Sunday Classics: "Andrea Chenier" (3) -- We do know that young Roger Alberto isn't coming back, don't we?

This is the veteran mezzo Larissa Diadkova (age 56) as Madelon at Madrid's Teatro Real, February 2010. I believe the Gérard is baritone Marco Vratogna; the conductor, Victor Pablo Pérez. (The staging, in a production that originated at Opéra Bastille, is by the noted Chénier's son Giancarlo del Monaco, an internationally known opera director.)

Several women in the crowd make offerings. Amid the din an old blind woman is heard urging the other women to make way. Accompanied by a 15-year-old boy she forces her way through the crowd.

MADELON: I am Old Madelon. My son is dead.
His name was Roger. He died in the taking
of the Bastille. His first son
at Valmy won promotion and death.
Another few days and I too will die.
[Pushing the boy forward]
He's the son of Roger. The last son.
The last drop of my old blood . . .
Take him!
Don't say that he's just a child!
He's strong . . . He can fight and die!
GÉRARD [after an officer of the National Guard has examined the eager boy and pronounced him eligible]:
We accept him. Tell me his name.
MADELON: Roger Alberto.
GÉRARD: He'll leave this very evening.
MADELON: My joy, farewell!
Take him away!
[Seeking helplessly around her as two National Guardsmen lead the boy away.]
Who'll give me his arm?
[She is led away by sympathetic onlookers. The deputies now remove the urn, the crowd thins out, the officer and the National Guard march away. MATHIEU starts to transform the hall into a court of justice, the Revolutionary Tribunal. Outside, the crowd begins dancing and singing the Carmagnole.]

by Ken

I've been building up so long now -- most recently in Friday night's and last night's previews -- to this confounded "Madelon scene" that I'm nearly paralyzed, and consider that the scene needs either no explanation or comment or more and better than I can supply. And in a late inspiration, I'm going to try it both ways. This week we'll mostly just listen to the scene. Then in the future (maybe next week, maybe not) we'll look more closely at the innards.

Either way, I know it's crucial to appreciate the context, especially since in my experience Americans tend not to be aware that almost immediately after overthrowing the monarchy the new revolutionary government in France found itself -- without any experience of governing, let alone raising or commanding an army -- having to defend the country against the combined forces of the remaining crowned heads of Europe, who were equally appalled by (a) the beheading of a king and (b) the even crazier notion of a social order built around "liberty, equality, and fraternity."

This is the appeal to which we've seen and heard the response in the video clip above.

GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier: Act III,
Gérard, "Lagrime e sangue dà la Francia! Udite!"

GÉRARD: France offers up blood and tears! Listen!
Laudun has hoisted
the white flag!
And the Vendée is in flames!
And Brittany threatens us!
And Austrians, and Prussians, and English -- and everyone
sink their armed fangs
into the breast of France!
We need blood and gold!
Women of France, give the
useless gold of your necklaces!
Give your sons to the great mother,
o you, French mothers!
[Carried away by GÉRARD's eloquence, several women come running forward and throw trinkets and coins in the urn.]

Several women in the crowd make offerings. Amid the din an old blind woman is heard urging the other women to make way. Accompanied by a 15-year-old boy she forces her way through the crowd.

Ettore Bastianini (b), Carlo Gérard; Hilde Konetzni (s), Madelon; Vienna State Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Lovro von Matačić, cond. Live performance, June 26, 1960

Heck, as far back as there have been autocracies, political and religious, this is what they do in the face of massing dissent: Crack down! Repress! By whatever means necessary, including where necessary invading. As a result, "free" France was fighting for its life, or at least the anti-royalist factions were. It was a great opportunity for supporters of the monarchy to wage civil war. The end result, of course, was to ensure the supremacy of the most extreme, violent, repressive elements within the French revolutionary leadership. Well done, crowned heads of Europe! Somehow they never took credit for this remarkable accomplishment. (In the year 2011, is any of this sounding familiar?)

NOW ABOUT ROGER ALBERTO . . .

To get back to our scene, the old woman who fights her way through the crowd will shortly announce herself as "Old Madelon" (as we've seen and heard in the video clip above), and this is indeed the "Madelon scene" I've been making such a fuss over. On the other side of the click-through, once we've plugged a small but important information gap left over from Act I, we're going to pick up at the point we left off in Act III, in this very same Vienna State Opera performance, with this rather unexpected singer we've already heard fleetingly as Madelon.


TO FINISH OUR UNFINISHED BUSINESS FROM ACT I
AND HEAR "OLD MADELON" TELL HER STORY, CLICK HERE

THE EARLIER ANDREA CHÉNIER POSTS

(1) The opening scene: Gérard's monologue

Main post (7/10/2011): "Giordano's Andrea Chénier and the class war that wrote the book on class warfare"
-- Leonard Warrren (Met 1957), Mario Sereni (1963 EMI recording), Ettore Bastianini (Vienna 1960), Bechi (1941 EMI recording)

Preview (7/9/2011): "Giordano's Andrea Chénier and the class war that wrote the book on class warfare "
-- Ettore Bastianini (Vienna 1960)
-- Giuseppe Taddei (RAI Milan, 1955)
-- Giorgio Zancanaro (1985 Covent Garden video and 1986 Sony/Hungaroton recording) et al.

(2) The scene that leads up to the Improvviso

Main post: "The seething revolutionary rage of Andrea Chénier certainly strikes a chord at our present moment"
Complete scene:
-- Beniamino Gigli et al. (San Francisco 1938)
-- Luciano Pavarotti et al. (1982-84 Decca recording)
-- Franco Corelli et al. (1963 EMI recording)
-- Mario del Monaco, Maria Callas, et al. (La Scala 1955)
Plus excerpts from Vienna 1960 (Kostas Paskalis as Fléville), Met 1957 (Richard Tucker et al.)

Preview (7/30/2011): "Is the moral of Andrea Chénier that poets make lousy party guests?"
-- studio recordings of the Improvviso by Enrico Caruso, Jon Vickers, Giuseppe di Stefano, Ben Heppner, José Cura (chosen on the basis of "what I've got on CD")

(3) The Madelon scene of Act III

Preview No. 1 (8/19/2011): "Preparing for the culmination of our "Andrea Chenier" series -- Recap No. 1, Gérard's monologue"
-- "Son sessant'anni" and "T'odio, casa dorata" sung by Riccardo Stracciari (1925)
-- complete scene with Ettore Bastianini and Renata Tebaldi (1957 Decca recording)

Preview No. 2 (8/20/2011): "Preparing for the culmination of our "Andrea Chenier" series -- Recap No. 2, Chénier's Improvviso"
-- the Improvviso sung by Aureliano Pertile (1927)
-- complete scene with Mario del Monaco, Renata Tebaldi, et al. (1957 Decca recording)

#

Sunday Classics preview: Preparing for the culmination of our "Andrea Chenier" series -- Recap No. 2, Chénier's "Improvviso"

Aureliano Pertile (1885-1952) as Chénier

by Ken

As I explained in last night's preview, in preparing (finally) to approach the Madelon scene of Andrea Chénier, we're reviewing the two chunks of the opera, both from Act I, that we've looked at already from the standpoint of what seems to me a remarkable depiction of a society that can't help but explode into revolution. Last night we reviewed the servant Carlo Gérard's extraordinary opening monologue (extending into his lust-saturated observation of our heroine, Maddalena). Tonight it's the astonishing story, known as his Improvviso, that the poet Chénier chooses to tell the upper-crust gathering of his hostess, the Contessa di Coigny.

In the click-through we're going to do the same thing we did last night: listen to the whole scene in the 1957 Decca recording. And once again I'm dipping into the archives to offer just one more Improvviso. I would have liked to make it one that nails the piece's poetic (and human) truth. Alas, I don't happen to have one of those offhand, so instead I offer Aureliano Pertile, understanding that with Pertile comes a whole package of, well, stuff.

