Schipa was born in Lecce, Italy, in 1888. He studied in his home town and later in Milan. He début was in Vercelli in 1910, as Alfredo in Verdi's LaTraviata. By the 1915/16 season he had been engaged for LaTraviata, and the composer Borodin's Prince Igor, at La Scala, Milan.
In 1917 he created the r├┤le of Ruggero in Puccini's La Rondine, at Monte Carlo. He was unquestionably the outstanding tenore di grazia of his generation and his beautiful, flexible voice was in demand particularly for bel canto r├┤les.
He was heard in Rome, Chicago, San Francisco, Naples, London and Paris. His refined musical phrasing and clarity of diction were outstanding and his presence on stage remarkable. He also wrote an operetta La Principessa Liana and a number of songs. He died in New York in 1965.
