Live from ROH 1985. Giordano's Andrea Chenier is one of the greatest of verismo operas, full of heart-stopping big tunes and powerful emotional situations. If it is not as well-known as it should be, it is because in summary it sounds a little too like Puccini's Tosca: there is a tussle between political opponents over a woman, an attempt to save a condemned man, a tenor aria about writing poetry on the eve of execution. The difference is that Gerard (Giorgio Zancanaro) is not a villain like Scarpia, he is an idealist whom the French Revolution has betrayed as much as it has his rival the poet Chenier (Placido Domingo). His temptation to abuse his power to seduce the virtuous Maddalena (Anna Tomowa-Sintow) is a momentary one, though its consequences are terrible. There is a streak of post-Wagnerian decadence in much of this--Maddalena is at least as much in love with death as she is with Chenier, and the final love duet has a deeply sinister aspect. -- From Amazon.co.uk

Genres

Cast

Plácido Domingo

Andrea Chénier

Anna Tomowa-Sintow

Maddalena di Coigny

Giorgio Zancanaro

Carlo Gérard

Jonathan Summers

Roucher

Roderick Earle

Dumas

Patricia Johnson

Contessa di Coigny

Rodney Macann

Mathieu

Alexander Oliver

Abbé

Gordon Sandison

Fléville

Anny Schlemm

Madelon