Giordano’s Andrea Chenier and Rattle/Hannigan/LSO: Opera reviews

4 / 5 stars
Giordano’s Andrea Chenier

SET during the reign of terror that swept through France in the wake of the 1789 Revolution, Andrea Chenier bears analogies with today’s events in Paris, while at the Barbican Hall, Sir Simon Rattle guest-conducted the London Symphony Orchestra last week in an exhilarating programme of 20th century modernism

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Kauffmann is peerless in the demanding title role of Giordano’s Andrea Chenier

Set during the reign of terror that swept through France in the wake of the 1789 Revolution, Andrea Chenier bears analogies with today’s events in Paris.  Who would have thought writing poetry merited execution, yet that was the fate of the poet Chenier, guillotined on Robespierre’s orders at the age of 31.

Umberto Giordano’s romantic historical drama is rarely performed partly because of its demanding title role, regarded as a vehicle for a star tenor.  Jose Carreras and PlacidoDomingo sang the role of Chenier in the 1980s Covent Garden production.  Now, in a sumptuous new staging by David McVicar, the choice for Chenier falls naturally on the much lauded tenor Jonas Kaufmann. 

The first act opens onto the powdered world of ancient regime France, exemplified by Robert Jones’s sets and Jenny Tiramani’s historically accurate costumes.  Liveried servants light the candles on the chandeliers for a reception that Rosalind Plowright’s autocratic old Countess is holding at her chateau, despite news from Paris of the beleaguered King.   Chenier  arouses the Countess’s anger by criticising the aristocracy, though her daughter Maddalena (Eva-Maria Westbroek) falls instantly in love with him.  

In Act 2 we are five years on, with Robespierre’s terror at its height, in a cafe  frequented by the revolutionaries.  A tumbril of victims for the guillotine is pursued by a mob hurling vegetables, in time-honoured French protest mode.  Giordano’s blend of historical fact and fictional romance at times is reminiscent of the musical Les Miserables.

There is more than a hint of Puccini’s Tosca, too, when the Countess’s servant Gerard becomes a leading revolutionary and bargains, Scarpia-like, with Maddalena for her favours in exchange for the life of the condemned Chenier.  In true operatic style, though, the two lovers go to the scaffold together after the final duet “Vicino a the s’acqueta,” declaring “Our death is the triumph of love.”

Kaufmann is peerless as Chenier, heroic both in voice and stage presence.  Eva-Maria Westbroek  is more low key, which mainly has to do with the role.   Serbian baritone Zeljko Lucic is impressive as Gerard, the servant turned revolutionary who dominates from the start.  His opening aria of hatred for the privileged rich,“T’odio, casa dorata”,brought a storm of applause.

There is luxury casting of the lesser roles. Peter Hoare turns up as a mincing Abbe to the Countess, and Peter Coleman-Wright as the underwritten Fleville, friend of Chenier.   The Royal Opera orchestra under Antonio Pappano captures the lushness of the score, with its occasional lines of homage to Puccini.  

At the Barbican Hall, Sir Simon Rattle guest-conducted the London Symphony Orchestra last week in an exhilarating programme of 20th century modernism. Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan provided the coloratura fireworks.   Highpoint was Ligeti’s absurdist Mysteries of the Macabre, written by the Hungarian composer as a satire on state control.   

Hannigan strode onto stage in tartan mini-kilt, popping bubblegum like a renegade St Trinian’s school girl. Having deposited the gum under the conductor’s music stand, she launched into a roller coaster of gibberish and high notes as Ligeti’s frenetic Police Chief.   It left Rattle, as well as the audience, applauding at the end.

Earlier, Rattle had conducted a finely detailed Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra, and Berg’s Three Pieces from Wozzeck, with Hannigan as the ill-fated Marie.   The concert ended with Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Rattle and the LSO captured the primitive energy of the score, and the dark foreboding that leads to the final sacrifice.  Unforgettable. 

VERDICT: 4/5

Giordano’s Andrea Chenier at the Royal Opera House London WC2 (Tickets: 020 7730 4000; £12-£250; roh.org.uk)

Rattle/Hannigan/LSO at the Barbican Hall London EC2 (One night only; barbican.org.uk)

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