Giuseppe Piliego

Giuseppe Piliego was born in Brindisi on July 16, 1886, by Giovanni and Concetta Ribezzi; the following July 25, 1886 is baptized by Don Pasquale Camassa. At nineteen, she moved to study singing in Milan and a newspaper of the time notes: “Her nice voice is tenor makes us well to hope”. In 1907 he moved to Florence to follow the lessons of Vincenzo Lombardi already master of Enrico Caruso. Five years after his debut in Florence; criticism found that the brindisi tenor had “all the best qualities to emerge soon and very much”. Also in 1912 his first performance in Brindisi, at the Verdi theater, with Traviata; great was her success on that occasion, stressing that she had “all those vocal qualities that assure him, by now, a splendid and fast career”.
The hope turned into reality; In the following years, Piliego received great accolades throughout Italy so much that he was written to sing in the Carnival of 1913 at the Venice Phoenix in Mephistopheles and Melisanda. At Politeama di Lecce, after the execution of Favorita, the press showed that Piliego possessed, as well as a beautiful voice, unusual artistic talent. In 1914 he moved to Florence where on 11 July 1914 he married Adelasia Ignesti; followed by acclaimed performances at Mastrojeni in Messina, at Rendano di Cosenza, at Petruzzelli in Bari, at Politeama in Genoa, in Treviso. After the break due to the Great War, he returned to work in the winter of 1918 with performances in Pistoia and Livorno; in the spring it is at Costanzi di Roma dedicated to Cavalleria Rusticana. In the fall of 1919 it is required by the San Carlo theater in Lisbon; at the beginning of next year he is in Madrid where he performs in Manon, Cavalleria Rusticana and Mephistopheles; in this latter circumstance it was “aplaudido en todos momentos. La romanza final la dijo con extraordinario gusto y le valió una ovación” From November 1920 to March 1921 he is at the Sultan Theater in Cairo, where Bohème proposes. In the summer of 1921 in the theater of Sesto Fiorentino he sings both in Cavalleria Rusticana and in Pagliacci.
After acclaimed performances in Padua and Verdi in Pisa, they are following great success abroad; in 1925 he is at the Opera of Algiers where he will be the protagonist in 14 representations. He returned to Italy for a short time, and after a season at the Greens of Pisa, he moved to the United States in 1927 for a few years. On October 19, that year, in New York, Liederkranz Hall, he made a contribution to Victor Santa Lucia’s luntana by E. A. Mario, accompanied by the Master Singers of Florence, directed by Sandro Benelli. The following year Brunswick Record, by Elisir d’amore, Romance A furtive lagride.
Returning to Italy retires from scenes in 1938; the following year he moved his residence to Florence where he died on October 27, 1963.
Giacomo Carito

Giacomo Carito