Neal Cooper’s current and future engagements include TRISTAN Tristan und Isolde Opera Vlaanderen, EISSLINGER Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and MELOT Tristan und Isolde Teatro Real Madrid, MELOT and ERSTER GRALSRITTER Parsifal Opéra National de Paris, AEGISTH Elektra Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Tannhäuser (title role) Saffron Opera Group and Siegfried (title role) Grimeborn Opera Festival.
Previous engagements include MELOT Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opéra National Paris, Teatro Real Madrid, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, MÜPA Budapest, Kennedy Center, Washington DC, Metropolitan Opera and BBC Proms, cover SIEGMUND Die Walküre, ERIK Der fliegende Holländer Metropolitan Opera and Peter Grimes (title role cover) Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Further recent engagements include EISSLINGER Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Teatro alla Scala, TRISTAN Melbourne Opera, GRALSRITTER/KNAPPE Parsifal Baden-Baden and Berlin Philharmonie (Sir Simon Rattle), and Mahler VIII Tonhalle Düsseldorf (Adam Fischer).
Neal made his Royal Opera House Covent Garden as THIBAULT Les Vêpres siciliennes, and returned for MELOT. Other engagements have included TRISTAN Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern and Longborough Festival Opera, TANNHÄUSER Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken, CALAF Turandot Opera Northern Ireland, GABRIELE ADORNO Simon Boccanegra English National Opera, RADAMES Aida Riverside Opera, MARK The Wreckers Bard Summerscape Music Festival in NYC with the American Symphony Orchestra, and CICCILLO I gioielli della Madonna and NICK La Fanciulla del West Opera Holland Park. Covers for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden have included title roles in Parsifal, Tannhäuser and Tristan und Isolde. He also performed with Antonio Pappano in a Covent Garden Insights programme. Concert appearances include the title role in extracts from Siegfried in the Wagner 200 Celebrations at the Royal Festival Hall, and the title role in the Good Friday scene of Parsifal, with John Tomlinson as Gurnemanz.
Neal Cooper was born in South London and studied German literature at Durham University and singing at the Paris Conservatoire. After several years working in France he returned to Britain to train as a dramatic tenor, studying at the National Opera Studio. He is the nephew of the boxing heavyweight champion Sir Henry Cooper.
Christopher Broom
Phone: +44 208 768 6604
Mobile: +44 7778794397
Email: chris@atholestill.co.uk
Representation: Worldwide
News | Neal Cooper
News | Neal Cooper
"He is an intelligent singer with excellent German, and his Tannhäuser was strongly shaped and plausibly characterized, with plenty of heft for his final narration."
The Telegraph
"Neal Cooper as Heinrich uses his voice intelligently and articulately, it sparkles brightly and remains unruffled even in the most dramatic passages."
Opernwelt
"Cooper is experienced and charismatic."
The Times
"Neal Cooper perfectly walked the line, veering away from bombast and discovering the pathos in his Siegfried.(..) None of the theatricality or superb music has been compromised and the afternoon was full of superb performances."
Hackney Gazette
"Of course, none of this would work without the vocal and acting skills of the cast: in the title role Neal Cooper kept his energy and innocence blazing through to the end, finding more layers than is usual in this role."
British Theatre
"Neal Cooper was a heroic Siegfried, and although there’s less to sing in this version there are still a lot of notes, and he never faltered. (...) Cooper was a joy to listen to (...)"
Music OMH
"Elektra is a tragedy of women, men are little more than supporting actors: Oreste acquires dramatic stature only at the moment of recognition and embrace with his sister, and here Kostas Smoriginas does his part very well. Flawless Neal Cooper, who sings Egisto with detachment, as if to underline that he is a small man, who deserves nothing more."
giornaledellamusica.it
"Neal Cooper was a superb Tristan, with his sound being clear and well shaped, and extremely expansive when it needed to be."
musicOMH
"He was without a doubt the best Tristan I’ve heard, the richness of his voice, the colour he put into his performance was mesmerising"
The Stuart Review
"(...) his voice radiated Tristan’s conflicted character and urgent sensuality. He also paced himself very well, veiling the baritone end of his voice for a marvelously sustained love duet, and then in Act Three going on to give a searing, truly distressing account of Tristan’s madness and death, completely abandoned and overwhelming"
Classical Source
"Neal Cooper was a superb Tristan, with his sound being clear and well shaped, and extremely expansive when it needed to be"
musicOMH
"Cooper is a natural Wagner tenor: he possesses all the power, decibels and stamina (…) Is the voice too urbane for such a tortured character? Not in my book. I’d rush to hear him ahead of many a bigger name."
Opera Magazine
"A very interesting, cunning Melot. Well projected and vibrant accents, by Neal Cooper"
Codalario.com