You'll notice that at the start he's not telling a story, he's showing off how "sensitive" he feels; and this happens whenever he pulls back to singing softly (as when he later addresses Maddalena directly), which in fact he can quite beautifully but does as a show-off effect rather than fulfilling the musical sense. Similarly, when the piece goes big, the shoutiness is about showing off his feelings -- and of course his voice -- rather than conveying what it is that Chénier is trying to communicate here, or what he's experiencing. There's a lot of embarrassingly obvious histrionics. Still, there's no getting around that voice, a tenorial wonder. One is tempted to put up with a lot from Pertile, for the sake of . . . well, just listen.

GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier: Act I, Chénier, "Un dì, all'azzurro spazio" (Improvviso)

CHÉNIER: One day into the blue sky
I gazed deeply,
and on the meadows heaped with violets
the sun rained down gold,
and with gold
the world shone;
the earth appeared an immense treasure,
and serving as its coffer was the firmament.
From the earth to my brow
came a living caress, a kiss.
I cried out, conquered by love: I love y ou,
you who kiss me, divinely
beautiful, o my fatherland!
And I wanted, full of love,
to pray!
I crossed the threshold of a church;
there a priest, in the niches
of the saints and the Virgin
accumulated gifts . . . and to his deaf ear
a trembling old man vainly
pleaded for bread and in vain reached out his hand!
I crossed the entrance of a humble abode;
a man there was cursing, slandering
the soil that barely covered his taxes,
and against God
and against men
hurled the tears of his children.
[With the exception of GÉRARD, who stands listening entranced, everyone is completely scandalized.]
In the face of such misery
what do the ranks of the nobility do?
[To MADDALENA] Only your eyes express humanly
here a look of pity,
and so I looked at you as if at an angel.
And I said: "Here is the beauty of life."
But then, at your words,
a new sorrow wounded me full in the breast.
O beautiful maiden,
do not disparage the words of a poet.
Love, divine gift -- do not scorn it.
The world's soul and life -- that's love.

Aureliano Pertile (t), Andrea Chénier; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Carlo Sabajno, cond. EMI, recorded October 1927


FOR TONIGHT'S ANDREA CHÉNIER RECAP, CLICK HERE

THE ANDREA CHÉNIER POSTS

(1) The opening scene: Gérard's monologue

Main post (7/10/2011): "Giordano's Andrea Chénier and the class war that wrote the book on class warfare"
-- Leonard Warrren (Met 1957), Mario Sereni (1963 EMI recording), Ettore Bastianini (Vienna 1960), Bechi (1941 EMI recording)

Preview (7/9/2011): "Giordano's Andrea Chénier and the class war that wrote the book on class warfare "
-- Ettore Bastianini (Vienna 1960)
-- Giuseppe Taddei (RAI Milan, 1955)
-- Giorgio Zancanaro (1985 Covent Garden video and 1986 Sony/Hungaroton recording) et al.

(2) The scene that leads up to the Improvviso

Main post: "The seething revolutionary rage of Andrea Chénier certainly strikes a chord at our present moment"
Complete scene:
-- Beniamino Gigli et al. (San Francisco 1938)
-- Luciano Pavarotti et al. (1982-84 Decca recording)
-- Franco Corelli et al. (1963 EMI recording)
-- Mario del Monaco, Maria Callas, et al. (La Scala 1955)
Plus excerpts from Vienna 1960 (Kostas Paskalis as Fléville), Met 1957 (Richard Tucker et al.)

Preview (7/30/2011): "Is the moral of Andrea Chénier that poets make lousy party guests?"
-- studio recordings of the Improvviso by Enrico Caruso, Jon Vickers, Giuseppe di Stefano, Ben Heppner, José Cura (chosen on the basis of "what I've got on CD")

(3) The Madelon scene of Act III

Main post (8/21/2011): "We do know that young Roger Alberto isn't coming back, don't we?"
-- Madelon's story told by Larissa Diadkova (video, Madrid 2010) and Hilde Konetzni (Vienna 1960)
-- Gérard's appeal sung by Ettore Bastianini (Vienna 1960)
-- the complete opening scene of Act III with Fernando Corena, Bastianini, and Amelia Guidi (1957 Decca) and Paolo Montarsolo, Mario Sereni, and Anna di Stasio (1963 EMI)
Plus the end of Act I from 1957 Decca and 1963 EMI

Preview No. 1 (8/19/2011): "Preparing for the culmination of our "Andrea Chenier" series -- Recap No. 1, Gérard's monologue"
-- "Son sessant'anni" and "T'odio, casa dorata" sung by Riccardo Stracciari (1925)
-- complete scene with Ettore Bastianini and Renata Tebaldi (1957 Decca)

Preview No. 2 (8/20/2011): "Preparing for the culmination of our "Andrea Chenier" series -- Recap No. 2, Chénier's Improvviso"
-- the Improvviso sung by Aureliano Pertile (1927)
-- complete scene with Mario del Monaco, Renata Tebaldi, et al. (1957 Decca)

#

Sunday Classics preview: Preparing for the culmination of our "Andrea Chenier" series -- Recap No. 1, Gérard's monologue

Ettore Bastianini as Gérard at the Met in 1955 -- we're going to hear him in a moment in the opening scene of Andrea Chénier, and then again Sunday in Act III.

by Ken

As I've explained in our two previous weeks devoted to Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chénier (see the listings below), my proposition is that I take the opera seriously as a representation of the popular rage that exploded into the French Revolution, and in our earlier installments we listened to two chunks of Act I, which takes us up to the outbreak, in preparation for some listening to the scene involving the elderly Madelon in Act III.

In this week's previews we're going to recap the episodes covered in those first two parts, starting tonight with the opera's very opening. Amid the bustle of preparations for a grand soirée at the home of the Contessa di Coigny, the servant Carlo Gérard first demonstrates his wit, shrewdness, and verbal facility with an apostrophe to a couch that has been witness to so much aristocratic foolishness and then, seeing his father still "on the job" despite his advanced age and infirmity, is rerouted to an expression of his feelings abjectness and humiliation, and finally explodes in rage that's expressed as intensely and forcefully as I've encountered in the theater world.

As a pre-refresher refresher, here are the second and third parts sung by the great baritone Riccardo Stracciari in 1925, at the age of 50.

GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier: Act I, Gérard, "Son sessant'anni, o vecchio, che tu servi" . . . "T'odio, casa dorata"

An old man comes in from the garden carrying a heavy piece of furniture. GÉRARD throws down the duster he is holding and goes to help him. Weak and shaky, the old man leaves, disappearing through the garden. GÉRARD, much moved, watches him go.

GÉRARD: It's sixty years, old man,
that you've been a servant here!
On your insolent,
arrogant masters
you've lavished fidelity, sweat,
the strength of your nerves,
your soul, your mind . . .
and as if your own life didn't suffice
to carry on
eternally
the horrendous suffering,
you've given the existence
of your children . . .
[With immense disdain he strikes his breast with open hand, murmuring through tears]
You've fathered menials!
[He dries his tears disdainfully, turns to survey pridefully the opulence around him]
[1:24] I loathe you, gilded house!
You are the image of a world
powdered and vain!
You pretty gallants in silk and laces,
faster ever faster whirl
your merry gavottes and minuets!
Your fate is sealed!
Worthless and wicked race,
the son of serfs and a servant
here, a judge in livery,
I tell you: It's the hour of death!

