Tito Schipa.

Tito Schipa (27 December 1888 – 16 December 1965) was an Italian tenor. He is considered one of the finest tenori di grazia in operatic history. He was endowed with a natural, sensuous voice which he deployed with great intelligence and taste.

Biography

Schipa was born Raffaele Attilio Amedeo Schipa in Lecce, his birthday was recorded as January 2, 1889 for military 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 Argentina. In 1917, he created the role of Ruggiero in Puccini's La rondine.

In 1919, Schipa travelled to the United States, joining the Chicago Opera Company. He remained with the Chicago company until 1932, whereupon he appeared at the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1932 to 1935, and again in 1941. He also sang at the San Francisco Opera, beginning in 1924.

From 1929 to 1949 he performed regularly in Italy, including at La Scala, Milan and the Rome Opera. He returned to Buenos Aires to sing in 1954. In 1957, he toured the USSR but, oddly, never appeared in opera in England.

Schipa's artistry is preserved on film. For example, in 1929 he appeared in a Vitaphone movie short, singing "M'appari tutt'amor" from Flotow's opera Martha.

Schipa's stage repertoire eventually contracted to about 20 congenial Italian and French operatic roles, including Massenet's Werther, Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore and Cilea's L'Arlesiana. In concert, Schipa performed a preferred array of lyrical operatic arias and songs, including Neapolitan and Spanish popular songs. He delivered each of them with an infectious spirit and a refined sense of style.

Schipa made numerous audio recordings of arias and songs during his career, beginning in Italy in 1913. His recorded output included a famous 78-rpm set of Donizetti's Don Pasquale, made in 1932. This was one of the earliest complete opera recordings and it is still in circulation on CD.

Like his contemporary Richard Tauber, Tito Schipa was an early exponent of that rare breed of tenor who also conducts. (Latterly, Plácido Domingo carries on that tradition.) Although some contemporary critics considered Schipa's voice to be small in size, restricted in range and slightly husky in timbre, he was still capable of provoking intense public outspourings of support among his legion of fans. These fans were enthralled by Schipa's superior musicianship, as well as by his winning personality and his ability to breathe life into even the most trite song or hackneyed aria.

Schipa retired from the stage in 1958 to teach voice in Budapest. He died from diabetes in 1965 at the age of 77 in New York City, while teaching there.

References

• Tito Schipa (Grandi Tenori.com) - GrandiTenori's site on Schipa.

External links

• TitoSchipa.it - English version of the Italian site run by the Schipa family.
• Tito Schipa at the Internet Movie Database.
• YouTube - Tito Schipa sings "Una furtiva lagrima" from L'elisir D'amore - A 1929 video of Schipa singing the aria "Una furtiva lagrima" from Gaetano Donizetti's L'elisir D'amore.
• History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration