Saimir Pirgu
Saimir Pirgu (born 23 September 1981 in Elbasan) is an Albanian opera tenor.
Biography
He originally studied the violin,[1] before he moved to Bozen, Italy, where Vito Brunetti discovered his tenor voice.
Pirgu won the award for Best Young Singer in 2001 at the Umberto Sacchetti Competition in Bologna and first prize at the Caruso Competition in Milan and at the Tito Schipa Competition in Lecce in 2002, and in 2009 the Franco Corelli Prize in Ancona.[2] His first professional engagement was at the Rossini Festival in Bad Wildbad with Alberto Zedda conducting, then at the Rossini Opera Festival (Pesaro) in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims and in Adina, and in 2003 at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.
At the age of 22 he was chosen by Claudio Abbado as Ferrando in Così fan tutte. He collaborates with the most prestigious theaters in the world as: Teatro alla Scala, Opéra National de Paris, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera New York, Vienna State Opera. He regularly works with Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Daniele Gatti, Seiji Ozawa, James Conlon and Antonio Pappano. Among his engagements are Don Giovanni (Paris), L'elisir d'amore (Vienna), La traviata (London), Rigoletto (Zurich), The Magic Flute (Teatro alla Scala), Gianni Schicchi at the Metropolitan Opera and at the Los Angeles Opera directed by Woody Allen. He made his debut as Idomeneo conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Styriarte Festival in Graz. Riccardo Muti chose him for Verdis Requiem at the Salzburg Festival.
In March 2012, Pirgu made his debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, performing as Rodolfo in La bohème with the Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu as Mimì. In September 2012, he made his debut with San Francisco Opera as Tebaldo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi. In March 2013, he returned to the Metropolitan Opera in New York to perform the role of Alfredo Germont in La traviata.[3] Saimir is Roman Catholic.[4]
Honors & Awards
- 2002: First Prize at "Caruso" competition (Milan)
- 2002: First Prize at "Tito Schipa" competition (Lecce)
- 2004: "Eberhard-Waechter-Gesangsmedaille" Award (Vienna)
- 2009: "Franco Corelli" Award (Ancona)
- 2013: "Golden Pavarotti" Award
Repertoire
- G. Verdi: Il Duca di Mantova – Rigoletto
- G.Verdi: Alfredo Germont: La Traviata
- G. Verdi: Macduff - Macbeth
- G. Verdi: Fenton - Falstaff
- G. Verdi: Requiem
- G. Donizetti: Nemorino - L'Elisir d'Amore
- G. Donizetti: Sir Edgardo di Ravenswood - Lucia di Lammermoor
- W. A. Mozart: Idomeneo - Idomeneo Re di Creta
- W. A. Mozart: Tito Vespasiano - La clemenza di Tito
- W. A. Mozart: Don Ottavio - Don Giovanni
- W. A. Mozart: Tamino - Die Zauberflöte
- W. A. Mozart: Ferrando - Così Fan Tutte
- W. A. Mozart : Requiem
- J. Massenet: Il Cavaliere Des Grieux - Manon
- J. Massenet: Werther - Werther
- Ch. Gounod: Roméo - Roméo et Juliette
- Ch. Gounod: Faust - Faust
- G. Puccini: Rodolfo - La Bohème
- G. Puccini: Rinuccio - Gianni Schicchi
- G. Puccini: Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton - Madama Butterfly
- V. Bellini: Tebaldo – I Capuleti e i Montecchi
- J. Hoffenbach: Hoffmann - Les contes d'Hoffmann
- G. Rossini: Il cavalier Belfiore - Il Viaggio a Reims
- G. Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle
- F. Alfano: Christian - Cyrano de Bergerac
- V. Martín y Soler: Giocondo - Il Burbero di Buon Cuore
- S. V. Rachmaninov: Paolo - Francesca da Rimini
- P. I. Čajkovskij: Godefroy de Vaudémont - Iolanta
- I. Stravinskij: Pulcinella
- F. J. Haydn: Die Schöpfung (La Creazione)
- A. Dvorak: Stabat Mater
- H. Berlioz: Requiem
- H. Berlioz: Messe Solennelle
Discography
- G. Verdi - Rigoletto (Zürich Opernhaus 2014), 2015, DVD
- G. Verdi - Requiem (Vienna Musikverein 2013), 2014, DVD Blu-ray
- G. Verdi - Requiem (München, Bayerische Rundfunk 2013), 2014, CD
- V. Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi (San Francisco Opera 2012), 2014, DVD Blu-ray
- New Year's Concert 2013 (Venice, Teatro la Fenice 2013), 2014, DVD Blu-ray
- W. A. Mozart – Die Zauberflöte (Milan, Teatro alla Scala 2011), 2012, DVD Blu-ray
- G. Puccini – La bohème im Hochhaus (Live from Berne, Switzerland, 2009), 2010, DVD
- W. A. Mozart – Idomeneo (Graz, Styriarte Festival 2008), 2009, DVD
- G. Verdi – La traviata (Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Belgium 2009) 2009, DVD
- V. Martín y Soler – Il burbero di buon cuore (Madrid, Teatro Real 2007) 2009, DVD
- V. Martín y Soler – Il burbero di buon cuore (Madrid, Teatro Real 2007) 2013, CD
- R. Carnicer – Elena e Costantino (Madrid, Teatro Real 2005) 2009, CD
- G. Rossini – La cambiale di matrimonio (Rossini Opera Festival 2006) 2008, DVD
- G. Rossini – La cambiale di matrimonio (Rossini Opera Festival 2006) 2007, CD
- Opera Night (Opera Cologne, for the German AIDS Foundation, 2005), 2006 DVD
- Angelo Casto e Bel (Universal), 2006, CD
References
- ↑ "Ein Sängerleben ist nicht so einfach" by Daniel Ender, Der Standard (9 December 2010) (German)
- ↑ Saimir Pirgu at Styriarte Festival
- ↑ Matthew Gurewitsch "Tenor Saimir Pirgu Hits his Stride", The New York Times, March 8, 2013
- ↑ GUREWITSCH, MATTHEW. "Tenor From the Dark Side of the Moon". New Yourk Times.
People ask if I’m Muslim. I’m not. St. Peter passed through Albania on his way to Rome. We were completely Catholic.