Neil Shicoff

Shicoff ( born June 2, 1949 in Brooklyn, New York City ) is an American opera singer (tenor ).

He studied with his father Sidney Shicoff and at the Juilliard School of Music. His first public appearance was Shicoff age of eight at a wedding in the synagogue where his father was the first Chasan, and he had made ​​his professional debut in 1975 with Verdi's Ernani. His meteoric career took him quickly to all the great stages of the world. Priorities now form the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera and the Zurich Opera House.

His repertoire mainly comes from the Italian and French and is relatively narrow. Shicoff chooses his roles wisely.

Shicoff embodies predominantly anti-hero, existential and often psychologically at risk who have come out of balance and vain struggle to get back into balance. His representational power often equips characters with new facets that it was believed without mystery, like Don José ( Carmen ) or Cavaradossi ( Tosca ).

His greatest successes were Massenet's Werther (which he no longer sings since the failure of his first marriage ), Offenbach's Hoffmann, Halévy's La Juive and Eléazar in the central compartment at Verdi.

In the spring of 2007, he was (not least because of his personal friendship with The Chancellor Bauer) as the favorite for the post of Director of the Vienna State Opera, he was then but Dominique Meyer preferred.

In February 2014 Shicoff debuted at the Vienna Volksoper in the role of Calaf in Puccini's Turandot.

Awards

• 2003: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class
• 2003: Honorary Member of the Vienna State Opera
• 2004: Honorary ring bearer of the Vienna State Opera
• 2004: Honorary Medal of the capital, Vienna
• 2006: Gold Medal for Service to the City of Vienna