Page 293 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

OW: “Tosca” is an opera that you have conducted before.
Tell me about the challenges of Puccini’s score.

DH: Tosca, in my opinion, is one of the most perfect operas ever written. Set in the
heart of Italy, it has it all: politics, jealousy, passion, tragedy, injustice, lies, and
passionate love. The score reflects this so well, and every bar is a jewel with the
orchestra’s leitmotiv leading one to another and sublime transitions. Puccini always
achieves incredible tension and dramatic lines.

OW: It is an opera that has been performed thousands of

times. How do you approach a work that everyone

knows?

DH: Can it ever be performed enough? The score has infinite colors and possibilities
so that every time is a new challenge, different stagings, different singers and
personalities. Every time for me, is starting from scratch. The challenges are not
different because I have done it many times or because it is a known piece like
“Bohème” or “Traviata.” Challenges are always the same, whether for new music or
known music.

OW: What is one of your favorite moments of “Tosca?”

DH: As I have said before, every bar is a pearl but one of my favorite moments is the
entrance of Tosca in the First act; it has it all in those bars, love, plenty of
personality, strength, diva character, jealous passion and at the same time,
extremely fragile and tender. But this is the same in all Puccini. Even in works like
“Gianni Schicchi,” which I am about to do in a concert version with the Royal
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra together with the European Opera Centre.

OW: Later in the summer, you will conduct “Turandot.”

How does the score from “Turandot” and “Tosca” differ?

DH: It is, of course, late Puccini who leaves us with the score unfinished. But
“Turandot” is a bigger orchestra, the choir has a more important role, it requires
bigger voices, and the most important difference is the oriental influence using the
pentatonic scale throughout the piece. But in the end, it is the same hand writing the
most beautiful arias.