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{{short description|Italian opera singer}}
<!-- please do not add an infobox, per [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Composers#Biographical infoboxes]]-->

[[Image:Tito Schipa 1.jpg|right|thumb|Tito Schipa]]
[[Image:Tito Schipa 1.jpg|right|thumb|Tito Schipa]]
[[File:Tito Schipa in 1920 with a camera.jpg|thumb|Tito Schipa in 1920 with a camera]]
[[File:Tito Schipa in 1920 with a camera.jpg|thumb|Tito Schipa in [[1920]] with a camera]]

'''Tito Schipa''' ({{IPA-it|ˈskipa}}; born '''Raffaele Attilio Amedeo Schipa'''; 2nd January 1889 in Lecce{{spaced ndash}}16 December 1965) was an [[Italy|Italian]] tenor, considered the greatest [[tenore di grazia]] and one of the most popular tenors of the century.
'''Tito Schipa''' ({{IPA|it|ˈskiːpa}}; born '''Raffaele Attilio Amedeo Schipa'''; 2 January 1889 in Lecce{{spaced ndash}}16 December 1965) was an Italian [[tenor]].


==Biography==
== Biography ==
[[File:Schipa and wife, 1-15-25 LCCN2014715110.jpg|thumb|Schipa with his wife Antoinette in 1925]]
Schipa was born as '''Raffaele Attilio Amedeo Schipa''' on 27 December 1888 in [[Lecce]] in [[Apulia]] into an [[Arbëreshë people|Arbëreshë]] family;<ref>{{cite book|title=Tito Schipa|page=25|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?ei=fTHMTqjBG8Sb8QPai5H0Dw&ct=result&id=EYA3AQAAIAAJ&dq=Tito+Schipa+%2B+Albanese&q=Schipet%C3%A0ri#search_anchor}}</ref> his birthday was recorded as January 2, 1889 for military conscription purposes.<ref>[http://www.titoschipa.it/biosrengl.htm Tito Schipa]</ref> 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]], [[Argentina]]. In 1917, he created the role of Ruggiero in [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]]'s ''[[La rondine]]''.
Schipa was born as '''Raffaele Attilio Amedeo Schipa''' on 27 December 1888 in [[Lecce]] in [[Apulia]] into an [[Arbëreshë people|Arbëreshë]] family;<ref>{{cite book|title=Tito Schipa|page=25|year=2004|isbn=9788882340407|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EYA3AQAAIAAJ&q=Schipet%C3%A0ri|last1=Schipa|first1=Tito}}</ref> his birthday was recorded as January 2, 1889 for military conscription purposes.<ref>[http://www.titoschipa.it/biosrengl.htm Tito Schipa]</ref> 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]], [[Argentina]]. In 1917, he created the role of Ruggiero in [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]]'s ''[[La rondine]]''.


In 1919, Schipa traveled to the [[United States]], joining the [[Lyric Opera of Chicago|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.
In 1919, Schipa traveled to the [[United States]], joining the [[Lyric Opera of Chicago|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.
Line 11: Line 14:
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 [[Soviet Union]].
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 [[Soviet Union]].


Schipa's artistry is preserved on film. For example, in 1929 he appeared in a [[Vitaphone]] movie short, singing "M'appari tutt'amor" from [[Friedrich von Flotow|Flotow]]'s opera ''[[Martha (opera)|Martha]]''.
Schipa's artistry is preserved on film. In 1929, he appeared in two [[Vitaphone]] movie shorts, singing "M'appari" from [[Friedrich von Flotow|Flotow]]'s opera ''[[Martha (opera)|Martha]]'' and "Una furtiva lagrima" from [[Donizetti]]'s ''[[L'elisir d'amore]]''.


