Since at least his successful debut as Wotan in the new „Ring der Nibelungen“ (Kober/Hilsdorf) Simon Neal became one of the most important bass-baritones on international stages. Born in England, the Irish baritone Simon Neal studied music at Leicester University and had a successful business career before resuming his vocal studies.
From 2006 – 2011 Simon Neal was a principal Baritone at Theater Dortmund where he developed the basis to his huge repertoire with the important roles. Guest engagements included the Opera Australia at the Sydney (Pizarro/“Fidelio“, Escamillo/“Carmen“ and Scarpia/“Tosca“). He was guest at English National Opera London, RTE Symphony Orchestra Dublin. In fall 2010 he made his debut at Royal Opera house Covent Garden. He was also guest in Lyon, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Taiwan Symphony, Oslo Opera, to name a few.
Now freelance Simon Neal gave his successful role debut as Achilles in the new production of Schoeck’s „Penthesilea“ at the Oper Frankfurt, where he was a regular guest since then (Villains/“Les Contes d’Hoffmann“, Mandryka/“Arabella“, Kurwenal/“Tristan und Isolde“, Sebastiano/“Tiefland“ and especially „Oedipe“).
In September 2012 he made his most successful debut at the Semperoper Dresden in a new production of Henze’s „We come to the River“/General. In 2013 he created the world premiere of Helmut Oehring’s „SehnSuchtMeer“ at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, a very successful and fruitful collaboration started (Rigoletto, Mandryka, Telramund/“Lohengrin“, Villains, and the already mentioned Wotan).
Other important steps of his career were Basel (Jago/“Otello“), Lyon (Tamare/“Die Gezeichneten“, title role/“Der Fliegende Holländer“), Holländer in Lille, Tamare in Köln, Pizzaro in Hamburg, Dr.Schön/“Lulu“ in Leipzig, Cardillac at Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp and Gent.
In March 2020 he sang Pizzaro/Fidelio at Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Tony Pappano/Tobias Kratzer; Jonas Kaufmann, Lise Davidson) – this production was also recorded for TV. Despite the Covid pandemic he sang “The Medium” in Oper Frankfurt, a shortened version of “Lohengrin” in Leipzig, a concert version “Fidelio” at Concertgebouw Amsterdam and finally his impressing debut with “Notre Dame” at Festival St.Gallen. “Lohengrin” in Leipzig came finally on stage in March 2022, followed by again Pizzaro in Hamburg under the baton of Kent Nagano. In May 2022 he finally made his debut at Staatsoper Vienna – Wanderer/”Siegfried”.
In season 2022/23 he returned successfully with Missy Mazzoli’s new opera “The Listeners” to Oslo, followed by Wanderer/”Siegfried” again in Düsseldorf and an exciting tour with Gustavo Dudamel and his orchestra in Venezuela (Pizzaro).
Future plans include his return to Frankfurt, his debuts at Bilbao, Oviedo (“Cardillac”, “Lohengrin”) and Oper Zurich.
On the concert stage Simon Neal has performed with many of the UK’s leading choirs pieces like „Requiem“ of Mozart, Fauré, Dvorák and Verdi; Dvorák’s and Rossini’s „Stabat Mater“, Bach’s Passions, Handel’s „Messiah“, „Saul“ and „Samson“, Haydn’s „Creation“, Beethoven’s „Missa Solemnis“, Rossini’s „Petite Messe Solenelle“, Elgar’s „The Kingdom“ and Tippett’s „Child of our Time“. He sang Beethoven „Ninth“ on the anniversary day 2015 in Hiroshima and at Barcelona Symphony under Kazushi Ono.