Dan Ettinger

Opera may be the grandest of all performing arts as it combines many art forms on one platform, serving great music and drama. Although opera tends to be a ”stars” kind of profession, we forget that it is, first of all, an ensemble and teamwork profession.
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by Alice Lechner
January 30, 2023

INTRODUCTION

We are honoured to present our next wonderful guest, Dan Ettinger, an Israeli conductor, opera singer and pianist. In this conversation with Alice Lechner, he talks about why he chose the career of a conductor instead of that of a baritone and also about new beginnings because, starting this year, he is the new Artistic Director of Teatro San Carlo. He also talks with Alice about the ideal working relationship between the singer and the conductor and the importance of communication between the conductor and the stage director. Some of the questions captured our attention, and we think it will be interesting to discover for you too. What is the difference between the emotion felt on the opera stage and the one given by the symphonic one? What are the main skills a young singer should have to achieve an operatic career in the 21st century? Enjoy!

BIOGRAPHY

Dan Ettinger was born in Israel. He has been the music director of the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra since the beginning of the 2015 / 2016 season and the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv since 2018. He was the Music director of the National Theater in Mannheim from 2009 to 2016 as well as the principal conductor for the Israel Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. After initially studying the piano, he began a career as a singer before turning his sights on conducting. He made his debut in Tel Aviv in 1999. From 2003 to 2009, he was Kapellmeister and assistant at the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where he conducted an extensive repertoire (La BohèmeCarmenCosì fan tutteDon GiovanniL’elisir d’amoreFalstaffMacbethMadama ButterflyLe nozze di FigaroTannhäuserToscaLa TraviataTurandotDie Zauberflöte). In 2003, he was selected by the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation for classical music. He made his debut appearances at Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper (Le Nozze di Figaro) in 2004, the Hamburg Staatsoper (Rigoletto) and the Los Angeles Opera (Aida) in 2005, the Vienna Staatsoper (L’elisir d’amore) in 2007, the Washington Opera (La Traviata) in 2008, the Zurich Opera (Turandot) and the New York Metropolitan Opera (Le Nozze di Figaro) in 2009, London’s Covent Garden in 2010 (Rigoletto) and the Paris Opera (Le Nozze di Figaro) in 2011. He makes regular guest appearances at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, conducting numerous works, including Keith Warner’s production of the Ring Cycle.

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INTERVIEW

Maestro, thank you very much for accepting my invitation! It’s a pleasure to meet you and chat with you. First of all, I wish you a wonderful 2023! Let’s talk briefly about the end of 2022 and Madama Butterfly from Tel Aviv. How was it? How is your relationship with Puccini’s music?  Happy New Year, indeed! My […]

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Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

BIANCA L. NICA

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