Umberto GIORDANO (1867 – 1948)
Andrea Chenier (1896)
Andrea Bocelli (tenor) – Andrea Chénier; Lucio Gallo (baritone) – Carlo Gérard;
Violeta Urmana (soprano) – Maddalena di Coigny; Stella Grigorian (mezzo) –
Bersi; Cinzia de Mola (mezzo) – La contessa di Coigny; Elena Obraztsova (mezzo)
– Madelon; Roberto Accurso (bass) - Pietro Fléville; Mauro Buffoli (tenor)
– L’Abate; Simone Alberghini (bass) – Roucher; Ezio Maria Tisi (bass) – Fouquier-Tinville;
Il Maestro di casa; Alessandro Busi (baritone) – Mathieu; Gregory Bonfatti
(tenor) – Un “Incredibile”; Gianfranco Montresor (bass) – Dumas; Schmidt
Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano Giuseppe Verdi/Marco Armiliato
rec. Auditorium di Milano, 11-22 July 2007
Italian libretto with English, German and French translations enclosed
DECCA 478 2382 [59:03 + 59:21]
The list of recordings of Andrea Chenier is impressively long, beginning
during the acoustic era with Carlo Sabajno conducting La Scala forces in 1920.
The best known of the singers is Adolfo Pacini as Gérard. Nine years later
Lorenzo Molajoli used the same chorus and orchestra for the first electric
recording with Lina Bruna Rasa and Carlo Galeffi as Maddalena and Gérard.
That recording is now available on Naxos. So also is the 1941 version under
Oliviero
de Frabritiis with Beniamino Gigli, Maria Caniglia and Gino Bechi in the
leading parts. Again La Scala hosted the recording.
The first LP recording, from the early 1950s, was a Cetra set with Renata
Tebaldi as Maddalena but with a mediocre supporting cast this was more or
less a non-starter. She got a second chance in 1957 when Decca issued a recording
with Gianandrea Gavazzeni conducting forces from Accademia Nazionale di Santa
Cecilia in Rome. Tebaldi was partnered by Mario Del Monaco and Ettore Bastianini.
This set was also issued in stereo later on. EMI came up with a competitor
in 1963, set down at the Rome Opera House, conducted by Gabriele Santini and
with Franco Corelli, Antonietta Stella and Mario Sereni taking the principal
parts. Then there was a gap of thirteen years to the RCA recording made with
the National Philharmonic in London, conducted by James Levine and with another
stellar trio: Placido Domingo, Renata Scotto and Sherrill Milnes. THe National
Philharmonic was employed again in 1984 when Decca recorded the first digital
Chenier with Riccardo Chailly at the helm and Luciano Pavarotti, Montserrat
Caballé and Leo Nucci singing the main roles. Sony released a set in 1986,
recorded with the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra under Giuseppe Patané. José
Carreras, Eva Marton and Giorgio Zancanaro were Chénier, Maddalena and Gérard.
Finally Capriccio issued a set recorded at the Frankfurt radio with Marcello
Viotti conducting with a cast headed by Franco Bonisolli, Maria Gulegina and
Renato Bruson. Besides these there are, or have been, some live recordings
and there are also a couple of DVDs with Placido Domingo in the title role
and some years ago I reviewed a set with José Cura and Maria Guleghina on
superb form (see review).
Now, the question is: how does this new Decca recording stand up against such
keen competition? Recorded in 2007 (why has it taken three years to issue
it?) it has the advantage of state-of-the-art recording and the sound is truly
impressive, well balanced and with a lot of orchestral detail registered.
Giordano’s score lacks the subtlety of Puccini’s contemporaneous masterworks
but even though this is a punchy performance Marco Armiliato manages to show
up some beautiful scoring and in the midst of the rather noisy music he also
strives for softer nuances. But first and foremost this is a hard-hitting
opera and Armiliato urges on his admirable orchestra and chorus, never letting
the tension slacken. This is a work that has to be played for all its worth
or not at all. This is a performance that has the listener sitting on the
edge of the chair, eager to hear the next turn of the proceedings.
Besides the three main characters this opera requires a large number of secondary
characters and many of them have quite demanding tasks to fulfil. The results
are variable. La Contessa di Coigny is wobbly, and former superstar Elena
Obraztsova is an over-dramatic Madelon and her vibrato – always rather generous
– has now widened further. But Stella Grigorian is a splendid Bersi: beautiful
tone, glittering delivery and with a lot of power when needed. Gregory Bonfatti
sings and acts un ‘incredibile’ with real ‘face’ and superb enunciation and
Alessandro Busi is a powerful and intense Mathieu.
Lucio Gallo has been much in demand in all the great opera houses for quite
some time and his is a strong but not very subtle baritone, giving considerable
thrill in the dramatic climaxes but he tends to force and under pressure the
tone sometimes becomes unsteady. Nemico della patria is formidable
in its intensity and he also manages to find some nuances in this testing
aria. Compared to Sherrill Milnes (RCA) and Ettore Bastianini (Decca) he has
to be ranked in a lower division when it comes to beauty of tone and vocal
line.
Violeta Urmana has a long and varied discography and Maddalena has become
one of her signature roles. She certainly has the spinto quality and the expressiveness
needed for the role. She hasn’t quite the grandezza and sumptuousness of Tebaldi
(but who has?), she is occasionally over-vibrant but she is deeply involved
and there is a vulnerability in her reading that Tebaldi lacks. La mamma
morta is sung with a feeling that makes it hard not to be moved by.
When it comes to Andrea Bocelli I immediately had my doubts concerning his
suitability for so heavy a role. Having already reviewed his Werther,
where he was surprisingly successful, and the verismo twins Cav and
Pag, two roles that far over-stretched his capacities, I couldn’t imagine
that his basically lyric voice could ride the orchestra in this often thickly
scored work. In a recording studio this is possible to some extent through
manipulating the balance and Bocelli is never drowned by the orchestra as
he probably would have been in a live performance but the outcome is still
unsatisfactory.
There is no denying his musicality and he quite often phrases well and softens
the tone in lyrical passages. There is also a great deal of passion and feeling,
especially in the third act, where he excels in some attractive legato singing
in Si fu soldato. Better still is the last act Come un bel di di
maggio, one of the few lyrical moments in the whole opera. Here he is
noble and sensitive, possibly the best thing I have heard from him. But where
he is ruled out is in the actual tone, which is monochrome and quite often
strained at the top. One has the feeling that a size M singer is trying to
fill out a size XL T-shirt. Why not offer him L’Elisir d’amore next
time instead of Tosca or Turandot or any other heavy-weighter?
Any recording of Andrea Chenier without a first-class titular hero
is ruled out in the keen competition. Del Monaco, glorious but unsubtle, Corelli,
Domingo, Pavarotti, Bonisolli and on DVD Cura are all far preferable, and
since the supporting casts are of comparable excellence none of those sets
are likely to disappoint.
Bocelli’s admirers will want the present set anyway but for me Levine (RCA)
with Domingo, Scotto and Milnes is still the top recommendation, while I also
feel very strongly for Gavazzeni and was quite overwhelmed by the DVD with
Cura.
Göran Forsling
There are several far more preferable sets