Tito Schipa (1889-1965)

Ecco ridente in cielo
Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioacchino Rossini

Tito Schipa was the outstanding tenore di grazia of his generation. He made his début in 1910 in La traviata at Vercelli, and by 1915 had reached La Scala in Prince Igor and Manon, and created the role of Ruggero in Puccini’s La rondine at Monte Carlo. Schipa specialized in the lighter and more lyrical roles. His beautiful, flexible voice was at its peak during his years in Chicago (1919-1932) and at the Metropolitan (1933-1936). During the 1930s he continued to sing at La Scala and in Rome, concentrating increasingly on the lighter Italian roles and a few French roles (Lakmé, Mignon, Manon, Werther).

[Tito Schipa’s] attractive voice, so well produced as to carry with ease in large theatres, was employed with exquisite skill and taste. His refined musical phrasing and clear enunciation are well displayed in his numerous recordings.

—Desmond Shawe-Taylor

Tito Schipa was born at Lecce and made his début at the Constanze Theatre in Rome in La Traviata. Ten years later, he made his first American appearance, in Chicago, as the Duke in Rigoletto. His fine voice, distinguished stage presence, and his most intelligent singing, brought him quickly into recognition, and into favor, in the new world. He is a tenor of natural gifts, accomplishing with ease what so many strive for, and so vainly, through the whole of a lifetime, without success. His voice has a wholesome, robust, manly quality for all its lyric smoothness and its ease of production. He is a singer of original mind, choosing to sing what suits his voice and method, and, as his records testify, he is a most excellent judge. He is an important figure in the vocal music today, and he is growing into a very much larger one. He has those attributes, as an artist, which seem to appeal most powerfully to the general American public. His first Victor record was one of recondite origin and of great beauty; since then he has made a series—each one in profoundly individual style. With youth, skill, temperament, imagination, fearlessness, and the natural gift of a great voice, Tito Schipa’s place in the vocal music of today and tomorrow is an assured one.