Saimir Pirgu to hold recital at Muses Theater

This year is going to be another successful year for Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu. He plans to hold a recital in February at the Muses Theater in Ancon, Italy. He’ll be interpreting a full program of lyrical songs and also will be honored with the “Franco Corelli” award for his interpretation as Alfredo in “La Traviata,” performed in the same theater exactly one year ago.
The end of 2008 saw Pirgu as the protagonist in the opera “Gianni Scichi” by Giacomo Puccini, performed in Los Angeles Theater and directed by Woody Allen, who experimented in this genre for the first time. For Pirgu this was one of his best collaborations: “It was an unforgettable experience, not only because of the magic that only Los Angeles offers but because I was singing in the theater led by Placido Domingo. For a young man like me it’s beyond imagination to work along two great names in international art such as James Conlon and Woody Allen” says Prigu.
Saimir Pirgu will also make an important debut as Alfredo Germont in La Traviata at the 2009 Santa Fe Opera Festival.
His most recent appearances include La Traviata (Alfredo Germont) at the Zurich Opernhaus and at the Staatsoper Berlin, Don Giovanni and L’elisir d’amore at the Hamburg Staatsoper, Lortzig’s Szenen aus Mozart Leben and Rendine’s Un segreto d’importanza at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, and Falstaff at the Zurich Opernhaus. He returned to the Rossini Opera Festival for La cambiale di matrimonio (Edoardo Milfort) and Mozart’s Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots (Cristiano). He also performed Cos졦an tutte in Lisbon, Don Giovanni in Valencia and La Traviata at the Berlin Staatsoper (December 2006) and at the Zurich Opernhaus (January 2007). Then he sung Don Giovanni (Don Ottavio), Falstaff (Fenton), L’elisir d’amore (Nemorino) at the Vienna Staatsoper and debuted at the Covent Garden as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi (March 2007). In June 2007 he portrayed the role of Fenton (Falstaff) in Bologna. He has just sung the Petite Messe Solennelle at the Rossini Opera Festival. He has recorded his first CD for Universal, Angelo casto e bel, a collection of tenor arias by Mozart, Pergolesi, Bononcini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Massenet. Highlights of his future engagements include Il burbero di buon cuore (Giocondo) in Madrid, Don Giovanni in Seville, Idomeneo with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Styriarte Festival in Graz, La Traviata in Lausanne, and Falstaff in Barcellona. He will again appear at the Vienna Staatsoper to perform L’elisir d’amore, Don Giovanni, Falstaff and La Traviata.
A short bio
Born in 1981, he began his musical studies as a violinist in 1988 at the Liceo d’Arte in his native city of Elbasan and continued studying singing at the Conservatories of Tirana and Bolzano, with Vito Brunetti, who still is his teacher. After moving to Italy, he won the 2001 prize as “Best Young Singer” at the “Umberto Sacchetti” Competition in Bologna and in 2002 the International Competition “Enrico Caruso” in Milan. Later that year he also won the “Tito Schipa” International Competition in Lecce. Early engagements brought Saimir Pirgu to Strasburg and to the Rossini Festival in Wildbad, where he performed as Ermanno in L’equivoco stravagante with Alberto Zedda. Soon after he had his debut as Belfiore in Il viaggio a Reims at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, where he also sang the role of Al졩n Rossini’s Adina under the baton of Renato Palumbo in 2003. Daniel Oren called him to sing the role of Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and with Giovanni Antonini he sang Paolino in Il matrimonio segreto in Bolzano. 2004 was his breakthrough year. He debuted in several operas by Mozart, singing the role of Ferrando in Cos졦an tutte, with Claudio Abbado in Ferrara, Reggio Emilia and Modena. After his first performance in Albania as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, staged at the National Opera Tirana, he was called by director Ioan Holender to sing the same role at the Vienna Staatsoper. This debut brought him the prestigious prize “Eberhard Waechter Gesangsmedaille.” In summer 2004 he had his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Ferrando in Cos졦an tutte directed by Philippe Jordan. In autumn 2004 he appeared as Fenton in Falstaff, another great debut at the Vienna Staatsoper, where he also sang again the role of Nemorino and Ferrando, and with which he also done the Don Giovanni Japan tour with Seiji Ozawa. At the Teatro Real in Madrid he sang in Ramon Carnicer’s Elena e Costantino, and in Munich as Ferrando in Cos졦an tutte. He sang Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni in Bilbaro, followed by engagements as Ferrando and Fenton at the Vienna Staatsoper.