Riccardo Stracciari, baritone. Columbia, recorded in London, 1925

In the click-through we're going to hear the opening scene, including the first appearance of the Contessa's beautiful daughter Maddalena, observed most unsilently by Gérard. And luckily we can draw on a recording we haven't heard at all in our previous Chénier posts, from which we'll also be hearing excerpts tomorrow night and Sunday. I'll have more to say about it in the click-through.


TO BEGIN OUR ANDREA CHÉNIER RECAP, CLICK HERE

THE ANDREA CHÉNIER POSTS

(1) The opening scene: Gérard's monologue

Main post (7/10/2011): "Giordano's Andrea Chénier and the class war that wrote the book on class warfare"
-- Leonard Warrren (Met 1957), Mario Sereni (1963 EMI recording), Ettore Bastianini (Vienna 1960), Bechi (1941 EMI recording)

Preview (7/9/2011): "Giordano's Andrea Chénier and the class war that wrote the book on class warfare "
-- Ettore Bastianini (Vienna 1960)
-- Giuseppe Taddei (RAI Milan, 1955)
-- Giorgio Zancanaro (1985 Covent Garden video and 1986 Sony/Hungaroton recording) et al.

(2) The scene that leads up to the Improvviso

Main post: "The seething revolutionary rage of Andrea Chénier certainly strikes a chord at our present moment"
Complete scene:
-- Beniamino Gigli et al. (San Francisco 1938)
-- Luciano Pavarotti et al. (1982-84 Decca recording)
-- Franco Corelli et al. (1963 EMI recording)
-- Mario del Monaco, Maria Callas, et al. (La Scala 1955)
Plus excerpts from Vienna 1960 (Kostas Paskalis as Fléville), Met 1957 (Richard Tucker et al.)

Preview (7/30/2011): "Is the moral of Andrea Chénier that poets make lousy party guests?"
-- studio recordings of the Improvviso by Enrico Caruso, Jon Vickers, Giuseppe di Stefano, Ben Heppner, José Cura (chosen on the basis of "what I've got on CD")

(3) The Madelon scene of Act III

Main post (8/21/2011): "We do know that young Roger Alberto isn't coming back, don't we?"
-- Madelon's story told by Larissa Diadkova (video, Madrid 2010) and Hilde Konetzni (Vienna 1960)
-- Gérard's appeal sung by Ettore Bastianini (Vienna 1960)
-- the complete opening scene of Act III with Fernando Corena, Bastianini, and Amelia Guidi (1957 Decca) and Paolo Montarsolo, Mario Sereni, and Anna di Stasio (1963 EMI)
Plus the end of Act I from 1957 Decca and 1963 EMI

Preview No. 1 (8/19/2011): "Preparing for the culmination of our "Andrea Chenier" series -- Recap No. 1, Gérard's monologue"
-- "Son sessant'anni" and "T'odio, casa dorata" sung by Riccardo Stracciari (1925)
-- complete scene with Ettore Bastianini and Renata Tebaldi (1957 Decca)

Preview No. 2 (8/20/2011): "Preparing for the culmination of our "Andrea Chenier" series -- Recap No. 2, Chénier's Improvviso"
-- the Improvviso sung by Aureliano Pertile (1927)
-- complete scene with Mario del Monaco, Renata Tebaldi, et al. (1957 Decca)

#

Sunday Classics: The seething revolutionary rage of "Andrea Chénier" certainly strikes a chord at our present moment

Last night we heard two minutes' worth of Plácido Domingo singing the Improvviso. It seemed only fair to let him get through the whole thing.

by Ken

As I explained in last night's preview of Chénier's Improvviso, we're continuing the three-part series devoted to Giordano's best-known opera begun earlier this month with a post called "Giordano's Andrea Chénier and the class war that wrote the book on class warfare" (also with a Saturday preview), built on the premise -- well, my premise -- that Chénier is a great revolutionary opera. Our goal is to get to the great Madelon scene of Act III. (I know you may not know what a "Madelon scene" is, but I don't want to try to explain the scene until we get to it.)

It's true that eventually Giordano and librettist Luigi Illica (also one of Puccini's most important librettists) cared more about the doomed love of the anti-royalist poet Chénier and the aristocrat Maddalena di Coigny, and I don't have a huge problem with that, because that's interesting enough and occasioned a fair amount of swell music. But for me the opera sizzles when it focuses on the way its characters are caught up in the tide of revolution in France, starting -- literally starting -- the overwhelming opening scene in which the servant Carlo Gérard, observing his broken-down father still in service to the Contessa di Coigny, vents some volcanic rage that there's no escape from servitude not just for his father but for his father's children; they're a race of menials.

In that opening scene we saw Gérard occupied, along with all the other servants in the household, with preparations for a grand soirée at the Coigny home -- just as the French Revolution, as we learn, is about to break out. Later we see the Countess and her lovely, inquisitive daughter Maddalena engaged in final preparations for Maddalena, and then the guests arrive. At the party, one of the guests, a young poet, is going to be moved to share some recent experiences and observations that will scandalize everyone present except Gérard and Maddalena: the Improvviso we heard last night, which today we're going to put in context.

We're going to pick up as the arrival of the guests is well under way, a starting point that was determined by one of three recordings we're going to hear -- all that survives of the broadcast of a 1938 San Francisco performance -- once we've broken the scene down a little. It's actually not a bad starting point, though, as the Countess greets the first of her "special" guests.


FOR OUR CHUNK OF ACT I, CLICK HERE

PART 3 OF THE ANDREA CHÉNIER SERIES . . .

. . . continues with previews and http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/08/sunday-classics-preview-preparing-for.htmlhere, and the main post "We do know that young Roger Alberto isn't coming back, don't we?We do know that young Roger Alberto isn't coming back, don't we?"

#

Sunday Classics preview: Is the moral of "Andrea Chénier" that poets make lousy party guests?

DG herewith shares two minutes' worth of Plácido Domingo singing the Improvviso from Andrea Chénier (at the Vienna State Opera, 1981, Nello Santi conducting) from its Domingo 70th-birthday audio-and-video sampler.

by Ken

A few weeks ago I began what I explained would eventually be three sets of posts devoted to Giordano's opera Andrea Chénier. In that first post, "Giordano's Andrea Chénier and the class war that wrote the book on class warfare" (with a Saturday preview), we looked at the opening scene given to Carlo Gérard, a servant in the household of the Contessa di Coigny immersed in preparations for a swanky soirée on, literally, the even of the French Revolution.) We're headed for the Madelon scene of Act III, but before we get there we have to consider the poet Chénier's arresting Improvviso (which refers both to its improvisatory quality and to its suddennesss and unexpectedness), which shocks the dickens out of most of the guests.

In tomorrow's post we're going to work our way through the scene that leads up to the Improvviso as well as hearing the scene in its entirety (several times, actually).

Tonight we're going to listen just to the Improvviso itself. For the sake of my sanity I limited myself to what I've got on CD, but I think we've got an interesting assortment of performances -- in terms of voice types, national origins (two Italians, two Canadians, and an Argentinian), personalities, and interpretive thoughts -- beginning with Enrico Caruso's only recording of it, made when the opera, which had its premiere in March 1896, was little more than a decade old. Don't worry about hearing a bunch of antique recordings. After the Caruso, we jump to 1958, and everything is in stereo. (Which reminds me, there's also some notable variety in the conducting and orchestral playing. Just listen to the way the veteran Tullio Serafin balances, and the Rome Opera Orchestra plays, the chord that launches the aria proper.)

Believe it or not, I really don't have anything else to say tonight. I'll let the performances speak for themselves, and the music too, of course.


