Pedro Lavirgen - VERDI - LA FORZA DEL DESTINO, (Selection), Pedro Lavirgen, Oliviero de Fabritis (2023) [24/192]

Pedro Lavirgen Gil (Bujalance, 31 July 1930 - Madrid, 2 April 2023) was a Spanish tenor.

He was born in Bujalance, Córdoba on July 31, 1930, to Antonio Luis Lavirgen Martínez and Marcelina Gil Romero. From his childhood he manifests his musical disposition, although there are two facts that lead him to a singing career: on the one hand, his internment, for three years, at the Brothers' hospital of San Juan de Dios in Córdoba where he was part of the choir and, on the other, the influence of the parish priest of Bujalance, Don Ladislao Senostaín, who organizes a choir and makes him its soloist. After finishing high school, he obtains the title of national teacher and goes to Madrid where, while teaching his classes, he is examined to join the Chamber Choir of National Radio of Spain.

After alternating teaching and singing for a while, she left school and became a chorister at the Teatro de la Zarzuela, while studying music at the Conservatory and performing art at the Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático. She meets Don Miguel Barrosa, a singing teacher, and previously a highly appreciated tenor in Italy for twenty years, and it is this who completes his training as a singer.

He appeared as a solo tenor in 1959 in Zaragoza, with Marina, obtaining a good success. He sings several zarzuelas and, in 1964, José Tamayo hires him as first tenor for the so-called Amadeo Vives Lyric Company. She made her entry into the world of opera performing Aida at the Teatro Bellas Artes in Mexico, with Antonietta Stella and Robert Merrill and is presented at the Gran Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona with Carmen. He has performed in this theater for nineteen consecutive seasons, a record not equaled by any singer. He triumphs with Pagliacci at the Vienna Staatsoper, with Tosca at the Metropolitan in New York, with Turandot at La Scala, where he had made his debut on February 1, 1976 with Aida, standing out above all in passionate and dramatic roles, among which that of Don José in Bizet's opera stands out, a role with which he performed in 1975 at London's Covent Garden.

Shortly after, he sings the Verdian Othello for the first time (Mahón, April 1976). After Tosca and Turandot in Vienna, he travels to Venezuela to open the opera season of the Municipal Theater of Caracas with the Troubadour. However, the performance could not be performed, because the tenor was kidnapped along with the director of the performance, Michelangelo Veltri, and his wife, by the driver who was taking them to the theater and other accomplices. Fortunately, everything ended in a fright, because the kidnappers ended up freeing them.

Throughout his career he has received countless awards, including the national theater awards of 1963 and 1972, the gold medal of the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid in 1967[citation needed], the gold medal of the Círculo de la Ópera of Mexico in 1965, that of the Liceo de Barcelona in 1969, the Golden Verdi in 1973 and the Jussi Björling of Modena in 1977. Practically retired from the stage in 1993, he held the chair of singing at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid.

There is an avenue named after him in Córdoba, a square named after him in Bujalance, the International Singing Competition 'Pedro Lavirgen' of Priego de Córdoba, the Musician-cultural Association 'Pedro Lavirgen' — band, choir and theater group — of Bujalance and the Municipal School of Music 'Tenor Pedro Lavirgen' of Bujalance.

TRACKLIST

1. Pedro Lavirgen - Act.I, Scena e Duetto, Ah per sempre o mio bell' angelo
2. Pedro Lavirgen - Act.III, In Italia presso velletri
3. Pedro Lavirgen - Act.III, Amici in vita e in morte, All' armi' all' armi', Solenme in quest' ora giurarmi dovete
4. Pedro Lavirgen - Act.IV, Del mondo i disinganni
5. Pedro Lavirgen - Act.IV, Giunge qualeun…aprite…, Col sangue sol cancellasi
6. Pedro Lavirgen - Act.IV, Terzetto Finale, Non imprecare, umilati



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