• Source: Saimir Pirgu

Saimir Pirgu (born 23 September 1981 in Elbasan) is an Albanian international opera singer (tenor). In 2014 he was awarded the Italian citizenship by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano.




Biography


Saimir Pirgu was born in Elbasan, Albania on the 23rd of September 1981. He graduated in singing at the Conservatory Claudio Monteverdi in Bolzano (Italy) where he studied with Vito Maria Brunetti.
At the age of 22 he was discovered by Claudio Abbado who chose him to play the role of Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte. He collaborates with the most prestigious theaters and musical institutions in the world as: Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Opéra National de Paris, Royal Opera House, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, Berlin State Opera and Deutsche Oper, Salzburg Festival, Vienna Musikverein, Bayerische Rundfunks in Munich, and Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
He has been directed by Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa, Gianandrea Noseda, Daniel Barenboim, James Conlon, Antonio Pappano, Daniele Gatti.
He worked with Franco Zeffirelli, Woody Allen, Peter Stein, Graham Vick, Willy Decker, Deborah Warner, Luca Ronconi, Kasper Holten, David McVicar, Ferzan Ozpetek, Mario Martone, Michael Haneke, Robert Carsen.
Among his last appearances are: La damnation de Faust at Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, Rigoletto and King Roger at Royal Opera House London, La traviata at Metropolitan Opera New York, Santa Fe Opera and Berlin State Opera, The Magic Flute at Teatro alla Scala, L'elisir d'amore at Vienna State Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lucia di Lammermoor at Los Angeles Opera, La traviata and I Capuleti e i Montecchi at San Francisco Opera, La bohème and Lucia di Lammermoor at Washington National Opera, Un ballo in maschera in Tel Aviv, La clemenza di Tito at the Opéra national de Paris, Rigoletto at the Arena di Verona and Vienna State Opera, La bohème at Gran Teatre del Liceu, Mozart's Requiem at Symphony Center Chicago, Verdi's Requiem at Salzburg Festival, Vienna Musikverein, Bayerische Rundfunks in Munich, Pilharmonie de Paris and Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
Pirgu won the first prize in the international competitions Caruso in Milan in 2002, and Tito Schipa in Lecce in the same year. He was recognized with the Franco Corelli award in 2009 in Ancona (Italy) and with the prestigious "Pavarotti d'Oro Award" in 2013.
In December 2015, he released his album Il Mio Canto, edited by Opus Arte.
Pirgu made his debut with Opera Australia in 2017 as Shepherd in Szymanowski's King Roger at the Sydney Opera House.




= Religious views

=
Saimir Pirgu has described himself as an atheist, although he has said "if a God exists he exists in music".




Honors and 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
2016: "Çelësit të Qytetit" ("The Key of the City"), an honor of the capital of Albania, Tirana.




Repertoire


Giuseppe Verdi
Il Duca di Mantova – Rigoletto
Alfredo Germont: La traviata
Macduff – Macbeth
Fenton – Falstaff
Gabriele Adorno – Simon Boccanegra (2017, Teatro alla Scala)
Tenor – Requiem
Gaetano Donizetti
Nemorino – L'elisir d'amore
Sir Edgardo di Ravenswood – Lucia di Lammermoor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Idomeneo – Idomeneo re di Creta
Tito Vespasiano – La clemenza di Tito
Don Ottavio – Don Giovanni
Tamino – Die Zauberflöte
Ferrando – Così fan tutte
Tenor – Requiem
Jules Massenet
Le chevalier des Grieux – Manon
Werther – Werther
Charles Gounod
Roméo – Roméo et Juliette
Faust – Faust
Giacomo Puccini
Rodolfo – La Bohème
Rinuccio – Gianni Schicchi
Tenor – Messa di Gloria
Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton – Madama Butterfly
Vincenzo Bellini
Tebaldo – I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Jacques Offenbach
Hoffmann – Les contes d'Hoffmann
Gioachino Rossini
Il cavalier Belfiore – Il viaggio a Reims
Tenor – Petite messe solennelle
Franco Alfano
Christian – Cyrano de Bergerac
Vicente Martín y Soler
Giocondo – Il burbero di buon cuore
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Paolo – Francesca da Rimini
Karol Szymanowski
Shepherd – Król Roger
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Godefroy de Vaudémont – Iolanta
Igor Stravinsky
Tenor – Pulcinella
Joseph Haydn
Tenor – Die Schöpfung
Antonín Dvořák
Tenor – Stabat Mater
Hector Berlioz
Faust – La Damnation de Faust
Tenor – Requiem
Tenor – Messe solennelle




Discography


Il mio canto (Opus Arte), 2015, CD
Szymanowski: Król Roger (Royal Opera House, staged by Kasper Holten, May 2015) Opus Arte, 2015, DVD/Blu-ray
La traviata (Teatro di San Carlo, staged by Ferzan Özpetek, Dec 2012) CG Entertainment, 2015, Pal DVD
Operngala (Naxos), 2015, Live CD
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 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
Ramon 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






External links


Media related to Saimir Pirgu at Wikimedia Commons
Official website

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Saimir Pirgu
• Music of Albania
• Albania
• Lists of Albanians
• Idomeneo
• Religion in Albania
• King Roger
• Gianni Schicchi
• Edlira Dedja
• Elbasan