Tito Schipa Jr.
- Actor
- Composer
- Director
Tito Schipa Jr. was born in Lisboa (Portugal) during a tournée of his
famous father. He lived his first years in Hollywood, then in Paris and
in northern Italy. From 1955 he lives in Rome, where he has studied
modern literature, oriental religions, history of music and theater,
modern dance, singing, piano. Musical autodidact, he graduated as a
first class composer within the SIAE (the italian association of
authors). He had an intense sport activity in athletics (national level
juniores), fencing (pupil of Agesilao Greco), target-firing, riding,
underwater fishing, karate. He entered the artistic activity as stage
assistant to Giorgio De Lullo, Giancarlo Menotti, Luigi Squarzina, Lina
Wertmuller, in the specific field of musical show. His debut took place
in Rome with "Then an Alley"(Piper Club, May 1967), world first
experiment of pop opera based on Bob Dylan's song-poems. His own pop
opera 'Orfeo 9" (1970) was the first one to be composed in ltaly and
the first one to be staged in the world. With two albums of his own
(1974 and 1982) he achieved the best results as a song-writer of the
socalled "italian second generation". In 1975 he founded the Teatro in
Trastevere, major off-theater in Rome. In 1983 his rock version of
Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" was produced on Summer Broadway by Joe Papp.
His most successful seminar about operatic dramaturgy ("Opera Full
Immersion") has been recently proposed by the Oriental University of
Naples. He is the official translator for Italy of the lyrics of Bob
Dylan and Jim Morrison.
