Neil Shicoff
Encyclopedia
Neil Shicoff is an American Jewish opera
singer and cantor known for his lyric tenor
singing and his dramatic, emotional acting.
, 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 big 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 to sing the tenor leads 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.
, 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
, to good notices. He has now been heard in nearly 200 performances of 20 roles at the Met.
Due to his personal friendship with the Austrian Federal Chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer
, Shicoff was widely expected to follow Ioan Holender
as director of the Vienna State Opera
(Wiener Staatsoper) in 2010. In a surprise decision and in defiance of Gusenbauer's publicly stated wish, Austrian Culture Minister Claudia Schmidt, however, appointed Dominique Meyer as director and Franz Welser-Möst
as musical director on June 6, 2007.
Shicoff's most famous roles (besides Werther), include the title roles in Tales of Hoffman 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.
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 the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with Wiener Staatsoper and the Zurich Opera House, Peter Grimes at the Teatro Regio di Torino. He has sung also Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor
, the title role in Idomeneo
, and Rodolfo in La bohème at the Wiener Staatsoper; Luisa Miller
(Rodolfo) at the Met; Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra
at Covent Garden and in Paris; Hermann in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's
'Pique Dame
'; and Manrico, Cavaradossi and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly
at the Zurich Opera House, among others. A regular at Wiener Staatsoper (where he attained the rank of Kammersänger and the rarely-awarded honorary lifetime membership in the company) he continues to triumph mostly in the verismo repertoire, but in February 2011 he repeated his huge success in the role of Captain Vere in Benjamin Britten
's Billy Budd
which he sang in the company premiere of the opera in 2002.
Along with his Vienna State Opera honors, he has also received the Golden Austrian Cross of Honor in the fields of Science and Art, the Golden Decoration for Services to the City of Vienna and France's Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans L'Ordre des Arts e des Lettres). He is a Grammy nominated artist and most recently, in April 2011, he was awarded the prestigious Russian Golden Mask Award as "Best Male Opera Performer".
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer and cantor known for his lyric tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
singing and his dramatic, emotional acting.
Beginnings
Neil Shicoff was born in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York. He studied at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
of Music, with his father, the hazzan
Hazzan
A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...
Sidney Shicoff and others, including Franco Corelli
Franco Corelli
Franco Corelli was a famous Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976. Associated in particular with the spinto and dramatic tenor roles of the Italian repertory, he was celebrated universally for his powerhouse voice, electrifying top notes, clear timbre, a...
in the early 1980s. He sang in small theatres in New York before music school, including a Don Jose in Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
at Amato Opera and small roles at Juilliard, and was an apprentice at the Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
in the summer of 1973. His professional debut as a tenor lead in a big opera house was in the title role in Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Ernani
Ernani
Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. The first production took place at La Fenice Theatre, Venice on 9 March 1844...
, conducted by James Levine
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...
in Cincinnati in 1975.
In 1976, Shicoff made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
conducted by Levine. Shicoff was then engaged by the Met to sing the tenor leads in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, La Bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
, and Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
, 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
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
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 for two years, but 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 appearances in Buenos Aires), and he slowly rebuilt his reputation for reliability. He appeared at Vienna State OperaVienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
, La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, Paris Opera, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Berlin's Deutsche Oper, Bavarian State Opera
Bavarian State Opera
The Bavarian State Opera is an opera company based in Munich, Germany.Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.- History:The opera company which was founded under Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653...
, Zurich Opera House
Zurich Opera House
Opernhaus Zürich is an opera house in the Swiss city of Zurich. It has been the home of the Zurich Opera since 1891.- History :...
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
Dawn Kotoski
Dawn Kotoski is an American operatic soprano who has a substantial international opera career. She began her career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City during the late 1980s singing lighter lyric soprano and soubrette roles. She joined the Vienna State Opera for the 1993–1994 season...
, 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
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
, to good notices. He has now been heard in nearly 200 performances of 20 roles at the Met.
Due to his personal friendship with the Austrian Federal Chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer
Alfred Gusenbauer
Alfred Gusenbauer is an Austrian career politician who until 2008 spent his entire professional life as an employee of the Social Democratic Party of Austria or as a parliamentary representative. He headed the SPÖ from 2000 to 2008, and served as Chancellor of Austria from January 2007 to...
, Shicoff was widely expected to follow Ioan Holender
Ioan Holender
Ioan Holender is a Romanian born Austrian opera administrator.Holender was born in Timişoara, Romania. His family is of Jewish ancestry, and growing up, he spoke 3 languages. His father owned a factory in Timişoara, which was expropriated in 1948. Holender studied mechanical engineering at the...
as director of the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
(Wiener Staatsoper) in 2010. In a surprise decision and in defiance of Gusenbauer's publicly stated wish, Austrian Culture Minister Claudia Schmidt, however, appointed Dominique Meyer as director and Franz Welser-Möst
Franz Welser-Möst
Franz Welser-Möst is an Austrian conductor who is currently the music director for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera.- Biography :...
as musical director on June 6, 2007.