FOR TONIGHT'S IMPROVVISO PERFORMANCES, CLICK HERE

#

Sunday Classics: Giordano's "Andrea Chénier" and the class war that wrote the book on class warfare

Giorgio Zancanaro as Gérard at Covent Garden, with Julius Rudel conducting, 1985.

by Ken

In last night's preview I indicated that we're taking a slow journey toward the tear-jerker of all tear-jerker scenes, the Madelon scene of Act III of Giordano's Andrea Chénier, starting with the very opening of the opera and going up to, well, a particular point. We heard the bustle of the preparations for a grand party in the home of the Countess of Coigny, on the very eve of the French Revolution, including some of the ruminations of the household servant Carlo Gérard.

Here's what we've heard so far:

GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier: Act I, Gérard, "Compiacente a' colloqui" . . . "Son sessant'anni"

The country estate of the Coigny family. The winter garden, the grand conservatory.

The curtain rises on a scene bustling with activity. Servants, lackeys, valets, all under the command of an officious MAJOR-DOMO, run hither and thither carrying pieces of furniture about and placing it down where he instructs them to. GÉRARD, in full livery, lends a hand in carrying a heavy blue sofa.

MAJOR-DOMO: This blue sofa, let's put it there.

GÉRARD and the lackeys obey his orders. Then the MAJOR-DOMO goes to another part of the château followed by all the servants. GÉRARD, left behind, kneels before the blue sofa, unruffling the fringe, smoothing the satin covering, and arranging the curtains.

GÉRARD: Obliging to the discourse
of the dandy
who offered his hand
to mature ladies here!
Here Red Heels
said sighing to the Beauty-patch:
"Orinthia, or Chloris, or Nike, powdered,
oldish and painted,
I long for you
and, only on this account, perhaps,
I love you!"
Such is the custom of the times.

An old man comes in from the garden carrying a heavy piece of furniture. GÉRARD throws down the duster he is holding and goes to help him. Weak and shaky, the old man leaves, disappearing through the garden. GÉRARD, much moved, watches him go.

GÉRARD: It's sixty years, old man,
that you've been a servant here!
On your insolent,
arrogant masters
you've lavished fidelity, sweat,
the strength of your nerves,
your soul, your mind . . .
and as if your own life didn't suffice
to carry on
eternally
the horrendous suffering,
you've given the existence
of your children . . .
[With immense disdain he strikes his breast with open hand, murmuring through tears]
You've fathered menials!

Louis Sgarro (bs), Major-Domo; Leonard Warren (b), Carlo Gérard; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva, cond. Live performance, Dec. 28, 1957

As I indicated, something extraordinarily dramatic is about to happen. Right after the click-through. (New genre, the click-hanger?)


TO CONTINUE WITH THE OPENING SCENE
OF ANDREA CHÉNIER, CLICK HERE

PARTS 2 AND 3 OF THE ANDREA CHÉNIER SERIES . . .

. . . continue with (2) "The seething revolutionary rage of Andrea Chénier certainly strikes a chord at our present moment" and (3) "We do know that young Roger Alberto isn't coming back, don't we?" (You'll find links to the associated previews at the main posts.)

.

#

Sunday Classics preview: Giordano's "Andrea Chénier" and the class war that wrote the book on class warfare

The opening of Andrea Chénier: The Major-Domo directs party preparations (at Covent Garden, 1985), with the servant Carlo Gérard (Giorgio Zancanaro) looking on at right. We'll hear this bustling opening music in a moment, played two ways -- very perky and not so perky -- in a moment. (And we'll see this Covent Garden clip tomorrow.)

by Ken

There was a plan to this week's post which made sense in its way. Working up to one of the great tear-jerking scenes in Western theater, the Madelon scene of Act III of Giordano's Andrea Chénier, we were going to "preview" two of the high spots that pave the way to it: the very opening of the opera, with the baritone Gérard's great monologue; and Chénier himself's great Act I "Improvviso." Which would have meant either a pair of ginormous previews or the merest dabs at two of the most remarkable chunks of musical theater ever created.

So, on the theory that both Gérard's monologue and Chénier's "Improvviso" deserve posts of their own, they're going to get them. We'll simply proceed to the Madelon scene in, if not baby steps, then at least babier ones.

For starters, we're going to more or less literally raise the curtain. As regular readers know, we always like to know how a piece starts, and in the then-modern way, pioneered in Italian opera by Verdi in his last two operas, Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893), and made standard practice by Puccini (whose first successful opera, Manon Lescaut had premiered in 1893, followed by La Bohème in February 1896, eight weeks before Chénier), Giordano plunges us into the action without a formal prelude.

This is obviously "bustling" music, which we're going to hear played two ways. First, Riccardo Chailly plays it for the "bustle." Then Marcello Viotti trusts that the bustle is built in and drives it less hard. This would probably be more effective in a more confident, knowing performance, but you get the the idea that Viotti is facing an orchestra doesn't really know the music, possibly having played no more than a single run-through.

GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier: Act I, Major-Domo, "Questo azzurro sofà"

The country estate of the Coigny family. The winter garden, the grand conservatory.

The curtain rises on a scene bustling with activity. Servants, lackeys, valets, all under the command of an officious MAJOR-DOMO, run hither and thither carrying pieces of furniture about and placing it down where he instructs them to. GÉRARD, in full livery, lends a hand in carrying a heavy blue sofa.

MAJOR-DOMO: This blue sofa, let's put it there.

GÉRARD and the lackeys obey his orders. Then the MAJOR-DOMO goes to another part of the château followed by all the servants. GÉRARD, left behind, kneels before the blue sofa, unruffling the fringe, smoothing the satin covering, and arranging the curtains.

Neil Howlett (b), National Philharmonic Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly, cond. Decca, recorded August 1982Michele Pertusi (bs), Major-Domo; Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Marcello Viotti, cond. Capriccio, recorded Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 1989


GÉRARD AND THE SOFA: FOR MORE OF
THE CHÉNIER OPENING SCENE, CLICK HERE

#

[8/21/2011] Sunday Classics: "Andrea Chénier" (3): We do know that young Roger Alberto isn't coming back, don't we? (continued)

This is Anny Konetzni (1902-1968) as Brünnhilde with her sister Hilde Konetzni (1905-1980) as Sieglinde in Act III of Die Walküre at the Vienna State Opera (where else?) in 1936. In a moment we're going to hear baby sister in an unexpected role.


GÉRARD HAS SURE COME A LONG WAY FROM
THE BEATEN-DOWN SERVANT WE MET IN ACT I

Of course we've skipped entirely over Act II, where we would already have seen Gérard as a muckety-muck in the revolutionary government. But we've also skipped over some important information contained in the very end of Act I. So here is that final four minutes and change, from Maddalena's shamed response to Chénier's Improvviso ("Forgive me!") to the Act I curtain.

GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier: Act I conclusion

MADDALENA: Forgive me!
COUNTESS: She's such a strange creature. We must forgive her.
She's willful and a little romantic.
[As music strikes up] But hear! It's the gay sound of the gavotte.
Come along, cavaliers! Everyone choose his lady!
[As the dancers take their places, strange singing cn be heard outside in the distance.]
DISTANT VOICES: Night and day
we bear the whole time
suffering.
We are poor people
who of famine
are dying.
Famished, fainting,
dying,
we fall on the barren ground.
GÉRARD [announcing a band of poverty-stricken peasants]: His highness Poverty!
COUNTESS: Who let these people in?
GÉRARD: I, Gérard!
COUNTESS [to her footmen and lackeys]: Out with this rabble!
[to GÉRARD] And you first of all!
GÉRARD: Yes, I am going, Countess.
This livery weighs on me
and the bread I eat
here is base!
The voice of the man whoo wuffers
calls me to him!
[Raises his old father, who is kneeling imploringly at the Countess's feet] Come, my father, come with me!
Why do you bow down at the feet
of one who doesn't hear the voice of pity?
[Stripping his livery from his back] Off with this vile badge of servitude!
[The MAJOR-DOMO, footmen, and lackeys drive away the peasants, while the Countess, speechless with rage, collapses on the sofa. GÉRARD forces his father to leave together with him and the peasants.]
COUNTESS: That Gérard!
Reading has been his ruination!
And I who every day
have distributed alms . . .
and in order not to embarrass
those who are in poverty
went so far as to wear the habit
of a sister of mercy!
[to the MAJOR-DOMO] Have they all gone?
MAJOR-DOMO: Yes.
COUNTESS: My excuses! The interrupted gavotte,
my ladies, let's get back to.
Let gaiety return!
[The guests take up the gavotte once more.]