Schipa's stage repertoire, which in his early career had encompassed a wide range of [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]] and Puccini roles, eventually contracted to about 20 congenial Italian and French operatic roles, including [[Jules Massenet|Massenet]]'s ''[[Werther]]'', [[Gaetano Donizetti|Donizetti]]'s ''[[L'elisir d'amore]]'' and [[Francesco Cilea|Cilea]]'s ''[[L'arlesiana]]''. In concert, Schipa performed a preferred array of lyrical operatic arias and songs, including Neapolitan and Spanish popular songs.
Schipa's stage repertoire, which in his early career had encompassed a wide range of [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]] and Puccini roles, eventually contracted to about 20 congenial Italian and French operatic roles, including [[Jules Massenet|Massenet]]'s ''[[Werther]]'', Donizetti's ''L'elisir d'amore'' and [[Francesco Cilea|Cilea]]'s ''[[L'arlesiana]]''. In concert, Schipa performed a preferred array of lyrical operatic arias and songs, including Neapolitan and Spanish popular songs.


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 is still in circulation on CD. He also recorded several [[tango]]s, some of which were composed by him in Spanish, mostly in Buenos Aires and New York. Thanks to his early Latin American tours, Schipa was a very popular tenor in [[Latin America]].
Schipa made numerous 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 is still available on CD. He also recorded several [[tango]]s, some of which were composed by him in Spanish, mostly in Buenos Aires and New York. Thanks to his early Latin American tours, Schipa was a very popular tenor in [[Latin America]].


Like his contemporary [[Richard Tauber]], Tito Schipa was also a [[Conductor (music)|conductor]], a tradition carried on today by [[Plácido Domingo]]. Although a few contemporary critics considered Schipa's voice to be small in size, restricted in range and slightly husky in timbre, he was still extremely popular with the public. Michael Scott (''The Record of Singing'': 1978), while admiring Schipa's charm and taste, points out that it is not correct to say that Schipa was a master of ''bel canto''; indeed Scott and others regard Schipa's recording of "[[Il mio tesoro]]" from [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s ''[[Don Giovanni]]'' as one of the worst ever made, with ''sloppy runs'' and sketchy ornamentation. Yet it has often been noted that this is probably the worst recording Schipa ever made; and surviving fragments from a live New Orleans performance of the opera in 1935 show him in superb form.
Like his contemporary [[Richard Tauber]], Tito Schipa was also a [[Conductor (music)|conductor]]. Although a few contemporary critics considered Schipa's voice to be small in size, restricted in range and slightly husky in timbre, he was still extremely popular with the public. Michael Scott (''The Record of Singing'': 1978), while admiring Schipa's charm and taste, points out that it is not correct to say that Schipa was a master of ''bel canto''; indeed Scott and others regard Schipa's recording of "[[Il mio tesoro]]" from [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s ''[[Don Giovanni]]'' as one of the worst ever made, with sloppy runs and sketchy ornamentation.


Yet his performance of the entire aria during a Metropolitan Opera broadcast of ''Don Giovanni'' on January 20, 1934, as well as surviving fragments from a “live” New Orleans performance of the opera in 1935, show him in superb form. "Although the quality of one or two of Mr. Schipa's top notes was rather tenuous," New York critic Francis D. Perkins wrote in the ''Herald Tribune'' in January 1934, “the style and phrasing of his aria was usually artistic and well schooled.”
⚫
On [[July 18]] [[1919]], he was initiated to the [[Scottish Rite|Scottish Rite Freemasonry]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.loggiagiordanobruno.com/quanti-personaggi-dello-spettacolo-fra-le-logge-italiane | title = Quanti personaggi dello spettacolo fra le logge italiane | access-date = Oct 2, 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170719225947/http://www.loggiagiordanobruno.com/quanti-personaggi-dello-spettacolo-fra-le-logge-italiane | archive-date = Jul 19, 2017 | deadurl = no}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://loggiaheredom1224.blogspot.com/2015/01/da-belli-toto-gino-cervi-massonicamente.html | title = Da Belli a Totò a Gino Cervi, MASSONICAmente racconta gli artisti della squadra e del compasso | date = Jan 2, 2015 | access-date = Oct 2, 2018 | language = it | archive-url = http://archive.fo/B2DIH | archive-date = Oct 2, 2018 | deadurl = no}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www1.adnkronos.com/Archivio/AdnAgenzia/1999/10/22/Spettacolo/CINEMA-TOTO-MASSONE-LA-GRAN-LOGGIA-DITALIA-LO-COMMEMORA_140400.php | title = Cinema: Totò massone, la Gran Loggia d'Italia lo commemora | date = Oct 22, 1999 | location = Rome | website = adnkronos.com | access-date = Oct 2, 2018 | language = it | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140609001330/http://www1.adnkronos.com/Archivio/AdnAgenzia/1999/10/22/Spettacolo/CINEMA-TOTO-MASSONE-LA-GRAN-LOGGIA-DITALIA-LO-COMMEMORA_140400.php | archive-date = Jun 9, 2014 | deadurl = no}}</ref> in the [[Masonic Lodge|Lodge]] ''Espartana'' of [[Buenos Aires]].<ref>Vittorio Gnocchini, ''L'Italia dei Liberi Muratori'', Erasmo ed., Roma, 2005, p. 250.</ref>


