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.
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.
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 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.
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.
[4] 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.