Aleksandër Moisiu, world-renowned actor of Albanian origin, People’s Artist (posthumously), passed away. He was born in Trieste. He came from the Albanian family of Moisiu, originally from Kavaja. He finished high school in Graz (Austria) in 1898. After his father’s death, the family settled in Vienna. For a short time, Aleksandër Moisiu attended the Vienna Conservatory, but for economic reasons he was forced to work as a clapper at the Opera and as an extra in the Burgtheater. Aleksandër Moisiu started his career as an actor in 1899, on the stage of the Prison Theater. In 1903, he debuted at the German Theater in Prague. In 1905, the famous director Max Reinhardt took him to his theater, allowing him to express his skills and be appreciated as an actor in the roles of Oswald (“Ghosts”, H. Ibsen), Hamlet ( Shakespeare), etc. Only the role of Fedya from the play “The Living Corpse” by Leo Tolstoy was interpreted 1200 times, giving with great skill the existential anxiety of man in the face of death. In 1917, he received a certificate, which proved his Albanian nationality. In the years 1924–1929 he performed in Moscow, Leningrad, Paris, and the main cities of North America; in 1931, he toured South America. Due to the Nazi persecution (suspected of being Jewish because of his last name), in 1932, Aleksandër Moisiu left Germany and settled in Switzerland. In 1933, he completed the documents at the Albanian embassy in Vienna to acquire Albanian citizenship, which was granted to him in April 1934. He died prematurely, at the peak of his stage creativity, in Vienna (Austria). Aleksandër Moisiu stood out in the history of world stage art, especially for his original interpretation, powerful temperament, philosophical depth, lyricism, and poetic beauty of the characters. His voice, which had a special sound, also left an impression. The Palace of Culture, the drama theater and the university of the city of Durrës, as well as a square in Trieste, bear the name Aleksandër Moisiu. There are museums dedicated to Aleksandër Moisiu in Vienna and in Durrës. (In the photo: Aleksandër Moisiu)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1754-1755.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksand%C3%ABr_Moisiu
Graphic processing: AHCF