⚫
On July 18, 1919, he was initiated to the [[Scottish Rite|Scottish Rite Freemasonry]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.loggiagiordanobruno.com/quanti-personaggi-dello-spettacolo-fra-le-logge-italiane | title = Quanti personaggi dello spettacolo fra le logge italiane | access-date = Oct 2, 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170719225947/http://www.loggiagiordanobruno.com/quanti-personaggi-dello-spettacolo-fra-le-logge-italiane | archive-date = Jul 19, 2017 | url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://loggiaheredom1224.blogspot.com/2015/01/da-belli-toto-gino-cervi-massonicamente.html | title = Da Belli a Totò a Gino Cervi, MASSONICAmente racconta gli artisti della squadra e del compasso | date = Jan 2, 2015 | access-date = Oct 2, 2018 | language = it | archive-url = https://archive.today/20181002172213/http://loggiaheredom1224.blogspot.com/2015/01/da-belli-toto-gino-cervi-massonicamente.html | archive-date = October 2, 2018 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www1.adnkronos.com/Archivio/AdnAgenzia/1999/10/22/Spettacolo/CINEMA-TOTO-MASSONE-LA-GRAN-LOGGIA-DITALIA-LO-COMMEMORA_140400.php | title = Cinema: Totò massone, la Gran Loggia d'Italia lo commemora | date = Oct 22, 1999 | location = Rome | website = adnkronos.com | access-date = Oct 2, 2018 | language = it | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140609001330/http://www1.adnkronos.com/Archivio/AdnAgenzia/1999/10/22/Spettacolo/CINEMA-TOTO-MASSONE-LA-GRAN-LOGGIA-DITALIA-LO-COMMEMORA_140400.php | archive-date = Jun 9, 2014 | url-status = live}}</ref> in the [[Masonic Lodge|Lodge]] ''Espartana'' of [[Buenos Aires]].<ref>Vittorio Gnocchini, ''L'Italia dei Liberi Muratori'', Erasmo ed., Roma, 2005, p. 250.</ref> In 1939, Tito Schipa declined an invitation from [[Italian-American]] groups to perform 12 concerts in order to raise money for the [[Anti-Fascist]] movement in Italy. Although he was offered $1,000 for each appearance, Schipa refused and is quoted in his letter, dated February 23, 1939,<ref>Naugatuck News(Connecticut), March 11, 1947, page 4, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25009558/tito_schipa_portrait_of_a_nazi/</ref> "I am sorry that I cannot sing for Loubet; but you MUST understand my situation; and my relationship with [[Achille Starace]] in Italy and all authorities there. And you know the purpose of the benefit for which Loubet asks me to sing for. Not tell anybody the reason; tell that I cannot come to New York or some other excuse; but don't ask me the impossible".
Although he undertook concert engagements until 1962, Schipa retired from the operatic stage in 1958 to teach voice, initially in [[Budapest]]. He died from [[diabetes]] in 1965 at the age of 77 in [[Manhattan, New York City]], while teaching there.

