Alberto Cupido, celebrated in 2001 25 years of his career and today he is undoubtedly among the few tenors of great international presence owing to about 60 operas in his repertoire and more than 20 recordings.
We can understand the greatness of his career simply by drawing up a list of some famous conductors with which he has worked in the most important productions of these last years: Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Zubin Metha, Myun-..Whun Chung, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Giuseppe Sinopli, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Georges Pretre, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Marcello Viotti, Nello Santi.
Cupido sang in the most important theaters all over the world, : the Covent Garden, l'Opera Bastille, the Scala, The Wiener Staatsoper and l'Opera de Paris.
Alberto Cupido was born in Portofino near Genoa in a family that owned deep musical roots; his father was a tenor and performed "Alfredo" in the Paganini Theatre in Genoa, "Arlecchino" in "Pagliacci" at Carlo Felice of Genoa and at Teatro Regio of Turin with Lauri Volpi. Some years later, Alberto Cupido sang in the same theatre and in the same opera the leading role of Canio.
We must remember that, after an audition with M° Giulini, who goaded him into studying, he has pursued his musical training at Milan Conservatorio, at first with M° Campogalliani and then with M° Azzali which has been very important for the acquisition of vocal technique: he attended to the specialization course of the Scala School. After some years of studies he won two important lyrical contests: first in Parma in 1975 and then in 1976 in Busseto. "Concorso Verdi". The first time he treaded the boards was in 1976 in Siena in a production of the Accademia Chigiana where he performed the role of Count Armando of Cherubini's "Il portatore d'acqua" ( The water bearer). A few months later he made his official debut in Genoa at Teatro Margherita in the role of Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly under the conduction of M° Francesco Molinari-Pradelli; this important beginning issued from the winnings of a lyrical contest in the same town. In this occasion the role of Cio-Cio San was performed by a japanese soprano Akiko Kuroda which became his wife in a few time.
Then he sang Lucia di Lammermoor, La Favorita and Rigoletto in Switzerland and in 1977 Rodolfo in Bohème in Frankfurt. These first roles of great success enabled him to attain all the most important German theatres: Traviata in Berlin, Bonn, Luisa Miller in Hamburg under Sinopoli's conduction, Hannover, Stuttgart, Werther in Koln,, Gounod's Faust in Munchen with Freni, Ghiaurov and M° Pretre and Massenet's Manon with Edita Gruberova and the direction of J.P. Ponnelle.
In 1977 he started singing in France at the Opera du Rhin of Strasbourg and at l'Opera de Paris with Traviata, La Bohème, Faust and Mefistofele, besides at the Opèra Bastille with Adriana Lecouvreur, Un Ballo in Maschera and Carmen.
A lot of very important Italian Theatres added to these success as: Bologna, Naples, Ravenna, Rome with Massenet's Manon, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata, Adriana Lecouvreur, Luisa Miller, Tosca, Turandot, Norma, Siena, Trieste, Venice with Gianni Schicchi, Maria di Rudenz, Adriana Lecouvreur, Don Carlo and Carmen, Florence with Gianni Schicchi, Mefistofele and Carmen, Palermo and Turin.
In 1981 he arrived at the Wiener Staatsoper with Gianni Schicchi and it was one of the most important occasion for his career; then followed La Bohéme, Traviata, Tosca, Don Carlo, Luisa Miller, Les Contes d'Hoffmann. The artist is requested a lot even in U.S.A.: actually he sang since 1983 in San Francisco, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, Philadelphia, Buenos Aires, San Paolo do Brazil.
After Europe and America, he made his debut at the Scala in Lucia di Lammermoor in 1984, then Gianni Schicchi, I Lombardi alla prima crociata, I due Foscari, La Bohéme, Tosca, Luisa Miller, Stiffelio.
In 1990 a very important debut too was the one of Arena di Verona with Tosca and then Don Carlo, La Bohème, Carmen. He took part even in the "Tenors Concert", the 27th August of the same year in Beniamino Gigli's honour who was born in 1890. Other tenors were: Carlo Bergonzi, Franco Bonisolli, Peter Dvorsky, Salvatore Fisichella, Emil Ivanov, Mario Malagnini.
Alberto Cupido is endowed with a bright vocal quality and a special technical flexibility similar to the one of Beniamino Gigli; his own repertoire ranges easily from L'Elisir d'amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, Madama Butterfly, to La Traviata, Un ballo in maschera, Don Carlo, Carmen, Tosca, Turandot, Pagliacci.
Cupido's voice is able to face the most classical italian lyric repertoire enabling him to become one of the most representative exponent of our musical heritage in the whole world. Cupido is also a refined interpreter of French repertoire thank to his roles in L'Afrikaine of Meyerbeer, in Esclarmonde, Werther, La Damnation de Faust of Berlioz, Les Pecheurs des perles of Bizet, Carmen, Manon of Massenet and in Faust of Gounod.
Even if he sings traditional roles of opera that allowed him to reach celebrity, he measured himself with operas and roles less known nowadays too, taking on personally their current revaluation: among all we must remember that in 1995 in Zurich he was Giannetto in La cena delle beffe of U. Giordano and in Marseille, Sigurd of Reyer. Recently he has participated to the rediscovery of two forgotten operas: the tragic opera Gloria of F. Cilea in S.Giminiano Festival and Cassandra, a mythologic opera of the composer Vittorio Gnecchi at Radio France Festival of Montpellier.
Therefore A.C. is versatile and careful towards the world of opera in its entirety. So it is not easy to go over the phases of this long and rich of wanderful moments career again; among these moments the Maestro remembers with particular affection his Don Carlo in Wien with Claudio Abbado, Mirella Freni and Renato Bruson; Carmen conducted by Zubin Metha at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino,; Due Foscari at the Scala with Gianandrea Gavazzeni; Un ballo in maschera at the Opéra Bastille with Myun-Whun Chung; Lucìa di Lammermoor at the Scala with Giuseppe Patané and the debut in Turandot in Salzburg under the conduction of Hans Graf.
The audience that heard Cupido's roles had got the chance to appreciate him recently in Turandot, Andrea Chénier and Manon Lescaut at Carlo Felice of Genoa, Tosca in Tokyo, Rome and Helsinky, Un ballo in maschera and Stiffelio in Wien, Carmen in Berlin and Turandot in Hamburg, Tokyo and Berlin, La forza del destino at Teatro Regio of Turin an Teatro Regio of Parma, Stiffelio at Teatro Comunale of Piacenza, Tabarro at the Opera of Rome, Luisa Miller and Un ballo in maschera in Berlin, Tosca and Un ballo in maschera in Hamburg, I Pagliacci at the Teatro Regio of Turin and at the Opera of Rome where he sang Adriana Lecouvreur too.
