ANDREA
CHENIER Opera North, The Lowry
THERE may
have been only one performance of this rarely-heard work from the heyday of
late 19th-century Italian opera, but it was undoubtedly the
highlight of the week at the Lowry.
Annabel
Arden is the director and she has made Andrea Chénier both an historical
document and a gripping story of love, betrayal and heroism. It’s set just
before and after the French Revolution of 1789, showing the last days of the
pitiless aristocrats’ lives and the fate of the poet Chénier – a real person in
point of fact – in the period of terror that followed afterwards. He is a man
who declares truth to power – a model of integrity with lessons that seem
completely up-to-date.
Maddalena,
a young woman he encounters in the posh parties before the Revolution, risks
herself to seek him out and in the end, after a revolutionary kangaroo court
condemns them, both go to their deaths.
We hear
some of Chénier’s poetry, in English, before the first and final acts; slogans
from the time are presented in the screen projections; there are sound
backdrops like documentary footage of revolt and guillotining.
The design
– Joanna Parker, with lighting by Peter Mumford and projection by Dick Straker
– is compelling, telling a story of hoped-for liberty, whose bright colours
contrast with the dead, grey coldness of the pitiless aristocrats’ ‘casa
dorada’ … and ultimate dark and viciousness amid which only faithfulness and
heroism shine.
By the end
there’s almost an echo of Les Misérables, another tale from later times but
with some parallels to this one.
The musical
team here are among the best Opera North has ever presented. Rafael Rojas
(RNCM-trained) needs no introduction now as a tenor in the Caruso tradition
with power and nobility. From the famous opening ‘Un dì, all’ azzurro spazio’,
and through to the final act’s ‘Come un bel dì di Maggio’, he was firing on all
cyclinders.
Robert
Hayward, as Gérard, the other good guy of the story who refuses (finally) to
testify against him, is a wonderful baritone in the heroic mould (a great
soliloquy in act 2).
Annemarie
Kremer sings Maddalena, the love interest, with richness and passion throughout
the story (a highspot in act 3’s ‘La mamma morta’). In the act 2 duet she
controlled and blended her voice with Rojas with consummate skill, and the
final duet, ‘Vicino a te’, was wonderful stuff.
Anna
Dennis, Paul Gibson, Fiona Kimm, Dean Robinson, Tim Claydon, Daniel Norman and
others also give outstanding performances – the last-named particularly for a
Goebbels-like, repellent spymaster.
And the
sound from the orchestra and chorus under the baton of Oliver von Dohnányi is
stunning – how fortunate we are to see this man in the pit for Opera North
shows still. I really loved the way he handled the spooky moment when the toffs’
gavotte is drowned out by the voices of the starving peasants.
*****
Robert
Beale
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