Giuseppe Gipali

Born Josif Gjipali, Gipali studied violin as a teenager – but then, after school, he switched to electrical engineering, hoping to find a secure job despite Albania's deep economical crisis. However, his love for music gained the upper hand, and he studied voice in Tirana, making also his first steps on the operatic stage in Tirana.

Obviously dismayed at the quality of the Tirana Opera and Ballet Theater, he went to Italy and took further lessons with Aldo Bottion. In 2003, he won Domingo's Operalia contest – and now he had got it made.

An excellent career ensued; he sang at La Scala, the Rome Opera, the San Carlo in Naples, La Fenice, Genova, Florence, Torino, Bologna, Trieste, Palermo, Parma, Bari, Torre del Lago, Arena di Verona, Macerata, well: wherever singing opera is possible in Italy; plus at Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opéra Bastille, Théâtre du Châtelet, in Marseille, Toulouse, Monte Carlo, Toulon, Munich, Hamburg, Köln, San Francisco, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Oviedo, Zürich, Liège, at the Teatre del Liceu, the Vienna Staatsoper... he never became a "star tenor", though; rather a hard-working artisan, indispensable for the operatic business to go on, but never particularly prominent. His voice was generally described as less than powerful, his technique as noble and secure.

His repertory consisted first of all of Verdi (most everything except Otello, including even I masnadieri, I due Foscari, La battaglia di Legnano and Il corsaro), Edgardo, Arturo in Puritani, Pollione, Gounod's and Berlioz' Faust, Nadir, Hoffmann, Werther, Massenet's des Grieux, Cavaradossi, Rodolfo, Pinkerton, Maurizio; and he sang a lot of rarities, Le roi de Lahore, L'arlesiana, Anna Bolena, the French version of Il trovatore, Il pirata, La rondine. His career slowed down considerably after 2000.

Reference 1, reference 2, reference 3, reference 4, reference 5 and picture source

I wish to thank Helmut Krautschneider for the recordings.