Schipa sang his final performance at the Metropolitan Opera in 1941 before returning to [[Italian fascism|Fascist Italy]], "where he was a pet of the [[Benito Mussolini]] regime", an association he would never really live down; after returning to the United States, his first post war concert was poorly attended but when he came out of retirement one last time in 1962, Town Hall was jammed.<ref>Tito Schipa Obituary, New York Daily New, December 18, 1965, page 53 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25010007/tito_schipa_obituary/</ref> In 1958, Schipa retired from the operatic stage to teach voice, initially in [[Budapest]]. He returned to New York for one last concert performance in 1962; Town Hall was full to overflowing.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25010007/tito_schipa_obituary/|title = Tito Schipa, obituary|newspaper = Daily News|date = 18 December 1965|page = 53}}</ref> Schipa died of complications from [[diabetes]] on December 16, 1965 at the age of 77 in [[Manhattan, New York City]], while teaching there.


==Legacy==
==Legacy==
He was a National Patron of [[Delta Omicron]], an international professional music fraternity.<ref>[http://delta-omicron.org/index00.html Delta Omicron] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100127130549/http://delta-omicron.org/index00.html |date=2010-01-27 }}</ref>
He was a National Patron of [[Delta Omicron]], an international professional music fraternity.<ref>[http://delta-omicron.org/index00.html Delta Omicron] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100127130549/http://delta-omicron.org/index00.html |date=2010-01-27 }}</ref>


His son [[Tito Schipa Jr.]] is a composer, singer-songwriter, producer, writer and actor.<ref name=Deregibus>{{cite book|last=Enrico Deregibus|title=Dizionario completo della Canzone Italiana|publisher=Giunti Editore, 2010|isbn=8809756258}}</ref>
His son [[Tito Schipa Jr.]] is a composer, singer-songwriter, producer, writer and actor.<ref name=Deregibus>{{cite book|last=Enrico Deregibus|title=Dizionario completo della Canzone Italiana|date=8 October 2010|publisher=Giunti Editore, 2010|isbn=978-8809756250}}</ref>


==Selected filmography==
==Selected filmography==
Line 32: Line 37:
* ''[[To Live (1937 film)|To Live]]'' (1937)
* ''[[To Live (1937 film)|To Live]]'' (1937)
* ''[[Mad About Opera]]'' (1948)
* ''[[Mad About Opera]]'' (1948)
* ''[[The Mysteries of Venice]]'' (1951)

==Bibliography==

* Enzo Ferrieri, ''I "Piccoli" di Hollywood'', in Comœdia, Anno XVI, giugno 1934
* Renzo D'Andrea, ''Tito Schipa'', Schena Editore, Fasano 1980.
* [[Tito Schipa Jr.]], ''Tito Schipa nella vita e nell'arte'', Argo, Lecce 1993, 2008
* Gianni Carluccio, ''Tito Schipa, un leccese nel mondo'', San Cesario, 2007
* Carlo Stasi, ''Dizionario Enciclopedico dei Salentini'', Grifo, Lecce 2018, Vol. II, pp.&nbsp;974–976


