Andrea Chénier

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Work data
Title: André Chénier
Original title: Andrea Chénier
Original language: Italian
Music: Umberto Giordano
Libretto : Luigi Illica
Premiere: March 28, 1896
Place of premiere: Teatro alla Scala , Milan
Playing time: about 2 3 / 4 hours
Place and time of the action: Paris, before and during the French Revolution
people
  • Leading roles
    • Andrea (André) Chénier , a poet ( tenor )
    • Carlo (Charles) Gérard , a servant ( baritone )
    • Maddalena (Madeleine) di Coigny ( soprano )
  • Supporting roles
    • Bersi , Madeleine's maid ( mezzo-soprano )
    • The Countess di Coigny (mezzo-soprano)
    • Pietro Fléville , a novelist ( bass or baritone)
    • The abbot , a poet (tenor)
    • An informer ( Un Incredibile ) (Tenor)
    • Roucher , a friend of Chénier's (bass or baritone)
    • Schmidt , a jailer of St. Lazare (baritone)
    • Madelon , an old woman (mezzo-soprano)
    • Fouquier-Tinville , Public Prosecutor (bass or baritone)
    • The head of the household (bass)
    • Mathieu , a sans-culotte (bass)
    • Ladies, gentlemen, abbots, lackeys, grooms, sleigh drivers, hay-ducks, musicians, servants, pages, servants, shepherdesses, beggars. Citizens, sans-culottes, carmagnols, national guards, soldiers of the republic, gendarmes, market women, fish traders, hosiery workers, street vendors, Merveilleusen, incroyables, representatives of the nation, judges, jurors, prisoners, convicts, newspaper boys. A music master, Alberto Roger, Filandro Farinelli, Orazio Coclite, a child, a clerk, old Gérard, Robespierre, Couthon, Barras, a casé waiter ( choir and extras)

Andrea Chénier is an opera in four acts by the Italian composer Umberto Giordano, premiered in 1896 . The libretto was written by Luigi Illica , who later worked several times for Giacomo Puccini as a librettist. Sometimes Andrea Chénier also is called as a musical drama. The focus of the work, which is assigned to verismo , is the tragic figure of the French poet André Chénier , who ended up guillotine in Paris in 1794 at the age of 31.

action

The action of the opera takes place at the time of the French Revolution and the reign of terror of the Jacobins in and around Paris . It is largely fictitious and is based only to a small extent on known facts from Chénier's biography.

first act

The poet Andrea Chénier, the main actor, meets the listener for the first time in the midst of a noble society in the house of the Countess of Coigny in the country. Although he is against the nobility and their decadent lifestyle, he participates in this society. When asked to recite some of his poems, he charmingly refuses and is only induced to recite a few verses through mocking remarks from the young count's daughter Madeleine. In these he harshly criticizes the nobility and their way of life. Surprisingly, Madeleine feels the same way and takes the poet's side. This is the situation where the gardener's son, Charles Gérard - Chénier's adversary - bursts into action with some hungry poor people. Gérard, who is already very convinced of the ideas of the revolution and hates the nobility - except for Madeleine - is pushed back and has to retire from the service.

Second act

Andrea Chénier is now in Paris and sees herself and all Parisians being watched by spies who are in the service of the revolution. His works critical of the nobility made him a man who was celebrated by the revolutionaries. But times have changed and now he is viewed critically because of his relationships with the nobility and is more and more suspected of not being fully behind the ideas of the revolution. His friend Roucher advises him to flee. But the mysterious love letters from a stranger who turns out to be Madeleine keep him from fleeing. A love scene occurs which is observed by an informer (Un Incredibile).

The informant notifies Gérard, who has meanwhile risen to the position of secretary of the revolution. There is a duel between Gérard and Chénier, in which Gérard collapses seriously injured.

Third act

Gérard has recovered and has Chénier arrested and brought to justice. Madeleine appears in the conference room of the Revolutionary Tribunal to save him. Gérard recognizes Madeleine and feels how his love for her flares up again and grows stronger. As a price for Chénier's rescue, he demands Madeleine and she agrees out of love for Chénier. She gives a poignant speech about her fate during the revolution. This and their willingness to “sacrifice themselves” make Gérard change his attitude towards Chénier. Chénier defends himself brilliantly before the prosecutor Fouquier-Tinville . Gérard stands up for Chénier and speaks out against the death sentence. However, he cannot prevent Andrea Chénier from being sentenced to the guillotine . The people want it that way.

Fourth act

In the prison of St. Lazare, Chénier spends his last hours reading his last verses to his friend Roucher. Meanwhile, Madeleine decides to die with the man she loves. She bribes the jailer and, in place of a convicted delinquent, mounts the cart with Chénier that takes her to the scaffold. The two lovers are happy to go to death together. Gérard tries to get a pardon, but it's too late. Madeleine and Andrea are united in death.

Emergence

Andrea Chénier was created in the years 1894–95. Luigi Illica initially wrote the libretto for the composer Alberto Franchetti , who later transferred it to Giordano.

Reception history

The opera premiered on March 28, 1896 at La Scala in Milan . Further performances followed, as early as 1896 in New York City and on January 28, 1897 in Breslau . In Breslau the opera was performed in German in the text version by Max Kalbeck , and also in Hamburg on February 5, 1897 under the direction of Gustav Mahler . Andrea Chénier was translated into French, Czech, Hungarian, Swedish and English, among others, by 1909. In English, however, the opera was only staged in Manchester and London in 1903 .

The opera Giordano is mentioned in Thomas Bernhard's penultimate play Elisabeth II , published in 1987 ( Elisabeth II. Frankfurt / Main 1987, p. 29). The protagonist Herrenstein reacts rather disparagingly to the opera.

The aria La mamma morta from the third act is a central part of a scene in the film Philadelphia (1993). The aria (sung by Maria Callas ) is played with comments by the homosexual and AIDS lawyer and opera lover (played by Tom Hanks ) to his lawyer (played by Denzel Washington ).

In Alain Claude Sulzer's novel At the Wrong Time (2010), a record with Beniamino Gigli and Maria Caniglia on the protagonists' double suicide was shown in 1954 .

Arias of the opera

  • Un dì all'azzurro spazio (Chénier, 1st act)
  • Vivere in fretta (Bersi, 2nd act)
  • Eravate possente (Maddalena, Act 2)
  • Son la vecchia Madelon (Madelon, 3rd act)
  • La mamma morta (Maddalena, 3rd act)
  • Nemico della patria (Gérard, 3rd act)
  • Come un bel dì di Maggio (Chénier, 4th act)

Recordings / sound carriers

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kerstin Schüssler-Bach: The orchestra played as we have seldom heard it in: Program booklet State Opera Hamburg February 2010, pp. 19-23, and p. 30.
  2. ^ Alain Sulzer: At the wrong time . Galianni, Berlin 2010, p. 228