Shicoff's most famous roles (besides Werther), include the title roles in Tales of Hoffman and Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...
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
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...
, the San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization...
conducted by Edo de Waart
Edo de Waart
Edo de Waart is a Dutch conductor, and the Music Director of both the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra....
, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
conducted by Seiji Ozawa
Seiji Ozawa
is a Japanese conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of large-scale late Romantic works. He is most known for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera.-Early years:...
, among others, and at many festivals.
Recent performances
In recent seasons, Shicoff sang the roles of Cavaradossi in ToscaTosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
and Hoffmann at La Scala and Paris’ Opéra Bastille
Opéra Bastille
L'Opéra Bastille ' is a modern opera house in Paris, France. It is the home base of the Opéra national de Paris and was designed to replace the Palais Garnier, which is nowadays mainly used for ballet performances....
; Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut (Puccini)
Manon Lescaut is an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini. The story is based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost....
; Don José in Carmen at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
and the Zurich Opera House and Eleazar in Halévy
Fromental Halévy
Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy, usually known as Fromental Halévy , was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera La Juive.-Early career:...
's La Juive
La Juive
La Juive is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on February 23, 1835.-Composition history:...
at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with Wiener Staatsoper and the Zurich Opera House, Peter Grimes at the Teatro Regio di Torino. He has sung also Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
, the title role in Idomeneo
Idomeneo
Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712...
, and Rodolfo in La bohème at the Wiener Staatsoper; Luisa Miller
Luisa Miller
Luisa Miller is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich von Schiller. The first performance was given at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on December 8, 1849...
(Rodolfo) at the Met; Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Simón Bocanegra by Antonio García Gutiérrez....
at Covent Garden and in Paris; Hermann in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
'Pique Dame
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
'; and Manrico, Cavaradossi and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
at the Zurich Opera House, among others. A regular at Wiener Staatsoper (where he attained the rank of Kammersänger and the rarely-awarded honorary lifetime membership in the company) he continues to triumph mostly in the verismo repertoire, but in February 2011 he repeated his huge success in the role of Captain Vere in Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Billy Budd
Billy Budd
Billy Budd is a short novel by Herman Melville.Billy Budd can also refer to:*Billy Budd , a 1962 film produced, directed, and co-written by Peter Ustinov, based on Melville's novel...
which he sang in the company premiere of the opera in 2002.
Along with his Vienna State Opera honors, he has also received the Golden Austrian Cross of Honor in the fields of Science and Art, the Golden Decoration for Services to the City of Vienna and France's Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans L'Ordre des Arts e des Lettres). He is a Grammy nominated artist and most recently, in April 2011, he was awarded the prestigious Russian Golden Mask Award as "Best Male Opera Performer".
Recordings
- BizetGeorges BizetGeorges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
: 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
- DonizettiGaetano DonizettiDomenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
: Lucia di Lammermoor, Teldec 0630-13803-2, St. Augustine's Church, London, September 1991; Lord Enrico Ashton: Alexandru AgacheAlexandru AgacheAlexandru Agache is a Romanian operatic baritone who has had an active international career since 1979. Possessing a powerful and flexible voice, he has drawn particular acclaim in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi.-Career:...
; 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
- OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
: Les Contes d'Hoffmann, EMI CDS 7 49641, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Jun-Jul 1988; Fritz Oeser edition; Hoffmann: Neil Shicoff; Nicklausse/La Muse: Ann Murray; Olympia: Luciana Serra; Antonia: Rosalind Plowright; Giulietta: Jessye Norman; Lindorf/Coppélius/Miracle/Dapertutto: José van Dam; Symphonic Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National du Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels; Conductor: Sylvain Cambreling
- PucciniGiacomo PucciniGiacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
: The Puccini Album: Great scenes from Tosca and Manon Lescaut, Philips 456 586-2, Teatro Comunale, Florence, Nov 1997; Floria Tosca: Galina Gorchakova; Mario Cavaradossi: Neil Shicoff; Il Sagrestano: Alessandro Calamai; Manon Lescaut: Galina Gorchakova; Renato Des Grieux: Neil Shicoff; Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
- Puccini: Il tabarroIl tabarroIl tabarro is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Gold's play La houppelande. It is the first of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
, EMI CD 5 56587 2 - disc 1, Lyndhurst Hall, Air Studios, Hampstead, London, Jul 1997; Michele: Carlo Guelfi; Giorgetta: Maria Guleghina; Luigi: Neil Shicoff; London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices; Conductor: Antonio Pappano
- TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
: Eugene Onegin, Philips 438 235-2, Paris, Oct 1992; Larina: Sarah Walker; Tatiana: Nuccia Focile; Olga: Olga Borodina; Filipyevna: Irina Arkhipova; Eugene Onegin: Dmitri Hvorostovsky; Lensky: Neil Shicoff; Prince Gremin: Alexander Anisimov; St. Petersburg Chamber Choir and Orchestre de Paris; Conductor: Semyon Bychkov
- Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, Deutsche Grammophon 423959-2, Lukaskirche, Dresden, Jun 1987; Larina: Rosemarie Lang; Tatiana: Mirella Freni; Olga: Anne Sophie von Otter; Filipyevna: Ruthild Engert; Eugene Onegin: Thomas Allen; Lensky: Neil Shicoff; Prince Gremin: Paata Burchuladze; Staatskapelle Dresden and Rundfunkchor Leipzig; Conductor: James Levine
- VerdiGiuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
: AroldoAroldoAroldo is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on and adapted from their earlier 1850 collaboration, Stiffelio...