[CURTAIN]

Renata Tebaldi (s), Maddalena; Maria Teresa Mandalari (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Ettore Bastianini (b), Carlo Gérard; Michele Cazzato (bs), Major-Domo; Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), cond. Decca, recorded 1957
Antonietta Stella (s), Maddalena; Luciana Moneta (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Mario Sereni (b), Carlo Gérard; Paolo Pedani (bs), Major-Domo; Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Gabriele Santini, cond. EMI, recorded June-July 1963


NOW IT'S TIME FOR "OLD MADELON" TO TELL HER
STORY AND MAKE HER DONATION TO THE CAUSE

As I've indicated, Madelon isn't a role in which you would normally expect to encounter Hilde Konetzni. But the Vienna State Opera has a tradition of recycling its veteran singers into small roles where they can make some impact, hopefully more than sentimental. Hilde K sang the big dramatic soprano roles, though not as big as her sister Anny, who seems to have had a soprano of pulverizing size and power. Hilde, however, was always noted for her sympathetic personal qualities, and while she isn't the "definitive" Madelon (I'm holding some really good ones in reserve for when we break the scene down a little; among our Madelons today, I would put in a good word for the fine character mezzo Anna di Stasio in the 1963 EMI Chénier, below), the 55-year-old singer still had a fair amount of voice left in 1960 (she continued singing small roles at the Staatsoper for another decade-plus), and those personal qualities definitely come into play.

GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier: Act III,
Madelon, "Son la vecchia Madelon"

MADELON: I am Old Madelon. My son is dead.
His name was Roger. He died in the taking
of the Bastille. His first son
at Valmy won promotion and death.
Another few days and I too will die.
[Pushing the boy forward]
He's the son of Roger. The last son.
The last drop of my old blood . . .
Take him!
Don't say that he's just a child!
He's strong . . . He can fight and die!
GÉRARD [after an officer of the National Guard has examined the eager boy and pronounced him eligible]:
We accept him. Tell me his name.
MADELON: Roger Alberto.
GÉRARD: He'll leave this very evening.
MADELON: My joy, farewell!
Take him away!
[Seeking helplessly around her as two National Guardsmen lead the boy away.]
Who'll give me his arm?
[She is led away by sympathetic onlookers. The deputies now remove the urn; the crowd thins out; the officer and the National Guard march away.]

Hilde Konetzni (s), Madelon; Ettore Bastianini (b), Carlo Gérard; Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Lovro von Matačić, cond. Live performance, June 26, 1960


AND THAT'S ALL I'M GOING TO SAY FOR NOW.
LET'S HEAR THE WHOLE OPENING SCENE OF ACT III

Well, maybe I'll say one more thing, since we haven't talked at all about the opening of Act III. The first voice we hear belongs to the sans-culotte Mathieu, now known as "Populus," who is doing his dreadful best at bleeding the crowd for the cause. He's conspicuously lacking in the silver-tongued oratorical skills it should come as no surprise to us Gérard possesses so abundantly.

Small as the role of Mathieu is, it's frequently taken by the sort of comic bass we might hear, say, as Dr. Bartolo in Rossini's Barber of Seville (one of our Mathieus below, Paolo Montarsolo, actually recorded the straight singing role of Don Basilio, but that was a dreadful mistake; Bartolo should have been his role) or in the title role of Donizetti's Don Pasquale.

GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier: Act III,
Mathieu, "Dumouriez traditore" . . .
Gérard, "Lagrime e sangue dà la Francia! Udite!" . . .
Madelon, "Son la vecchia Madelon"

A large hall that can be divided into two halves by barriers when the Revolutionary Tribunal is in session -- one side for the officials and one for the public. At present the center of the hall is occupied by a large urn, surrounded by members of the National Guard, representatives of the people, and deputies.

MATHIEU [who is haranguing the crowd, continuing]:
Dumouriez, traitor and Jacobin,
has gove over to the enemy (the scoundrel!).
Coburg, Brunswick (may Pitt die of the plague!),
and the old brothel of Europe --
they're all against us . . . Gold and soldiers!
Therefore this urn here and I who speak to you
represent the picture of our country!
No volunteers? May the guillotine
change your heads and hearts for you!
[Several come forward and throw money and valuables into the urn.]
MATHIEU: The fatherland is in danger!
Now, like Barère before me, I raise the cry
of Louvertur [i.e., Toussaint l'Ouverture]: Liberty and potatoes!
[Catching sight of GÉRARD approaching]
But look . . there's Gérard over there!
He'll drag the ex-louis d'or out of our pockets
with the kind of words I'm no good at.
I've no time for pretty words.
I even boast of it!
PEOPLE [overlapping]: Citizen Gérard!
Your health! Long life!
MATHIEU: Your wound?
GÉRARD: Thanks, citizens!
My strong constitution has preserved me
for my fatherland still!
MATHIEU [indicating the urn, to GÉRARD]: Here is your place!
[Taking up his interrupted speech]
Dumouriez, traitor and Girondin,
has gone over to the enemy (death to the lot of 'em!)!
And the fatherland is in dan- --
[Giving up, indicating GÉRARD]
I yield the floor.
GÉRARD: France offers blood and tears! Listen!
Laudun has hoisted
the white flag!
And the Vendée is in flames!
And Brittany threatens us!
And Austrians, and Prussians, and English -- and everyone
sink their armed fangs
into the breast of France!
We need blood and gold!
Women of France, give the
useless gold of your necklaces!
Give your sons to the great mother,
o you, French mothers!
[Carried away by GÉRARD's eloquence, several women come running forward and throw trinkets and coins in the urn.]

Several women in the crowd make offerings. Amid the din an old blind woman is heard urging the other women to make way. Accompanied by a 15-year-old boy she forces her way through the crowd.
MADELON: I am Old Madelon. My son is dead.
His name was Roger. He died in the taking
of the Bastille. His first son
at Valmy won promotion and death.
Another few days and I too will die.
[Pushing the boy forward]
He's the son of Roger. The last son.
The last drop of my old blood . . .
Take him!
Don't say that he's just a child!
He's strong . . . He can fight and die!
GÉRARD [after an officer of the National Guard has examined the eager boy and pronounced him eligible]:
We accept him. Tell me his name.
MADELON: Roger Alberto.
GÉRARD: He'll leave this very evening.
MADELON: My joy, farewell!
Take him away!
[Seeking helplessly around her as two National Guardsmen lead the boy away.]
Who'll give me his arm?
[She is led away by sympathetic onlookers. The deputies now remove the urn; the crowd thins out; the officer and the National Guard march away. MATHIEU starts to transform the hall into a court of justice, the Revolutionary Tribunal. Outside, the crowd begins dancing and singing the Carmagnole.]

