Andrea Chénier

It is a real shame that that is the case because I like the opera a lot. The orchestration is bombastic yet poetic, the story is thrilling and touching and the four big moments of the opera- L'Improvviso, La Mamma Morta, Nemico Della Patria and the final duet- are guaranteed to blow the roof off. On DVD, Andrea Chenier generally is well served, the best is the Del Monaco, Stella and Taddei performance, followed by those with Corelli, Casapietra and Cappuccilli and Del Monaco, Tebaldi and Protti. The Domingo, Tomowa-Sintow and Zancanaro, Domingo, Benackova and Cappuccilli and Carreras, Marton and Cappuccilli performances are also well worth watching, and even the Met production with Pavarotti, Guleghina and Pons had its good points.

This Andrea Chenier however for me didn't really convince. It does have its good points. The orchestral playing is superb, providing much of the drama which generally the staging lacks, and Carlo Rizzi's conducting is involved. The DVD is also top notch, with sharp picture quality, good video directing and very good sound. Of the staging, the only moment that convinced me was in Act 3, with the giant grille descending at the front of the stage to form Chénier's Act Four prison. Some of the supporting cast are good, Carlo Cigni is a characterful Roucher, Pierre Lefèbvre is wonderfully insinuating as Incredible and while her voice is unsteady Cinzia De Mola makes her mark as the Contessa. The opera though is much focused on the three leads, and for such bombastic music the roles do require big voices.

For me though, of the three the only one who engaged me completely was the Maddalena of Maria Guleghina. Whether she has the most beautiful voice I am not sure, that honour goes to Tebaldi who is unrivalled in this role. What's for sure though is that it is a powerful, forceful and on the most part secure one that is used with her usual intelligence. She is commanding and affecting. Jose Cura's Chenier is less successful. He has his moments, Un Dì, All'Azzurro Spazio was good. But for me his voice is uneven, his middle is warm but the top is strained, not rounded enough and I am afraid I am still annoyed by his habit of scooping notes from under. Some may say he is more subtle than Del Monaco and Corelli, at the same time I think he is nowhere near as thrilling as them, the heroism, thoughtfulness, passion and poetry are lacking here for me and much of the time he is uninvolved especially in the love scenes.

Carlo Guelfi also lacks conviction. Guelfi has worked for me in some roles like Barnaba, Amonasro and to a lesser extent Tonio, but Carlo Gerard, perhaps the most interesting and complex role of Andrea Chenier, is not one of them. His voice is too dry and I think too lightweight, I missed the sympathetic yet authoritative quality done brilliantly by Taddei and Cappuccilli on DVD and also Milnes on record. Nemico Della Patria is sung decently, but that doesn't cut it, Gerard's conflicting emotions come through in this aria and I did not feel it with Guelfi. If you are looking for the embodiment of the villainous revolutionary with a conscience character that Gerard basically is, look somewhere else, Guelfi is only effective in Act 1, the rest of the opera he is stolid and unimaginative.

I also didn't care for Giancarlo Del Monaco's(that's right, Mario Del Monaco's son) production. The staging just feels static almost as if he is at a loss at what to do with the performers, especially in the chorus who sing well enough but are very stand and deliver, and little is done in the three major arias. The final moments of the opera looked silly and contrived for my tastes. La Mamma Morta has some nice lighting but that's it in that regard. The production values are no better, the chorus are far too tarted up, almost as if they had wandered off somewhere else, and someone has gone well overboard with the make-up, wigs and powder, so much so that for much of Act 1 everybody looks like evil clowns or something, it was just weird. The bit with the dressmaker's dummy didn't make sense to me either.

All in all, an Andrea Chenier that left me cold. It is better than Del Monaco's 2006 Les Contes D'Hoffmann, but if I want to see that Del Monaco is capable of directing a good opera production(and I know he is) I'll look no further than the 1992 La Fanciulla Del West. This production is not terrible by all means, but it is for me the least effective of such strong competition around. 5/10 Bethany Cox