, Philips 462 512-2; Aroldo: Neil Shicoff; Mina: Carol Vaness; Egberto: Anthony Michaels-Moore; Briano: Roberto Scandiuzzi; Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Conductor: Fabio Luisi
- Verdi: AttilaAttila (opera)Attila is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the play Attila, König der Hunnen by Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner. Initially, Verdi had enlisted Francesco Maria Piave to prepare the libretto, after Verdi's own scenario...
, EMI CDS749952-2, Albanella, Milan, Jun-Jul 1989; Attila: Samuel Ramey; Odabella: Cheryl Studer; Foresto: Neil Shicoff; Ezio: Giorgio Zancanaro; Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro alla Scala; Conductor: Riccardo Muti
- Verdi: MacbethMacbeth (opera)Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name...
, Philips 412 133-2, Berlin, Nov-Dec 1983; Lady Macbeth: Mara Zampieri; Macbeth: Renato Bruson; Banco: Robert Lloyd; Dama: Lucia Aliberti; Macduff: Neil Shicoff; Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin; Conductor: Giuseppe Sinopoli
- Verdi: Rigoletto, Philips 412 592-2 -or- 462 158-2, Rome, Sep 1984; Il Duca di Mantova: Neil Shicoff; Rigoletto: Renato Bruson; Gilda: Edita Gruberova; Sparafucile: Robert Lloyd; Maddalena: Brigitte Fassbaender; Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Conductor: Giuseppe Sinopoli
- Verdi: La traviata, Teldec 9031-76348-2, Abbey Road Studios, London, Feb 1992; Violetta Valéry: Edita Gruberova; Flora Bervoix: Patricia Spence; Annina: Monica Bacelli; Alfredo Germont: Neil Shicoff; Giorgio Germont: Giorgio Zancanaro; London Symphony Orchestra and the Ambrosian Singers; Conductor: Carlo Rizzi
Videography
- Offenbach: Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Metropolitan Opera Video; Metropolitan Opera, 8 Jan 1988 | Telecast: 2 Mar 1988; Olympia: Gwendolyn Bradley; Antonia: Roberta Alexander; Giulietta: Tatiana Troyanos; Nicklausse/La Muse: Susan Quittmeyer; Hoffmann: Neil Shicoff; Lindorf/Coppélius/Miracle/Dapertutto: James Morris; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus; Conductor: Charles Dutoit
- Puccini: La Bohème, National Video Corporation 4509-99222-3 -or- Castle Vision CVI 2014; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1982; Mimì: Ileana Cotrubas; Rodolfo: Neil Shicoff; Marcello: Thomas Allen; Musetta: Marilyn Zschau; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Royal Opera Chorus; Conductor: Lamberto Gardelli
- Verdi: La traviata, National Video Corporation 4509-92409-3/Teldec Video; Gran Teatro La Fenice, Venice, Dec 1992; Violetta Valéry: Edita Gruberova; Flora Bervoix: Mariana Pentcheva; Annina: Antonella Trevisan; Alfredo Germont: Neil Shicoff; Giorgio Germont: Giorgio Zancanaro; Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro La Fenice; Conductor: Carlo Rizzi
- Halévy: La juive, Deutsche Grammophon DVD 00440 073 4001; Vienna State OperaVienna State OperaThe Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
15 May 2003; Neil Shicoff (Eléazar), Krassimira Stoyanova (Rachel), Simina Ivan (Euxodie), Jianyi ZhangJianyi ZhangJianyi Zhang is an American operatic tenor of Chinese birth. A graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School, he has had an active international career in concerts and operas since the mid 1980s...
(Léopold), Walter Fink (Cardinal Brogni) - Chor und Orchester der Wiener StaatsoperVienna State OperaThe Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
, cond. Vjekoslav ŠutejVjekoslav ŠutejVjekoslav Šutej was a prominent Croatian orchestral conductor.-Overview:Šutej studied conducting under Igor Gjadrov at the Zagreb Music Academy, before obtaining his Master of Music degree in Rome in the class of Franco Ferrara.From 1979 to 1989 he was art director and chief conductor at the...