==References==
==References==
Line 41: Line 55:
*[http://www.titoschipa.it/pag1srengl.htm TitoSchipa.it] - English version of the Italian site run by the Schipa family.
*[http://www.titoschipa.it/pag1srengl.htm TitoSchipa.it] - English version of the Italian site run by the Schipa family.
*{{IMDb name|id=0771908|name=Tito Schipa}}.
*{{IMDb name|id=0771908|name=Tito Schipa}}.
*{{YouTube|pGKp78ZEGVE|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]]''.
*{{YouTube|pGKp78ZEGVE|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]]''.
* [https://archive.org/details/TitoSchipaSingsOpera ''Tito Schipa Sings Opera'' (1913) - Single sound recording of Tito Schipa with orchestra singing arias from ''Cacvlleria Rusticana'', ''La Boheme'', ''La giaconda'', ''Lucia di Lammemoor'', ''Rigoletto'' and ''Tosca'' on Archive.org]
* [https://archive.org/details/TitoSchipaSingsOpera ''Tito Schipa Sings Opera'' (1913) - Single sound recording of Tito Schipa with orchestra singing arias from ''Cacvlleria Rusticana'', ''La Boheme'', ''La giaconda'', ''Lucia di Lammemoor'', ''Rigoletto'' and ''Tosca'' on Archive.org]
* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=Tito%20Schipa Tito Schipa's single sound recordings with orchestra singing several popular songs including: ''A Cuba'', ''A la Orilla de un Palmar'', ''Amapola'', ''Chi se nne scorda cchiu'', ''El Gaucho'', ''Granadinas'', ''Jota'', ''Napulitanata'',''Nina'', ''Oh! Dulce Misterio de la Vida'', ''Palgliacci - Serenata d'arlecchino'', ''Pesca d'ammore'', ''Princesita'', ''Quiereme Mucho'', ''Santa Lucía'', ''Son Tutta Duolo'', ''Traviata - Un Di Felice'' on Archive.org]
* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=Tito%20Schipa Tito Schipa's single sound recordings with orchestra singing several popular songs including: ''A Cuba'', ''A la Orilla de un Palmar'', ''Amapola'', ''Chi se nne scorda cchiu'', ''El Gaucho'', ''Granadinas'', ''Jota'', ''Napulitanata'',''Nina'', ''Oh! Dulce Misterio de la Vida'', ''Palgliacci - Serenata d'arlecchino'', ''Pesca d'ammore'', ''Princesita'', ''Quiereme Mucho'', ''Santa Lucía'', ''Son Tutta Duolo'', ''Traviata - Un Di Felice'' on Archive.org]
*[http://historyofthetenor.com/page.php?94 History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration]
* [https://historyofthetenor.com/tito-schipa/ History of the Tenor / Tito Schipa / Sound Clips and Narration]
*[http://nataliamalkova61.narod.ru/index/ilka_popova/0-39 Илка Попова. Встречи на оперной сцене.] Тито Скипа . (стр.116-123). Электронная версия, исправленная и дополненная (пер. с болг. М. Малькова). Спб.2013.(In Russian).
*[http://nataliamalkova61.narod.ru/index/ilka_popova/0-39 Илка Попова. Встречи на оперной сцене.] Тито Скипа . (стр.116-123). Электронная версия, исправленная и дополненная (пер. с болг. М. Малькова). Спб.2013.(In Russian).
* [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/103659 Tito Schipa recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]].

{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Schipa, Tito}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schipa, Tito}}
[[Category:1888 births]]
[[Category:1889 births]]
[[Category:1965 deaths]]
[[Category:1965 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Lecce]]
[[Category:People from Lecce]]
[[Category:Italian operatic tenors]]
[[Category:Italian operatic tenors]]
[[Category:Italian people of Arbëreshë descent]]
[[Category:Italian people of Arbëreshë descent]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian male opera singers]]
[[Category:Victor Records artists]]

Latest revision as of 16:02, 15 August 2024

Tito Schipa
Tito Schipa in 1920 with a camera

Tito Schipa (Italian pronunciation: [ˈskiːpa]; born Raffaele Attilio Amedeo Schipa; 2 January 1889 in Lecce – 16 December 1965) was an Italian tenor.

Biography

[edit]
Schipa with his wife Antoinette in 1925

Schipa was born as Raffaele Attilio Amedeo Schipa on 27 December 1888 in Lecce in Apulia into an Arbëreshë family;[1] his birthday was recorded as January 2, 1889 for military conscription purposes.[2] 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, Argentina. 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. 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 Soviet Union.

Schipa's artistry is preserved on film. In 1929, he appeared in two Vitaphone movie shorts, singing "M'appari" from Flotow's opera Martha and "Una furtiva lagrima" from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.

Schipa's stage repertoire, which in his early career had encompassed a wide range of Verdi and Puccini roles, 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.

Schipa made numerous 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 is still available on CD. He also recorded several tangos, some of which were composed by him in Spanish, mostly in Buenos Aires and New York. Thanks to his early Latin American tours, Schipa was a very popular tenor in Latin America.

Like his contemporary Richard Tauber, Tito Schipa was also a conductor. Although a few contemporary critics considered Schipa's voice to be small in size, restricted in range and slightly husky in timbre, he was still extremely popular with the public. Michael Scott (The Record of Singing: 1978), while admiring Schipa's charm and taste, points out that it is not correct to say that Schipa was a master of bel canto; indeed Scott and others regard Schipa's recording of "Il mio tesoro" from Mozart's Don Giovanni as one of the worst ever made, with sloppy runs and sketchy ornamentation.