Fernando Corena (bs), Mathieu; Ettore Bastianini (b), Carlo Gérard; Amelia Guidi (ms), Madelon; Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Gianandrea Gavazzeni, cond. Decca, recorded 1957
Paolo Montarsolo (bs), Mathieu; Mario Sereni (b), Carlo Gérard; Anna di Stasio (ms), Madelon; Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Gabriele Santini, cond. EMI, recorded June-July 1963


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

#

[8/20/2011] Preview: Preparing for the culmination of our "Andrea Chenier" series -- Recap No. 2, Chénier's "Improvviso" (continued)

AGAIN, OUR "PREVIEW PERFORMANCE" --


GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier: Act I, Fléville, "Commosso, lusingato" . . . "Passiamo la sera allegramente" . . . Maddalena, "Al mio dire perdono" . . . Chénier, "Colpite qui m'avete" . . . "Un dì all'azzurro spazio" (Improvviso)

1. The first important guest arrives (with entourage), soon eclipsed by the really important guest

Fléville, "Commosso, lusingato"

Among the guests (the COUNTESS has told MADDALENA) are two notables: a distinguished writer coming from Italy and an Abbé coming from Paris. The writer, FLÉVILLE, arrives first, with two fellow artists in tow, a composer and a young poet, and is touched by the effusiveness of his reception -- only to be better-dealed as soon as the really important guest, the Abbé coming from Paris, arrives.

2. The Abbé brings alarming news from Paris

Abbé, "Devole è il rè"

I adore this little scene, which it seems to me we've somehow touched on. (I really should try to dig up the link if there is one.) The lines I love in particular are the Countess's in response to the Abbé's news of the (unspecified) abuse of the statue of Henri IV, first asking where it will all end, then wailing: "They no longer fear God."

ABBÉ [graciously flattered by this demonstration, kisses numerous hands and makes bows that resemble genuflections; meanwhile the COUNTESS personally serves him some jam]: The king is debilitated.
FLÉVILLE: Has he given in?
ABBÉ: He was badly advised.
COUNTESS: Necker?*
[*Jacques Necker was Louis VXI's finance minister, who was pressing serious reforms on the king, including the formation of the Third Estate in the 1789 Estates General, representing the populace other than the clergy ( the First Estate) and the nobility (the Second Estate). Later that year the Third Estate would be reconstituted as the National Assembly.]
ABBÉ: Let's not speak of him! [Tastes the jam, sighing in a gesture of supreme affliction.]
THE OTHERS: That Necker!
We're dying of curiosity!
ABBÉ [this time resolutely attacks the jam, digging into it with the whole spoon]: We have the Third Estate!
THE OTHERS: Ah! Ah!
ABBÉ: And I've seen abused . . .
THE OTHERS: Who?
ABBÉ: The statue of Henri IV.
THE OTHERS: Horror!
COUNTESS: Where will it all end?
ABBÉ: I was wondering that too.
COUNTESS: They no longer fear God!
ABBÉ [handing his cup to a young man]: Indeed, fair ladies, I'm desolate to bring you such news.

3. Fléville successfully changes the subject

Fléville, "Passiamo la sera allegramente"

"Let's spend the evening merrily," says the novelist, and he introduces a pastoral entertainment based on his new novel, in which regretful bands of shepherds and shepherdesses bid each other farewell.

4. Attention turns to the junior member of Fléville's party, the young poet Andrea Chénier

Contessa, "Signor Chénier?"; Chénier, "Madama la Contessa?"

"Your muse is silent?" the Countess says to the young poet, who tells her his muse as "retiring" and wishes to be silent. Other guests poke fun at him, and Maddalena bets her friends that she can get the poet to poeticize.

5. Maddalena proceeds to set the young poet up

Maddalena, "Al mio dire perdono" . . . Chénier, "Il vostro desio è commando gentil"

FIORINELLI, the musician brought by FLÉVILLE, sits at the harpsichord and begins to play. MADDALENA goes up to CHÉNIER.

MADDALENA: Pardon my words and my boldness!
I'm a woman, and I'm curious.
I long to hear
an eclogue of yours, a poem
for a nun or for a wife.
HER FRIENDS: For a nun or for a wife.
CHÉNIER: Your wish is a kind command.
But, alas, the imagination
is not amenable to command or to humble prayer.
Poetry is indeed capricious,
in the manner of love.
[MADDALENA and her friends burst out laughing.]

6. Maddalena explains the joke

Contessa, "Perchè ridete voi?"

The Countess wants to know why the girls are laughing. Maddalena explains that she bet her friends she could get the poet to use the word "love," which she herself had had thrust at her in the course of the evening by assorted leches among her mother's guests, singling out (according to the stage directions) "a ridiculous old man," an abbé, "a fat old marquis," and "a young man remarkable for his ugliness."

7. And Chénier defends his use of the word "love"

Chénier, "Colpito qui m'avete" . . . "Un dì all'azzurro spazio" (Improvviso)

Which brings us to the exact point where our second group of recordings of Chénier's Improvviso, the ones that included the lead-in "Colpito qui m'avete," picked up last night. Buried in the applause afterward

CHÉNIER: You've wounded me here where I jealously
conceal the purest beating of my soul.
Now see, dear girl, what poetry
there is in the word "Love," which rouses such ridicule.

One day into the blue sky
I gazed deeply,
and on the meadows heaped with violets
the sun rained down gold,
and with gold
the world shone;
the earth appeared an immense treasure,
and serving as its coffer was the firmament.
From the earth to my brow
came a living caress, a kiss.
I cried out, conquered by love: I love y ou,
you who kiss me, divinely
beautiful, o my fatherland!
And I wanted, full of love,
to pray!
I crossed the threshold of a church;
there a priest, in the niches
of the saints and the Virgin
accumulated gifts . . . and to his deaf ear
a trembling old man vainly
pleaded for bread and in vain reached out his hand!
I crossed the entrance of a humble abode;
a man there was cursing, slandering
the soil that barely covered his taxes,
and against God
and against men
hurled the tears of his children.
[With the exception of GÉRARD, who stands listening entranced, everyone is completely scandalized.]
In the face of such misery
what do the ranks of the nobility do?
[To MADDALENA] Only your eyes express humanly
here a look of pity,
and so I looked at you as if at an angel.
And I said: "Here is the beauty of life."
But then, at your words,
a new sorrow wounded me full in the breast.
O beautiful maiden,
do not disparage the words of a poet.
Love, divine gift -- do not scorn it.
The world's soul and life -- that's love.

MADDALENA: Pardon me.

Dino Mantovani (bs), Fléville; Maria Tersa Mandalari (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Renata Tebaldi (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Angelo Mercuriali (t), the Abbé; Mario del Monaco (t), Andrea Chenier (t); Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Gianandrea Gavazzeni, cond. Decca, recorded 1957


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

We finish up a bit of Act I business, then proceed to the Madelon scene of Act III.


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

#

[8/19/2011] Preview: Preparing for the culmination of our "Andrea Chénier" series -- Recap No. 1, Gérard's monologue (continued)

ABOUT TONIGHT'S -- AND TOMORROW NIGHT'S --
"PREVIEW PERFORMANCE"


This time through we're going to take advantage of the odd circumstance that the recording of Chénier I would probably still recommend, all around, above all the others, wasn't really available to me at the time, because I owned it only on open-reel tape, and while theoretically I could rig up a system whereby I could make MP3 files from tapes, just the thought of it exhausts me -- not to mention the practical consideration of where the hell this system would lodge.

Since then I've bitten the bullet and bought a copy of the above-depicted CD edition, and so that's what we're going to hear for the opening scene tonight and the scene that leads to Chénier's Improvviso tomorrow night -- and for that matter again Sunday when we get to the Madelon scene of act III. We did actually hear bits of all three of our principals from other performances, but they make quite a team in Decca's 1957 recording conducted by the estimable Gianandrea Gavazzeni.

