NEIL SHICOFF - 40 JAHRE BÜHNE
Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Jacques Offenbach) – Prolog 
Hoffmann: Neil Shicoff 
Lindorf: Paolo Rumetz 
Nicklausse: Stephanie Houtzeel 
Andres: Thomas Ebenstein 
Luther: Marcus Pelz 
Hermann: Clemens Unterreiner 
Nathanael: Carlos Osuna 
Pique Dame (Peter I. Tschaikowski) – 2. Akt, 2. Szene 
Hermann: Neil Shicoff 
Lisa: Krassimira Stoyanova 
Gräfin: Anja Silja 
Mascha: Hyuna Ko 
La Juive (Jacques Fromental Halévy) – 4. Akt 
Eléazar: Neil Shicoff 
Kardinal Brogni: Ferruccio Furlanetto 
Rachel: Krassimira Stoyanova 
Eudoxie: Simina Ivan 
Carmen (Georges Bizet) – 4. Akt 
Carmen: Elena Maximova
Don José: Neil Shicoff 
Escamillo: Clemens Unterreiner 
Frasquita: Simina Ivan 
Mercédès: Juliette Mars 
Frédéric Chaslin, conductor
What a disappointment, coming to Neil Shicoff 's Gala and no Agnes Baltsa as Carmen to his Don Jose. From the greatest Don Carlo of Rolando Villazon et co. in Berlin. Had I known that Baltsa would not sing I would have seen Don Carlo for the 2nd time on this day instead I got the cold in Vienna and Neil Shicoff. 
Having just seen Les Contes d'Hoffmann with Rolando Villazon in a great production seeing the prolog was nothing much. Shicoff can act and sing, but he is not my guy.
Pique Dame - Shicoff was great as Hermann. Anja Silja was not that audible. Krassimira Stoyanova was having an Off day, or maybe it was just that I was OFF.
Interval
La Juive - not the whole end but we got the Aria from Eleazar. Simina Ivan and Krassimira Stoyanova could have been the Duet of the Ages but they had aged since I saw them in the of Eudoxie and Rachel. Ferruccio Furlanetto as Brogni, he only gets better with age but then he is a bass.
CARMEN - the end
Elena Maximova is the new CARMEN on the block. Neil Shicoff acts but he is no Carreras, Domingo, Cura & Alvarez. Clemens Unterreiner was Escamillo and a good, solid one.
Frederic Chaslin conducted it all.
Then  when we thought it was over we got 45 minutes or so with speaches. Shicoff ended it with his I am so nervous, the most nervous if them all. The audience gives us the energy not the other way around. And thank god for my wife, Dawn Kotoski.
And I am still not cured. Kleenex forever!!!
This page was last updated: June 20, 2022