Tosca at the Israeli Opera
“The orchestra, under the baton of Dan Ettinger, demonstrated that same rare degree of interpretive independence in which the music ceases to serve merely as an illustration of the drama and instead becomes the very force that drives the action on stage.
The maestro strips Puccini’s score entirely of even the slightest trace of cloying sentimentality. In its place, he reveals a perfect musical architecture, graphic clarity of line, and a phenomenal—almost Baroque—richness of orchestral texture. It breathes and pulses, at times seeming to possess an intelligence of its own.
Ettinger never imposes sheer sonic force. Instead, he exercises masterful control over the dynamic layers, shaping the opera’s broad structure through the most delicate gradations of piano and pianissimo. As a result, the rare but overwhelming veristic eruptions of the brass acquire truly apocalyptic dimensions.”