Dan Ettinger has been appointed the new music director of the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra. Not bad for someone who started as a baritone, in his native Israel. In fact, it puts the extremely talented Ettinger in the really rather tiny sub-category of conductors who have also had careers as singers. Actually, I can only think of a few others--the English bass Matthew Best, Plácido Domingo of course, his fellow tenor José Cura and, err, there must be others...Sherrill Milnes conducted once or twice (there was that "Milnes-conducts-Domingo, Domingo-conducts-Milnes" LP).
Anyway, back to the subject in hand. Ettinger is one of the most talented and in-demand Israeli conductors. With the Stuttgart Phil now on his CV, he's also going to be a busy chap. Stuttgart will be added to his directorships of the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Israel Symphony Orchestra and the National Theater Mannheim. Add to all of which a busy guest conducting career, that takes him from the Met to Covent Garden.
So, will he give up one of his regular berths? If any, the Israeli orchestra would seem to be most likely. He would naturally continue to be welcome for guesting in Israel, and Tokyo is a higher-profile orchestra in the grand scheme of things. Of course, he may have an emotional attachment to the home team, and certainly the Israel Symphony is a fine band. But if he wants to keep up the guest conducting at its current rate, he may have to let one of his jobs go.
In the meantime, Stuttgart will be counting itself as having landed a real talent. And they'd be right.
