Andrea Chénier, Royal Opera House - review: 'Jonas Kaufmann, with heroic stage presence and voice to match, is an exceptional tenor'

Jonas Kaufmann delivers the goods in the title role, with his artfully crafted line and thrilling projection
Taxing role: Jonas Kaufmann’s Chénier (Picture: Alastair Muir)
Barry Millington31 July 2015

Poets, like cartoonists, are dangerous. The location is once again Paris but at the time of the French Revolution. Andrea Chénier, despite his revolutionary credentials, upsets the sans-culottes and not even his silvery eloquence can save him.

Timely as Umberto Giordano’s opera is, it’s rarely performed, as the taxing title role demands an exceptional tenor. Jonas Kaufmann, with heroic stage presence and voice to match, is such a man. Some may complain that his tonal colouring is insufficiently Italianate but with his artfully crafted line and thrilling projection, he delivers the goods.

Maddalena, the fateful object of his affection, is sung by Eva-Maria Westbroek. Their final duet, as they sweep towards the guillotine, leaves no melodramatic withers unwrung.

Giordano’s score, though not without its merits, serves — through no fault of Antonio Pappano’s stylish conducting — to redouble one’s appreciation of the way Puccini handles similar material.

David McVicar’s best productions have generally managed to give a creative, even radical twist to repertoire favourites. This one is not just traditional: it is, like Covent Garden’s recent Ballo in Maschera, both intellectually and dramaturgically feeble. The moral of Andrea Chénier is that revolutions devour their children. Stellar casts also, it seems, stifle innovative direction.

Until Feb 6 (020 7304 4000, roh.org.uk); live cinema relay, Jan 29.

Latest opera reviews

1/20