Daniel Oren

Known for his interpretations of the operas of Puccini and Verdi, conductor Daniel Oren has led productions in major opera houses throughout the world, working with many of the highest-profile operatic stars of the 20th and 21st centuries. His repertoire takes in more than opera, as he has also had a prolific career leading orchestral concerts. Oren is the artistic director of Salerno's Teatro Municipale Giuseppe Verdi, music director of the Arena di Verona Opera Festival, and conductor laureate of the Israel Opera. In 2022, he was heard leading the Dresdner Philharmonie on a recording of Verdi's La traviata, starring Lisette Oropesa and René Barbera on PentaTone Classics. Oren was born in Tel Aviv in 1955. As a child, he studied cello, piano, and singing. An early opportunity to display his abilities came when, at age 13, Leonard Bernstein selected him to be the treble soloist for the composer's Chichester Psalms for the inaugural public television transmissions in Israel. Oren attended the Hochschule in Berlin, where he studied conducting, and in 1975, took first prize in the Herbert von Karajan International Conducting Competition. Three years later, he made his U.S. debut when he conducted at the Festival of Two Worlds, and he was named the music director of Rome's Teatro Dell'Opera. Oren made his recording debut in 1981 with the modern revival of Donizetti's Fausta, featuring soprano Raina Kabaivanska in the title role. Other engagements in Italy followed as he served as the music director of Trieste's Teatro Verdi, Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice, and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. In 1984, Oren made his debut at the Arena di Verona Festival, conducting Puccini's Tosca with a cast that included Shirley Verrett and Giacomo Aragall. He has continued to appear at the festival regularly since then. The 1990s saw Oren performing with some of the brightest stars of the opera world. In 1993, he was heard on an RCA Victor Red Seal recording of Tosca that was headlined by Luciano Pavarotti and Kabaivanska. Oren led a cast that featured Pavarotti, Mirella Freni, and Nicolai Ghiaurov in a 1995 performance of Puccini's La Bohème at Turin's Teatro Regio. In 1996, at the Arena di Verona Festival, Oren conducted Bizet's Carmen to open the festival season, and he returned to Tel Aviv for a concert celebrating Jerusalem's 3,000th anniversary. Among the soloists for this concert were Leo Nucci, Roberto Alagna, and Agnes Baltsa. Oren has guest conducted at opera houses across the Americas, Europe, and Japan. In the U.S., he has led productions at the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera. His appearances in Europe outside of Italy include London's Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, and the Paris National Opera. Although nearly all of his work is in opera, he has also conducted traditional orchestra concerts, with the Berlin and Israel Philharmonics among the groups he has led. In 2007, Oren was named the artistic director of Salerno's Teatro Municipale Giuseppe Verdi. He served as the music director of the Israel Opera from 2014 until 2017 when he was named conductor laureate. Oren made his La Scala debut in 2018, leading a production of Verdi's Aida. The following year, he was named the music director of the Arena di Verona Festival. In 2022, Oren was heard on a PentaTone Classics recording of Verdi's La traviata, conducting the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden, and featuring soprano Lisette Oropesa, tenor René Barbera, and baritone Lester Lynch.
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