The lush beauty of her timbre and vulnerability of her personality made Maddalena one of Renata Tebaldi's happiest roles (she's seen at right as Tosca); not many tenors have produced the kind of sound that Mario del Monaco did in the title role; and Ettore Bastianini had not only the beauty of sound but the capacity for baritonal thunder that Gérard calls for; and the enormous and important supporting cast is pretty darned good. While I would hate to be without the 1941 recording -- with the stellar principal trio of Beniamino Gigli, Maria Caniglia, and the even more thundreous Gérard of Gino Bechi, dramatically conducted by Oliviero de Fabritiis, and with another outstanding supporting cast -- the solid early stereo sound gives the 1957 Decca a strong advantage. (As you'll have noticed, and will notice again Sunday, I'm also fond of the 1963 EMI recording with Franco Corelli, Antonietta Stella, and Mario Sereni, Gabriele Santini conducting.)

So why don't we go ahead and ring the curtain up?


GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier: Act I, Major-Domo, "Questo azzurro sofà" . . . Gérard, "Compiacenti a' colloquii" . . . "Son sessant'anni, o vecchio, che tu servi!" . . . "T'odio, casa dorata" . . . Maddalena, "Il giorno intorno già s'insera"

The country estate of the Coigny family. The winter garden, the grand conservatory.

The curtain rises on a scene bustling with activity. Servants, lackeys, valets, all under the command of an officious MAJOR-DOMO, run hither and thither carrying pieces of furniture about and placing it down where he instructs them to. GÉRARD, in full livery, lends a hand in carrying a heavy blue sofa.

MAJOR-DOMO: This blue sofa, let's put it there.

GÉRARD and the lackeys obey his orders. Then the MAJOR-DOMO goes to another part of the château followed by all the servants. GÉRARD, left behind, kneels before the blue sofa, unruffling the fringe, smoothing the satin covering, and arranging the curtains.

GÉRARD: Obliging to the discourse
of the dandy
who offered his hand
to mature ladies here!
Here Red Heels
said sighing to the Beauty-patch:
"Orinthia, or Chloris, or Nike, powdered,
oldish and painted,
I long for you
and, only on this account, perhaps,
I love you!"
Such is the custom of the times.

An old man comes in from the garden carrying a heavy piece of furniture. GÉRARD throws down the duster he is holding and goes to help him. Weak and shaky, the old man leaves, disappearing through the garden. GÉRARD, much moved, watches him go.

GÉRARD: It's sixty years, old man,
that you've been a servant here!
On your insolent,
arrogant masters
you've lavished fidelity, sweat,
the strength of your nerves,
your soul, your mind . . .
and as if your own life didn't suffice
to carry on
eternally
the horrendous suffering,
you've given the existence
of your children . . .
[With immense disdain he strikes his breast with open hand, murmuring through tears]
You've fathered menials!
[He dries his tears disdainfully, turns to survey pridefully the opulence around him]
I loathe you, gilded house!
You are the image of a world
powdered and vain!
You pretty gallants in silk and laces,
faster ever faster whirl
your merry gavottes and minuets!
Your fate is sealed!
Worthless and wicked race,
the son of serfs and a servant
here, a judge in livery,
I tell you: It's the hour of death!

The COUNTESS, MADDALENA, and BERSI, the latter curiously garbed, appear at the entrance to the conservatory. The COUNTESS stops to give some orders to her MAJOR-DOMO. MADDALENA comes forward slowly with BERSI.

MADDALENA: The whole day
is already darkening
slowly.
In these mysterious . . .
[GÉRARD sings as below, overlapping MADDALENA.]
shadows, fantastic shapes
do things assume!
Now thoughts turn to rest
serenely!
GÉRARD: What sweetness fills my dark soul
because of you!
Even ideals may die, you never die,
you, Eternal Song!

["Compiacente a' colloquii" at 0:40, "Son sessant'anni" at 1:55, "T'odio, casa dorata" at 3:42; Maddalena's entrance, track 2] Michele Cazzato (bs), Major-Domo; Ettore Bastianini (b), Carlo Gérard; Renata Tebaldi (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, cond. Decca, recorded 1957


IN TOMORROW NIGHT'S PREVIEW --

As noted, we continue our recap with the scene later in Act I that culminates in Chénier's Improvviso. Then in Sunday's main post we attack (finally!) the Madelon scene of Act III


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

#

[7/31/2011] Sunday Classics: The seething revolutionary rage of "Andrea Chénier" certainly strikes a chord at our present moment (continued)

Mario del Monaco sings the Improvviso in a 1961 Japanese video performance of Chénier.


ABOUT THE PERFORMANCES

When we put this scene back together, in addition to the 1938 San Francisco performance with Beniamino Gigli and Elisabeth Rethberg, we're going to hear two perfectly okay-sounding studio recordings. In our "breakdown" sequence, though, the way it worked out the recordings we're going to hear don't sound all that nice. I think they're all listenable, though, and especially since the excerpts are brief or briefish, I hope you can bear with them. You can always jump ahead to the stereo recordings of the full scene.

One oddity in the choice of recordings is that the two I chose for the excerpts in which the novelist Fléville is featured prominently (Nos. 1 and 3) I gravitated to performances that boast about-to-be front-line baritones: Kostas Paskalis (who went on to quite a distinguished career) in the 1960 Vienna performance and Enzo Sordello in the 1955 La Scala performance.

Speaking of which, I wound up using it for all seven of our scenelets, for two reasons. In increasing importance:

(1) It really is a good performance, with some good singers in crucial roles, like Sordello as Fléville and comprimario tenor Mario Carlin as the Abbé. I've had an old Cetra LP edition of it sitting on my shelves for decades, rarely listened to -- partly because of the mediocre sound and partly because its one major cast letdown is in a role that, as you may have gathered, matters a lot to me: Carlo Gérard. Since it's his great monologue that starts the opera off, the combination of the mediocre sound and the sound of one of my least favorite baritones, Aldo Protti, pretty well put me off.

(2) In order to see what kind of sound I could coax out of the LPs in MP3 form, I went ahead and did all the work to make all of the audio files, which created a strong disposition to use them. I hope I'm not kidding myself about the sound, which I realize is limited, and distorts considerably at even moderate signal levels, is surprisingly listenable.

Okay, here we go. I've included timings for our performances in brackets just to give you a sense of the size of each scenelet.

GIORDANO, Andrea Chénier, from Act I --

1. The first important guest arrives (with entourage),
soon eclipsed by the really important guest [1:24, 1:13]

Fléville, "Commosso, lusingato"

Among the guests (the COUNTESS has told MADDALENA) are two notables: a distinguished writer coming from Italy and an Abbé coming from Paris. The writer, FLÉVILLE, arrives first, with two fellow artists in tow, a composer and a young poet, and is touched by the effusiveness of his reception -- only to be better-dealed as soon as the really important guest, the Abbé coming from Paris, arrives.

Kostas Paskalis (b), Fléville; Elisabeth Höngen (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Renata Tebaldi (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Fritz Sperlbauer (t), the Abbé; Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Lovro von Matačić, cond. Live performance, June 26, 1960
Enzo Sordello (b), Fléville; Maria Amadini (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Maria Callas (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Mario Carlin (t), the Abbé; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Antonino Votto, cond. Live performance, Jan. 8, 1955

2. The Abbé brings alarming news from Paris [1:13, 1:08]

Abbé, "Devole è il rè"

I adore this little scene, which it seems to me we've somehow touched on. (I really should try to dig up the link if there is one.) The lines I love in particular are the Countess's in response to the Abbé's news of the (unspecified) abuse of the statue of Henri IV, first asking where it will all end, then wailing: "They no longer fear God."

