When Neil Shicoff celebrated the 40th anniversary of his 1975 stage debut as Ernani in Cincinnati, no one had any idea that it would, essentially, mark the end of his career.  In 2014 he added the roles of Canio (at Wiener Staatsoper) and Calaf (at Volksoper Wien) to his repertoire to great acclaim. 

Indeed, speaking with him just a few months between those debuts, we talked about other roles which he was considering.  He also discounted the idea of managing an opera company after the bizarre situation where he was considered by the press and public to be the de facto successor to Ioan Holender as Intendant of Staatsoper, and was shaken by the unexpected decision by the Austrian government in 2007 to give the job to Dominique Meyer

Shicoff was so upset by the decision that he withdrew from a new production of Benvenuto Cellini at Salzburg that summer.  But now, we have learned that he is, indeed, the head of opera at St. Petersburg’s Mikhaylovsky Theatre and has relocated from Wien to upstate New York, with no singing engagements in sight.

As he relates in his emotional remarks after the gala, the most important houses of his career were the Met (with a shout out to James Levine) and Wiener Staatsoper, and I had the good fortune to witness his greatest triumphs in both houses.

Among them, I attended his 1976 Met debut as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, an occasion which he fondly recalled sharing the stage with the likes of Italo Tajo and Fedora Barbieri; I was also in the house when he received the rarely-awarded title of Ehrenmitglied (honorary member) of Staatsoper after a 2003 performance of La Juive.

Shicoff was never shy about his temperament and life-long stage fright, so please keep this in mind when listening to this gala: it takes him a while to warm up.  Also keep in mind that between the ages of 25 and 65 he sang over 200 performances at the Met and almost 250 at Staatsoper in addition to appearing in all of the world’s great opera houses and festivals.

The gala is remarkable not only for Shicoff, but the participation of Krassimira Stoyanova, Anja Silja, Elena Maximova, and Feruccio Furlanetto.  And by all means do listen to the onstage comments at the end, by Meyer and Shicoff – the perfect coda to a remarkable career.

Neil Shicoff: 40 Years on the Stage

Wiener Staatsoper
Frédéric Chaslin, conductor
03 May 2015

Jacques Offenbach
LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN
Prologue

Hoffmann – Neil Shicoff
Lindorf – Paolo Rumetz
The Muse/Nicklausse – Stephanie Houtzeel
Andrès – Thomas Ebensten
Nathanaël – Carlos Osuna

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
PIQUE DAME
Act II, scene ii

Gherman – Neil Shicoff
Countesss – Anja Silja
Lisa – Krassimira Stoyanova

Jacques François Fromental Halévy
LA JUIVE
Act IV

Eléazar – Neil Schicoff
Cardinal de Brogni – Ferruccio Furlanetto
Rachel – Krassimira Stoyanova
Princess Eudoxie – Simina Ivan

Georges Bizet
CARMEN
Act IV

Carmen – Elena Maximova
Don José – Neil Shicoff
Escamillo – Clemens Unterreiner
Frasquita – Simina Ivan
Mercédès – Juliette Mars

Comments by Dominique Meyer and Neil Shicoff