By Salvatore Margarone

This year 2015 marks the 50-year anniversary of the death of the great tenor Tito Schipa.

We like to remember him by rebuilding in short his life and career and some tidbits, not to forget…

Raffaele Attilio Amedeo Schipaknown worldwide as Tito Schipa, was born in Lecce on 27 December 1888 (though it was recorded at the Registry Office on 2 January of the following year). And’ considered one of the greatest tenors in the history of the opera, equipped with excellent technique, whose singing style appears even now current.

His stage name comes from the nickname “Titu“, given as a boy because of stature not great. Only thirteen years old he entered the seminary and began to study music composition. Its growth was followed in Lecce from Alceste Gerunda and he continued, until the consecration in Milan with Emilio Small.

Debuting on February 4, 1909 in Vercelli, Piedmont, with the “Traviata”. Success in 1914 in Naples thanks to a “Tosca” played masterfully: from that day became “Tito Schipa”.

In 1915, he worked at the teatro “The Worm” singing in Milan “Traviata” and in “Falstaff” by Verdi. In that season the debut as tenore di grazia to the mythical “Scale” with “Prince Igor” and “Manon Lescaut”. Thanks to Puccini's opera came in 1918 to Madrid also the first triumph abroad. In 1919 the United States, where he would remain for about fifteen years, with the arrival in Chicago where he married showgirl French Antoinette Michel of Ogoy.

The December 4, 1919 Tito Schipa debuted in Illinois communities with “Rigoletto” under the direction of Gino Marinuzzi. From there to “Metropolitan Opera” in New York, where he succeeded Beniamino Gigli in 1932, was a short step. In America the tenor salentino became an Idol.

The breakup with his wife (who had given him two daughters, Elena and Liana) and nostalgia for the homeland brought him in Italy. Here, as well as prestigious stages, always a limestone acting career commenced in Hollywood (they remember “Live” and “Three men in tails”). During the war he married actress Diana Prandi, who in 1946 gave Tito Jr.

Overall were countless his tournee abroad, so as to make him speak four languages fluently and sing in more than a dozen.

On April 14, 1955 said farewell to the stage with “Elixir of love” al “Pandya” di Bari. He returned to the United States (still darling of American crowd) and died in New York on December 16, 1965 for a cardiovascular collapse.

Tito Schipa's body arrived in Lecce on January 3, 1966 in a Santa Croce overflowing with people, massed outside. The never forgotten tenor rests in the cemetery at Lecce since in a grave next to the Church of St Niccolò and Cataldo.

His melodious voice echoes every day in piazza Sant'Oronzo to Lecce to identify the noon.

Salvatore Margarone