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The Evening Standard, 21 January 2015 |
BARRY MILLINGTON |
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Giordano: Andrea Chenier, London, Royal Opera House, 20. Januar 2015 |
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Jonas Kaufmann, with heroic stage presence and voice to match, is an exceptional tenor
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Jonas Kaufmann delivers the goods in the title role, with his artfully crafted line and thrilling projection |
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Poets, like cartoonists, are dangerous. The location is once again Paris but
at the time of the French Revolution. Andrea Chénier, despite his
revolutionary credentials, upsets the sans-culottes and not even his silvery
eloquence can save him.
Timely as Umberto Giordano’s opera is, it’s
rarely performed, as the taxing title role demands an exceptional tenor.
Jonas Kaufmann, with heroic stage presence and voice to match, is such a
man. Some may complain that his tonal colouring is insufficiently Italianate
but with his artfully crafted line and thrilling projection, he delivers the
goods.
Maddalena, the fateful object of his affection, is sung by
Eva-Maria Westbroek. Their final duet, as they sweep towards the guillotine,
leaves no melodramatic withers unwrung.
Giordano’s score, though
not without its merits, serves — through no fault of Antonio Pappano’s
stylish conducting — to redouble one’s appreciation of the way Puccini
handles similar material.
David McVicar’s best productions have
generally managed to give a creative, even radical twist to repertoire
favourites. This one is not just traditional: it is, like Covent Garden’s
recent Ballo in Maschera, both intellectually and dramaturgically feeble.
The moral of Andrea Chénier is that revolutions devour their children.
Stellar casts also, it seems, stifle innovative direction.
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