100Singers's video: 100 Singers - NEIL SHICOFF

Neil Shicoff, Tenor (*1949) Tchaikovsky: EUGENE ONEGIN Lensky's aria: "Kuda, kuda vï udalilis" Conducted by Semyon Bychkov / 1993 My personal opinion: There is something called the vocal 'physique du rôle', meaning a voice corresponds in its timbre to the fictional role-character. To clarify: I'm not talking about technical requirements, only about the tonal characteristic of a voice. Let's take for instance ANDREA CHÉNIER in Giordano's veristic opera that took place during the chaos of the French Revolution. Chénier is a multifaceted figure: He is a poet and a revolutioner, sensitive and brave at the same time. Voices that would fit to this character would have been that of Giuseppe di Stefano and José Carreras. But they were slightly overstrained with the dramatic moments of the part, which were no problems for spinto tenors such as Mario del Monaco, Franco Corelli or Placido Domingo - but they, in turn, all sang less poetically. Sadly, the sheer perfect singer for Chénier never performed the role on stage: Jussi Bjoerling, who left us only some fine recordings of "Come un bel di di maggio". One of the most unstable personage in opera is the title character in Offenbach's LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN: A poet, but a drunkhard too. A lover, but also a self-destructive dreamer. How do you imagine the voice of this complex man? As for me, in the shortlist I take the French-Canadian Raul Jobin (1906-1974) and, most of all, the American Neil Shicoff (*1949), just as Jon Vickers (1926-2015) or Kenneth Riegel (*1938) a specialist for torn or neurotic characters: Massenet's WERTHER, Bizet's Don José in CARMEN, Tchaikovsky's Lensky in EUGENE ONEGIN or Britten's PETER GRIMES, to name just a few ... Neil Shicoff's Hoffmann was surely his greatest and most famous creation. "It remains my obsession to look for answers in my roles ...", Shicoff once said ambiguously. To get straight to the point: Shicoff never really had the chance to follow in the footsteps of Domingo, Carreras and Pavarotti, even if the media frequently called him "The Fourth Tenor". He was not one of these 'Golden Boys Of Opera', not a youthful lover who radiated charm and won the hearts of the female audience. No matter what he sang, he carried an aura of aloofness that brought a distance between him and the common opera-goer. Peter G. Davis, author of "The American Opera Singer", wrote of Shicoff as a "high-strung loner method-actor who came across the stage as an operatic Al Pacino." He was even considered arrogant by some of his colleagues. Davis continued: "Perhaps Neil Shicoff was a troubled egomaniac, but he was also the most vocally gifted tenor of his generation ..." I would not unreservedly underline this statement, because I did not forget the highly talented Jerry Hadley (1952-2007), who took his own life at the age of only 55. But with his stirring interpretation, Shicoff has secured himself a place among the best singers of Hoffmann. He has sung the role at the 2003 Salzburg Festival, for 20 years in 14 performances at the Vienna State Opera (1994-2014) and from 1984 to 2000 in 18 performances at the Metropolitan ... In 1986, Neil Shicoff recorded the part under Sylvain Cambreling. Sadly, it is the edition created by musicologist Fritz Oeser, who filled in holes in the score indiscriminately with melodies from other works by Offenbach (ommitting the beloved "Scintille, diamant"). Shicoff's portrayal is laced with anxiety and self-doubt from beginning to end, a psychological study. The obsession of his singing is so intense that one is inclined to rename the opera in "Les Contes de Shicoff," for the tenor gives the role not its face, but his own. But I would like to warn you: This recording is not for listeners who want to hear a Hoffmann of beautiful tones. Although Shicoff was a lyric tenor, he sounded metallic and sharp. Striking is his tendency to push himself vocally to the fore, giving the impression of a 'One-Man-Show' in which the orchestra plays only background-music. This may be one of the reasons why Shicoff made fewer recordings than one might suspect. As the Duke in RIGOLETTO (1984, Giuseppe Sinopoli) he shows not the slightest feeling for Verdi's melodic style. Totally off (for me) is the CARMEN production (1989, Seiji Ozawa) with a matronly singing Jessye Norman. Noteworthy is Shicoff's intense Lensky in EUGENE ONEGIN, captured in two recordings (Levine, Bychkov) and in a 1982 telecast of an excellent Paris Opera production with Mstislav Rostropovich on the podium. For the role of the melancholic poet with the typically Russian soul, Shicoff hits the right elegiac tone of pain - even if not with the same suppleness we know of Ivan Kozlovsky and Sergei Lemeshev ... + Please stay healthy! All the best for 2022!