Petros Epitropakis

The Greek tenor Petros Epitropakis was born in Athens on 22 December 1894. He is considered the "successor" of Nikos Moraïtis. Epitropakis had an impressive career which ranged a wide field covering opera, operetta and lighter Greek popular songs. He was the first of 16 children of Nikitas Epitropakis and Eleni Pitsaki. Before music, he worked as a joiner and later in the office of a journalist and writer.
He studied at the Athens Conservatory where his teacher was Constantine Papadimitriou. He interrupted his studies to join the army, at the age of 20, in 1914 and was discharged on 20 December 1919. He served in Thessaloniki and later in Athens, where while still a soldier, he could continue his studies at the Conservatory now with teacher Nina Foka.
While still a student (and soldier) he made his opera debut at the Attikon of Piraeus on 3 February 1919 as Cavaradossi in "Tosca". In the following years he appeared in several concerts singing scenes from "Rigoletto", "Mefistofele" and other works.
In September 1920 he was granted a scholarship to study in Milan where he studied with Emilio Piccoli (the teacher of Tito Schipa), Giuseppe Borghi and the former tenor Raffaele Grani. He formed his repertoire with "Il barbiere di Siviglia" (Rossini), "Lucia di Lammermoor" and "L'elisir d'amore" (Donizetti), "Rigoletto" and "La traviata" (Verdi) and "Faust" (Gounod). His Italian debut was as Faust at the Teatro Municipale in Marsala.
From 1921 to 1924 he sang at the Teatro Verdi in Milan, in Codisotto, Cremona, La Spezia as well as at the Teatro Regio in Parma, Teatro Carcano and Teatro Dal Verme in Milan.
He returned to Greece in early 1924 where he appeared from January to June in concerts and in July in opera. His appearances with the "Elliniko Melodrama" company scarcely extended beyond the operas mentioned aboved except for some "La bohème" performances.
In February 1926 he sang "Il barbiere di Siviglia" (for the first time in Greek) opposite soprano Aliki Vitsou, who later became his wife. They married in September and had a daughter. The couple traveled to Italy where they also sang "La traviata" on December 10th at the Teatro Italia in Milan.
Petros Epitropakis made several other tours. In November he sang at the Vienna Konzerthaus and made several records with Greek songs for His Master's Voice.
From 25 December 1931 to 17 January 1932, he sang with the "Elliniko Melodrama" in İstanbul: "La traviata", "Rigoletto", "Lucia" and "Barbiere".
From 1 November 1936 to May 1937, the couple Epitropakis-Vitsou sang in Italy, mainly in concerts, in Milan, Piacenza, Fidenza, Parma, Modena, Bologna, Palermo. At the Teatro Carcano, in Milan, they sang a performance of "Il barbiere". Together with bass Nicola Moscona they gave a concert at the Gonzaga Institute in Milan on 2 May 1937; and at the Teatro Ariosto in Reggio Emilia, two performances of "Lucia" with bass Giulio Neri on 8 and 9 May 1938 (Epitropakis sang under the pseudonym Pietro De Pachi). In May he was in Egypt, in June and July in İstanbul, and by the end of 1938 in Alexandria and Port Said for two concerts.
Though his repertory always remained the above mentioned, in 1929 he sang the role of Loris in "Fedora" and in 1934 he was des Grieux in Massenet's "Manon" and sang the title role in "Les contes d'Hoffmann". Operas by Greek composers were not absent in his career. In June 1928 he sang the role of Yanakis in "To dachtylidi tis manas" (Mother's ring) by Manolis Kalomiris, and in January 1930 he appeared in the title role of "O protomastoras" (The masterbuilder) also by Kalomiris. In 1930 he added the role of the Prince in "I Apachides ton Athinon" (The Apaches of Athens) by Nikos Chatziapostolou, not in the theatre but in the filmed version of this very popular operetta.
In 1936 he appeared for the first time on stage in an operetta, "O babás ekpedévete" (Daddy's education) by Chatziapostolou, but for six more years he continued singing in opera. On 2 December 1942 he began a sort of "second career" in operetta. His first success was as Danilo in "Die lustige Witwe" (sung in Greek, of course). By the time he retired, in 1959, he had participated in thousands of performances, in twelve operettas. Among them "Eine Nacht in Venedig", "Kritikopoula" (The Cretan girl) by Greek composer Spyros Samaras, "Die Csárdásfürstin", "Der Bettelstudent", "Das Dreimäderlhaus", "Der Vogelhändler", "Ein Walzertraum", "Die Zirkusprinzessin", "Friederike" and "Der tapfere Soldat" (The chocolate soldier) by Oscar Straus. However, there were still some sporadic appearances in opera ("Il barbiere", in 1943, 1944, 1946 and 1948), "La traviata" (1948) and a new role, Wilhelm Meister in Thomas' "Mignon" on 29 April 1947 (in Greek translation). He sang (in 1934) with the famous baritone Riccardo Stracciari in "Il barbiere di Siviglia" and in "La traviata" with Elvira de Hidalgo. On 7 October 1942 he sang in a concert at the Pallas Cinema in Thessaloniki that included soprano Maria Kalogeropoulou (later Maria Callas). On 28 February 1943 they shared the concert podium again, at the Sporting Cinema in Nea Smyrni.
His last stage performances seem to have been as Massakroff in "Der tapfere Soldat" in October 1958.
Petros Epitropakis appeared in the following films: "O mapánis ke e kamariéra" (The greengrocer and the chambermaid"; Vitaphone, 1929/30), "I Apachides ton Athinon" (The Apaches of Athens, 1930), "Dyo tragoudia stin Ellada" (Two songs in Greece, 1945) and "O satanikos angelos" (The satanic angel, 1949).
Epitropakis was the idol of the Athenian and Greek public in general for four decades. He was awarded the Golden Cross of St. Mark by the Patriarchate of Alexandria and was made Commander of the Royal Order of the Phoenix, in 1967.
Petros Epitropakis died during the night from 9 to 10 April 1977 in Athens. He was 82 years old.

I wish to thank Vladimir Efimenko for the record and picture.

I wish to thank George Leotsakos and Juan Dzazópulos for the biographical notes.