Neil Shicoff

Neil Shicoff (born June 2, 1949) is an American opera singer and cantor and known for his lyric tenor singing and his dramatic, emotional acting.

Beginnings

Neil Shicoff was born in Brooklyn, New York. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music, with his father, the hazzan Sidney Shicoff and others, including Franco Corelli in the early 1980s. He sang in small theatres in New York before music school, including a Don Jose in Bizet's ''Carmen'' at Amato Opera and small roles at Juilliard, and was an apprentice at the Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 1973. His professional debut as a tenor lead in a major opera house was in the title role in Verdi's ''Ernani'', conducted by James Levine in Cincinnati in 1975.

In 1976, Shicoff made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Rinuccio in ''Gianni Schicchi'' conducted by Levine. Shicoff was then engaged by the Met where he appeared in ''Rigoletto'', ''La Bohème'', ''Der Rosenkavalier'', and ''Werther'', which was to become one of his signature roles. He soon sang in the major opera houses in the U.S. and Europe, winning great notices and recording some of his roles. Shicoff experienced severe stage fright well into his career, which caused him to cancel a number of performances. He was known to be a perfectionist, carefully researching and preparing each role, both dramatically and vocally.

In 1978, Shicoff married fellow Juilliard graduate, lyric soprano Judith Haddon. After the death of his mother in 1984, Shicoff suffered emotional problems, technical vocal difficulties and increasing performance anxiety. He cancelled numerous performances, and by the end of the 1980s he had developed a reputation for unreliability.

Rebuilding his career

Shicoff continued singing at the Met until 1990 when he appeared in the title role of ''Faust (opera)''. However, in 1991 he left America, fleeing the stresses and headlines engendered by his ongoing divorce proceeding and custody battle concerning his daughter, into a self-described European exile. He lived for three years in Berlin, then Zürich, performing throughout Europe (with a handful of appearances in Buenos Aires), and he slowly rebuilt his reputation for reliability. He appeared at Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Paris Opera, Covent Garden, Berlin's Deutsche Oper, Bavarian State Opera, Zurich Opera House and numerous other opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe.

By 1997, Shicoff and Haddon finally reached a divorce settlement. Their final decree left Shicoff free to marry soprano Dawn Kotoski, with whom he had lived since 1990, and to renew his relationship with his daughter, Aliza. Shicoff also returned to the Met, as Lensky in ''Eugene Onegin''. His last performance at the Met was in 2006 when he appeared as Rodolfo in ''Luisa Miller''. By then he had appeared with company over 200 times in 20 roles.

Shicoff's most famous roles (besides ''Werther''), include the title roles in ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' and ''Peter Grimes'' and Lensky in ''Eugene Onegin'' and Eleazar in ''La Juive'', as well as for a number of the Romantic French and Italian lyric and spinto tenor roles. In addition to his opera performances, he has also sung concerts with the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein, the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado, the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Edo de Waart, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa, among others, and at many festivals.

Later years

In the 2000s, Shicoff sang the roles of Cavaradossi in ''Tosca'' and Hoffmann at La Scala and Paris’ Opéra Bastille; Des Grieux in ''Manon Lescaut''; Don José in ''Carmen'' at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Zurich Opera House and Eleazar in Halévy's ''La Juive'' at La Fenice in Venice, with Wiener Staatsoper and the Zurich Opera House, Peter Grimes at the Teatro Regio in Turin. He has sung also Edgardo in ''Lucia di Lammermoor'', the title role in ''Idomeneo'', and Rodolfo in ''La bohème'' at the Vienna State Opera; ''Luisa Miller'' (Rodolfo) at the Met; Gabriele Adorno in ''Simon Boccanegra'' at Covent Garden and in Paris; Hermann in Tchaikovsky's '' The Queen of Spades''; and Manrico, Cavaradossi and Pinkerton in ''Madama Butterfly'' at the Zurich Opera House, among others.

Shicoff was a regular at the Vienna State Opera where he attained the rank of Kammersänger and was awarded honorary lifetime membership in the company. His personal friendship with the Austrian Federal Chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, led to wide expectation that he would follow Ioan Holender as director of the opera company in 2010. However, in a surprise decision Austrian Culture Minister Claudia Schmidt, appointed Dominique Meyer as director and Franz Welser-Möst as musical director in June 2007.

Shicoff made his debut at the Mikhailovsky Theatre of Saint Petersburg in 2010, and performed there as Éléazar in ''La Juive'', Hermann in ''Queen of Spades'', Captain Vere in ''Billy Budd'' and Canio in ''Pagliacci''. In 2015 he was appointed head of opera at the Mikhailovsky, for a term of three years. During his time there he regularly held masterclasses with the theatre's young soloists. Since retiring from the stage, Shicoff has continued to work as a voice teacher with several other opera companies and conservatories as well as serving on the juries of voice competitions.

Recordings

* Bizet: ''Carmen'', Philips 422 366-2, Grand Auditorium de Radio France, Paris, 13-22 Jul 1988; Opéra-Comique version; Carmen: Jessye Norman; Micaëla: Mirella Freni; Don José: Neil Shicoff; Escamillo: Simon Estes; Orchestre National de France et Choeurs de Radio France; Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
* Donizetti: ''Lucia di Lammermoor'', Teldec 0630-13803-2, St. Augustine's Church, London, September 1991; Lord Enrico Ashton: Alexandru Agache; Lucia: Edita Gruberova; Sir Edgardo di Ravenswood: Neil Shicoff; Lord Arturo Bucklaw: Bernard Lombardo; Raimondo Bidebent: Alastair Miles; Alisa: Diana Montague; London Symphony Orchestra and the Ambrosian Singers; Conductor: Richard Bonynge
* Halévy: ''La Juive'', RCA Red Seal

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