Current and future engagements for Neal Cooper include his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2016 as Melot/cover Tristan in a new production of Tristan und Isolde, Tristan for Longborough Festival Opera and Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Mark The Wreckers Bard for Summerscape Music Festival in NYC with the American Symphony Orchestra, Calaf Turandot with Opera Northern Ireland and Erik Der fliegende Holländer Reisopera. He made his Royal Opera Covent Garden debut in 2013 as Thibault Les Vêpres siciliennes, and he returned in 2014 for Melot Tristan und Isolde.
Other engagements have included Gabriele Adorno Simon Boccanegra for English National Opera, Radames Aida for Riverside Opera and Ciccillo I gioielli della Madonna and Nick La Fanciulla del West, among other roles, for Opera Holland Park. He has covered Cavaradossi Tosca, Erik The Flying Dutchman and Calaf Turandot for ENO. Covers for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden have included Jacopo I due Foscari, Luigi Il tabarro and the title roles in Parsifal 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.