ABBÉ [graciously flattered by this demonstration, kisses numerous hands and makes bows that resemble genuflections; meanwhile the COUNTESS personally serves him some jam]: The king is debilitated.
FLÉVILLE: Has he given in?
ABBÉ: He was badly advised.
COUNTESS: Necker?*
[*Jacques Necker was Louis VXI's finance minister, who was pressing serious reforms on the king, including the formation of the Third Estate in the 1789 Estates General, representing the populace other than the clergy ( the First Estate) and the nobility (the Second Estate). Later that year the Third Estate would be reconstituted as the National Assembly.]
ABBÉ: Let's not speak of him! [Tastes the jam, sighing in a gesture of supreme affliction.]
THE OTHERS: That Necker!
We're dying of curiosity!
ABBÉ [this time resolutely attacks the jam, digging into it with the whole spoon]: We have the Third Estate!
THE OTHERS: Ah! Ah!
ABBÉ: And I've seen abused . . .
THE OTHERS: Who?
ABBÉ: The statue of Henri IV.
THE OTHERS: Horror!
COUNTESS: Where will it all end?
ABBÉ: I was wondering that too.
COUNTESS: They no longer fear God!
ABBÉ [handing his cup to a young man]: Indeed, fair ladies, I'm desolate to bring you such news.

Gabor Carelli (t), the Abbe; George Cehanovsky (b), Fléville; Martha Lipton (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Zinka Milanov (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Fausto Cleva, cond. Live performance, Dec. 28, 1957
Mario Carlin (t), the Abbé; Enzo Sordello (b), Fléville; Maria Amadini (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Maria Callas (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Antonino Votto, cond. Live performance, Jan. 8, 1955

3. Fléville successfully changes the subject [4:34, 4:01]

Fléville, "Passiamo la sera allegramente"

"Let's spend the evening merrily," says the novelist, and he introduces a pastoral entertainment based on his new novel, in which regretful bands of shepherds and shepherdesses bid each other farewell.

Kostas Paskalis (b), Fléville; Fritz Sperlbauer (t), the Abbé; Vienna State Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Lovro von Matačić, cond. Live performance, Jun 26, 1960
Enzo Sordello (b), Fléville; Mario Carlin (t), the Abbé; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Antonino Votto, cond. Live performance, Jan. 8, 1955

4. Attention turns to the junior member of
Fléville's party, the young poet Andrea Chénier [0:33]

I want to do some pretty fine subdividing of the lead-up to the Improvviso, so we're going to break down just the 1955 La Scala recording into these mini-component parts, and then hear Nos. 4-7 from a 1957 Met performance in one fell swoop (allowing for a CD track switch at the start of the Improvviso).

Contessa, "Signor Chénier?"; Chénier, "Madama la Contessa?"

"Your muse is silent?" the Countess says to the young poet, who tells her his muse as "retiring" and wishes to be silent. Other guests poke fun at him, and Maddalena bets her friends that she can get the poet to poeticize.

Maria Amadini (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Mario del Monaco (t), Andrea Chénier; Enzo Sordello (b), Fléville; Mario Carlin (t), the Abbé; Maria Callas (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Antonino Votto, cond. Live performance, Jan. 8, 1955

5. Maddalena proceeds to set the young poet up [1:12]

Maddalena, "Al mio dire perdono" . . . Chénier, "Il vostro desio è commando gentil"

FIORINELLI, the musician brought by FLÉVILLE, sits at the harpsichord and begins to play. MADDALENA goes up to CHÉNIER.

MADDALENA: Pardon my words and my boldness!
I'm a woman, and I'm curious.
I long to hear
an eclogue of yours, a poem
for a nun or for a wife.
HER FRIENDS: For a nun or for a wife.
CHÉNIER: Your wish is a kind command.
But, alas, the imagination
is not amenable to command or to humble prayer.
Poetry is indeed capricious,
in the manner of love.
[MADDALENA and her friends burst out laughing.]

Maria Callas (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Mario del Monaco (t), Andrea Chénier; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Antonino Votto, cond. Live performance, Jan. 8, 1955

6. Maddalena explains the joke [0:54]

Contessa, "Perchè ridete voi?"

The Countess wants to know why the girls are laughing. Maddalena explains that she bet her friends she could get the poet to use the word "love," which she herself had had thrust at her in the course of the evening by assorted leches among her mother's guests, singling out (according to the stage directions) "a ridiculous old man," an abbé, "a fat old marquis," and "a young man remarkable for his ugliness."

Maria Amadini (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Maria Callas (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Mario del Monaco (t), Andrea Chénier; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Antonino Votto, cond. Live performance, Jan. 8, 1955

7. And Chénier defends his use of the word "love" [4:36, including applause]

Chénier, "Colpito qui m'avete" . . . "Un dì all'azzurro spazio" (Improvviso)

Which brings us to the exact point where our second group of recordings of Chénier's Improvviso, the ones that included the lead-in "Colpito qui m'avete," picked up last night. Buried in the applause afterward

CHÉNIER: You've wounded me here where I jealously
conceal the purest beating of my soul.
Now see, dear girl, what poetry
there is in the word "Love," which rouses such ridicule.

One day into the blue sky
I gazed deeply,
and on the meadows heaped with violets
the sun rained down gold,
and with gold
the world shone;
the earth appeared an immense treasure,
and serving as its coffer was the firmament.
From the earth to my brow
came a living caress, a kiss.
I cried out, conquered by love: I love y ou,
you who kiss me, divinely
beautiful, o my fatherland!
And I wanted, full of love,
to pray!
I crossed the threshold of a church;
there a priest, in the niches
of the saints and the Virgin
accumulated gifts . . . and to his deaf ear
a trembling old man vainly
pleaded for bread and in vain reached out his hand!
I crossed the entrance of a humble abode;
a man there was cursing, slandering
the soil that barely covered his taxes,
and against God
and against men
hurled the tears of his children.
[With the exception of GÉRARD, who stands listening entranced, everyone is completely scandalized.]
In the face of such misery
what do the ranks of the nobility do?
[To MADDALENA] Only your eyes express humanly
here a look of pity,
and so I looked at you as if at an angel.
And I said: "Here is the beauty of life."
But then, at your words,
a new sorrow wounded me full in the breast.
O beautiful maiden,
do not disparage the words of a poet.
Love, divine gift -- do not scorn it.
The world's soul and life -- that's love.

Mario del Monaco (t), Andrea Chénier; Maria Callas (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Antonino Votto, cond. Live performance, Jan. 8, 1955

4, 5, 6, and 7 (from the Countess's "Signor Chénier? through the Improvviso [8:38, including applause]

Martha Lipton (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Richard Tucker (t), Andrea Chénier; George Cehanovsky (b), Fléville; Gabor Carelli (t), the Abbé; Zinka Milanov (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Fausto Cleva, cond. Live performance, Dec. 28, 1957


AND NOW WE'RE GOING TO HEAR
THE WHOLE OF OUR SCENE

GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier: Act I, Fléville, "Commosso, lusingato" . . . "Passiamo la sera allegramente" . . . Maddalena, "Al mio dire perdono" . . . Chénier, "Colpite qui m'avete" . . . "Un dì all'azzurro spazio" (Improvviso)

John Howell (b), Fléville; Doris Doe (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Elisabeth Rethberg (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Lodovico Oliviero (t), the Abbé; Beniamino Gigli (t), Andrea Chénier; San Francisco Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Gaetano Merola, cond. Live performance, Oct. 7, 1938
Hugues Cuénod (t), Fléville; Astrid Varnay (s), Contessa di Coigny; Montserrat Caballé; (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Florindo Andreolli (t), the Abbé; Luciano Pavarotti (t), Andrea Chénier; Welsh National Opera Chorus, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly, cond. Decca, recorded 1982-84
Dino Mantovani (bs), Fléville; Luciana Moneta (ms), Contessa di Coigny; Antonietta Stella (s), Maddalena di Coigny; Piero de Palma (t), the Abbé; Franco Corelli (t), Andrea Chénier; Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Gabriele Santini, cond. EMI, recorded June-July 1963


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

#