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Neil Shicoff will perform the part of Herman in
The Queen of Spades,
based on Pushkin’s story, is one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular operas. On 18
June the audience will be treated to hearing the part of Herman sung by Neil
Shicoff, a tenor with a unique voice and an outstanding dramatic talent. |
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In the course of his career Shicoff has appeared on the world’s leading operatic stages: the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Covent Garden in London and the Grand Opera in Paris. His repertoire includes Hoffman in The Tales of Hoffman, the Duke in Rigoletto, Alfred in La Traviata, Cavardarossi in Tosca and Pinkerton in Madam Butterfly. Russian classics occupy a special place in the singer’s artistic history: he made his La Scala debut as Lensky in Eugene Onegin. The celebrated tenor’s collaboration with the Mikhailovsky Theatre began with Jacques Halévy’s opera La Juive, in which he performed his most famous part to date – that of the Jew Eleazar. This production in April 2011 won Shicoff a Golden Mask award for ‘Best Male Operatic Role’. Audiences and critics alike praised his unique acting talent, which enabled him to deliver a virtuoso performance in a famously difficult tenor part, conveying the character’s split personality. Shicoff confesses that he is most at home with psychologically complex characters prone to self-destruction. In The Queen of Spades Shicoff pulls it off once again, capturing the tragic figure’s ambiguous character. Shicoff performed the part of Herman, who is torn between his love for a woman and his desire for wealth, at the Vienna Opera in 2008 and 2010. The singer admits to feeling a mystical link with the character – perhaps because he lives in the same Vienna house once occupied by Vladimir Atlantov, the best Herman of his generation. At the Mikhailovsky Theatre Neil Shicoff will once again bring to life the desperate gambler who stakes his life on a single card. |
Idea Fix