Yet his performance of the entire aria during a Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Don Giovanni on January 20, 1934, as well as surviving fragments from a “live” New Orleans performance of the opera in 1935, show him in superb form. "Although the quality of one or two of Mr. Schipa's top notes was rather tenuous," New York critic Francis D. Perkins wrote in the Herald Tribune in January 1934, “the style and phrasing of his aria was usually artistic and well schooled.”

On July 18, 1919, he was initiated to the Scottish Rite Freemasonry[3][4][5] in the Lodge Espartana of Buenos Aires.[6] In 1939, Tito Schipa declined an invitation from Italian-American groups to perform 12 concerts in order to raise money for the Anti-Fascist movement in Italy. Although he was offered $1,000 for each appearance, Schipa refused and is quoted in his letter, dated February 23, 1939,[7] "I am sorry that I cannot sing for Loubet; but you MUST understand my situation; and my relationship with Achille Starace in Italy and all authorities there. And you know the purpose of the benefit for which Loubet asks me to sing for. Not tell anybody the reason; tell that I cannot come to New York or some other excuse; but don't ask me the impossible".

Schipa sang his final performance at the Metropolitan Opera in 1941 before returning to Fascist Italy, "where he was a pet of the Benito Mussolini regime", an association he would never really live down; after returning to the United States, his first post war concert was poorly attended but when he came out of retirement one last time in 1962, Town Hall was jammed.[8] In 1958, Schipa retired from the operatic stage to teach voice, initially in Budapest. He returned to New York for one last concert performance in 1962; Town Hall was full to overflowing.[9] Schipa died of complications from diabetes on December 16, 1965 at the age of 77 in Manhattan, New York City, while teaching there.

Legacy

[edit]

He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.[10]

His son Tito Schipa Jr. is a composer, singer-songwriter, producer, writer and actor.[11]

Selected filmography

[edit]

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Enzo Ferrieri, I "Piccoli" di Hollywood, in Comœdia, Anno XVI, giugno 1934
  • Renzo D'Andrea, Tito Schipa, Schena Editore, Fasano 1980.
  • Tito Schipa Jr., Tito Schipa nella vita e nell'arte, Argo, Lecce 1993, 2008
  • Gianni Carluccio, Tito Schipa, un leccese nel mondo, San Cesario, 2007
  • Carlo Stasi, Dizionario Enciclopedico dei Salentini, Grifo, Lecce 2018, Vol. II, pp. 974–976

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Schipa, Tito (2004). Tito Schipa. p. 25. ISBN 9788882340407.
  2. ^ Tito Schipa
  3. ^ "Quanti personaggi dello spettacolo fra le logge italiane". Archived from the original on Jul 19, 2017. Retrieved Oct 2, 2018.
  4. ^ "Da Belli a Totò a Gino Cervi, MASSONICAmente racconta gli artisti della squadra e del compasso" (in Italian). Jan 2, 2015. Archived from the original on October 2, 2018. Retrieved Oct 2, 2018.
  5. ^ "Cinema: Totò massone, la Gran Loggia d'Italia lo commemora". adnkronos.com (in Italian). Rome. Oct 22, 1999. Archived from the original on Jun 9, 2014. Retrieved Oct 2, 2018.
  6. ^ Vittorio Gnocchini, L'Italia dei Liberi Muratori, Erasmo ed., Roma, 2005, p. 250.
  7. ^ Naugatuck News(Connecticut), March 11, 1947, page 4, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25009558/tito_schipa_portrait_of_a_nazi/
  8. ^ Tito Schipa Obituary, New York Daily New, December 18, 1965, page 53 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25010007/tito_schipa_obituary/
  9. ^ "Tito Schipa, obituary". Daily News. 18 December 1965. p. 53.
  10. ^ Delta Omicron Archived 2010-01-27 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Enrico Deregibus (8 October 2010). Dizionario completo della Canzone Italiana. Giunti Editore, 2010. ISBN 978-8809756250.
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