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Saimir PIRGU
tenor (Idomeneo)
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Born in 1981, Saimir Pirgu began his musical studies in 1988 at the Liceo d'Arte in his hometown Elbasan (Albania) as a violinist 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 in 2001 the 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.
First 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 Alì in Rossini's Adina under the baton of Renato Palumbo in 2003. Daniel Oren called him to sing the role of Lord 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 is a very successful year and can be considered the international breakthrough of Saimir Pirgu. He debuted in several operas by Mozart, singing the role of Ferrando in Così fan 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 has his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Ferrando in Così fan tutte directed by Philippe Jordan. In autumn 2004 he appeared as Fenton in Falstaff, another great debut at the Wiener 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 Così fan tutte. At the A.B.A.O. - O.L.B.E. in Bilbao he sang Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. Engagements in the roles of Ferrando e Fenton at the Wiener Staatsoper followed. In 2006 he sang at the Zurich Opera House and at the Staatsoper Berlin, at the Hamburgische Staatsoper and at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, in Lisbon, Valencia, and at the Vienna Staatsoper. He returned to the Rossini Opera Festival for La cambiale di matrimonio (Edoardo Milfort) and Mozart's Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots (Cristiano). In march 2007 he debuted at the Covent Garden as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi; 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, Massenet. www.saimirpirgu.com |
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