Simon Neal holds both Irish (EU) and British citizenship. He 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 sang the important parts of his repertoire, including “La Traviata“/Germont, “Contes d’Hoffman“/4 Villains, “Siegfried“/Alberich, “Götterdämmerung“/Gunther, “Carmen“/Escamillo, the title roles in “Rigoletto“ and “Don Giovanni“, “Falstaff“/Ford, “Salome“/Jochanaan, “Rake’s Progress“/Nick Shadow, “Cavalleria Rusticana“/Alfio and “I Pagliacci“/Tonio, “Madama Butterfly“/Sharpless, “Tosca“/Scarpia, “Der Junge Lord“/Secretary, “Oedipus Rex“/Creon and “Lohengrin“/Heerrufer, “Il Trittico“/Michele, Gianni Schicchi and “Lucia di Lammermoor“/Enrico as well as concerts of Britten´s „War Requiem“.

Guest engagements include the Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House where he sang Pizarro/“Fidelio“, Escamillo and Scarpia. The last two parts led him also to the English National Opera and Conte di Luna/“Il Trovatore“ to the RTE Symphony Orchestra in Dublin. Furthermore he performed with many regional companies in the UK, including parts like Gellner/“La Wally“, Gerard/“Andrea Chenier“, Pizarro/“Leonore“, Amonasro/“Aida“, Marcello/“La Boheme“ and Ezio/“Attila“ as well as the title roles in “Nabucco“, “Rigoletto“ and “Don Quichote“. In fall 2010 he made his debut at Royal Opera house Covent Garden.

At the beginning of the 2011/12 season Simon Neal gave his successful role debut as Achilles in the new production of Schoeck´s “Penthesilea” at the Oper Frankfurt, where he is a regular guest since then. This was followed by the revivals of “Les Contes d´Hoffmann” and ”Arabella”/ Mandryka. In 2011 he gave there his role debut as Kurwenal/“Tristan und Isolde”. In 2013/14 he returned to Frankfurt again as Kurwenal as well as in the title role in a new production of “Oedipe” and Sebastiano/”Tiefland” and in 2015/16 sang the role of the Forester in the Cunning Little Vixen.

In September 2012 he made his debut at the Semperoper Dresden in a new production of Henze´s ”We come to the River”/ General, he has since returned as Friedhold in Guntram and Escamillo.  In 2013 he created the world premiere of Helmut Oehring´s “SehnSuchtMeer” at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf and a new production of Schreker´s “Die Gezeichneten”/ Tamare in Cologne. He returned to Düsseldorf for Rigoletto and his role debut of Telramund/”Lohengrin”. In Basel he has sung Scarpia/Tosca, the Grand Prêtre in Samson et Dalila and Iago/”Otello” in Calixto Bieito new production. Further work with this director followed in Oslo (Hoffmann) and at Vlaamse Opera (“Mahagonny”).

At Opera de Lyon he sang Don Estoban (Der Zwerg) in 2012 returning in the the 2014/5 season to sing the title role in Der Fliegende Holländer and Tamare in Die Gezeichneten.

He enjoys a strong collaboration with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and in the 17/18 season completed his first Wotan/Wanderer in the new Ring am Rhein (Kober/Hilsdorf). Also in 17/18 he made his debut’s at Oper Hamburg (Pizarro) and at Oper Leipzig as Dr Schön in and new production of Lulu (Lotte de Beer/Ulf Schirmer) as well as returning to the Deutsche Oper Berlin for Telramund.

2018/9 saw his debut as Jack Rance in La Fanciulla de West at Oper Leipzig, the title role of Cardillac for Opera Vlaanderen as well as Wotan / Wanderer and Iago for Deutsche Oper an Rhein and Wanderer for Oper Leipzig.

In 2019/20 he sang the Grand Prêtre/Samson et Dalila; Telramund/Lohengrin in Stuttgart, Pizarro at the Royal Opera Covent Garden. Performances of Wotan/Wanderer in Duisburg and Leipzig and Mandryka/Arabella in Leipzig were cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

After a season of cancellations due to the Pandemic in 2020/21, he returned to the stage as Archdeacon Frollo in Schmidt’s Notre Dame at the St Galler Festspiel.  He makes his debut as Macbeth in Salzburg in October 21 and will sing Telramund, Lohengrin in a new production by Katherina Wagner at Oper Leipzig in March 2022 as well as further performances as Wotan in Leipzig and Düsseldorf..