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Giordano - Andrea Chénier & Pre-performance talk Conductor - Peter Robinson Director - Martin Lloyd-Evans Designer - Peter Rice Lighting - Colin Grenfell
Andrea Chénier - John Hudson Maddalena - Katarina Jovanovic Carlo Gérard - Olafur Sigurdarson Countess / Madelon - Carole Wilson Bersi - Heather Shipp Roucher - Richard Burkhard L'incredible - Robert Burt Mathieu - Charles Johnston Fleville / Fourquier - Richard Suart L'Abate - Aled Hall
Giordano enjoyed great success with this opera set amidst the turmoil of the French Revolution, and whilst there are now few opportunities to see Andrea Chénier performed on stage it has never been out of the recording catalogue. The central characters are the poet Chénier (said to be Gigli's favourite role), Gérard, servant turned revolutionary, and aristocrat Maddalena de Coigny, whom both men love. The list of singers who have recorded their showpiece arias reads like a roll of honour of opera from 1900 to the present day.
Opera Holland Park have made a speciality of presenting neglected operas from the verismo period, and Andrea Chénier must surely be counted as one of their many successes.
Proceedings open with a guillotine centre stage, suddenly the blade falls and just as suddenly the scenery changes and we are whisked back to
Peter Rice's elegant sets and Martin Lloyd Evans' meticulous direction exactly capture the style and manners of the period. The extravagance and triviality of society are nicely ridiculed in perfectly judged cameo performances by Richard Suart (Fleyville) and Aled Hall (L'Abate), but trouble is already stirring, and the servant Gérard's impassioned outburst is delivered with great strength by Olafur Sigardson.
Chénier (John Hudson) an idealist and passionate advocate of freedom, is asked by Maddalena (Katarina Jovanovic) to improvise a love poem, but gradually his theme changes to a diatribe against the nobility. The guests are shocked but worse follows: a group of angry ruffians, led by Gérard, break in, the music tells we are on a knife edge . . . Chénier and the mob are expelled, and normality and the gavotte resumed.
Five years have passed before Act II during which the storming of the Bastille has taken place, and Paris is now in the grip of terror. The power balance has shifted: Maddalena is now impoverished and in hiding whilst Gérard holds a position of power. Only Chénier remains aloof, as appalled by the excesses of the revolution as was by those of the aristocracy. The flamboyant L'Incredible (Robert Burt) is a sinister presence, spying and reporting on all he sees and hears, and the crowd become ever more rowdy and unkempt.
After various episodes of betrayal, escape and arrest, Chénier is finally imprisoned and to stand trial before the dreaded Tribunal. Maddalena pleads with Chénier to save him, but despite their joint efforts he is condemned to death, and Maddalena's last resort is to bribe the jailer so that she can take the place of another prisoner and die with Chénier.
Olafur Sigardson sung the part of Gérard with complete authority, as Chénier, John Hudson made a rugged looking hero but the singing was all there, and Katarina Jovanovic delivered Maddalena's big aria La mamma morta with complete conviction, but avoiding sentimentality. The minor parts were all strongly cast and the chorus, who have first rate throughout the season, were again outstanding. The whole was driven along by Peter Robinson's lively conducting, bringing out every nuance in Giordano's wonderful score.
Pre-performance Talk James Clutton - Producer Olafur Sigardson - Baritone
There are not many singers who would be prepared to talk to a section of the audience before a performance, let alone one in which they had to sing a role as demanding as Gérard, but Olafur Sigardson is no ordinary singer. This year he has tackled two major parts for OHP, the title role in Verdi's Macbeth and Gérard in Andrea Chénier , preparing for the second opera whilst the first was still in performance and keeping him away from his family and native Iceland for the whole summer.
He described how he set about preparing a role. Firstly translating the text (not just his own words, but the whole scene; if someone is speaking to you on stage, you need to understand what they are saying), and studying and learning the music. The next step is to "sing in" the role to get muscle memory for the physical act of singing the demanding solos. Only then is he ready to consider interpretation and start listening to and watching the recordings of other singers in that part.
He told us that his personal favourite in the role of Gérard was Piero Cappuccilli (who sadly died just a few days before the OHP production opened), and referred in particular to his recording with the Vienna Staatsoper .
James Clutton about his philosophy as Producer for Opera Holland Park . He sees the development and encouragement of young singers as part of his brief, and he explained that this was, in part the reason for singing operas in their original language. If a singer learns the role in English, they could only repeat it for a UK company, if they learn it in the original language then they are, in theory, ready to sing it anywhere in the world. Each year OHP invite back a number of singers in increasingly important roles. Production at OHP is a continuous process, James spends a lot of time during the season with singers and the production staff, and before the end of the summer he already has a draft in his pocket of what next year's programme may be.
When Olafur was asked about future parts that he would like to sing, he said that he believed he was now ready to consider the bigger Verdi roles and would love to do Rigoletto. It could be that this turns up in the OHP repertoire before too long.
Serena Fenwick
Andea Chénier has very recently been issued by Deutsche Grammaphon on DVD NTSC 073 407-0, filmed in 1981 - Cast includes Placido Domingo and Gabriela Benacková, Nello Santi conducts and staging is by Otto Schenk .
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pre-revolutionary times and the ballroom of the Chateau de Coigny where the Countess is holding a soirée.