For the first time since 2014, Umberto Giordano’s tumultuous drama of the French Revolution, Andrea Chénier, arrives at the Met this month (November 23–December 14). Following electrifying performances in the composer’s Fedora in the 2022–23 season, tenor Piotr Beczała and soprano Sonya Yoncheva reunite as the opera’s ill-fated lovers, with the company’s newly minted Principal Guest Conductor Daniele Rustioni on the podium to lead the scorching score.
"Out there are patriots, who die defending our homeland, sword in hand—while here, you kill our poets!” So rages the disillusioned revolutionary Carlo Gérard at a bloodthirsty mob in the climactic judgment scene of Giordano’s Andrea Chénier. But his impassioned pleas fall on deaf ears, and the opera’s heroic title character is sentenced to death as a traitor. Premiered a century after the real-life André Chénier was executed in the waning days of the Reign of Terror, the opera and its story continue to resonate today, including for star tenor Piotr Beczała, who headlines this month’s Met revival.
"When we get to a point where we are judging artists, and in Chénier's case, putting them to death, we see how sick the system is," he says.
Set against the backdrop of French society in the throes of revolution, Andrea Chénier combines the outsized emotions of verismo—a style of opera that pulses with the frantic energy of desperate characters chewing the scenery in gutsy vocal displays—with the pomp of historical drama. But in addition to political tragedy, Andrea Chénier turns, in true operatic fashion, on a fraught love triangle, as both Chénier and Gérard vie for the aristocratic Maddalena di Coigny. Chénier ultimately wins her heart but loses his life—and dooms hers—in the process.
Despite being Giordano’s most popular work, the opera has made only occasional appearances at the Met since its 1921 company premiere, partially due to the demands the composer placed upon the principal vocalists. When it has appeared, however, it has served as a vehicle for the leading stars of the day, with legendary tenors Beniamino Gigli, Franco Corelli, Richard Tucker, and Luciano Pavarotti all leaving their mark on the ardent title role.
Having only recently added the part to his repertoire, Beczała was eager to take up the mantle. “I had been wanting to sing this role for many years. The emotions are very high, but Giordano’s music is also very elegant. And he’s constructed the role in a way that really allows me to create a credible character from beginning to end,” he says. “It’s not just a string of moments for the tenor to score points with high notes. Of course, there are the famous arias, but there are also big scenes with the other characters and the chorus, so it really gives me the chance to show off many different colors in my voice."
Sharing the stage with Beczała is one of his longtime collaborators, Sonya Yoncheva, who was hailed for her “elegance and pathos” (Observer) in the company’s recent production of Giordano’s Fedora. Celebrated for her leave-it-all-onstage dynamism, the Bulgarian soprano can’t wait to sink her teeth into Maddalena’s rich dramatic journey. “She truly transforms over the course of the opera. At the beginning, she’s a bit naïve, but the Revolution forces her to grow up quickly,” Yoncheva explains. “I’m so attracted to this evolution, the way she finds strength through loss and pain. She’s not just a victim. She becomes an active, passionate woman who chooses love, even in the face of death.”
“Giordano writes with an incredible sense of drama, and one of the challenges with his music is being expressive without losing the elegance of the line,” Yoncheva says. For Beczała, the vocal fireworks begin right away, as the tenor is required to sing the perilous “Un dì, all’azzurro spazio”—in which Chénier improvises a poem decrying the hypocrisies of his time—within moments of taking the stage. Where some may shrink from the challenge, Beczała relishes the chance to start the performance with a bang: “I love roles where I have an aria right at the beginning. It gives me the opportunity to establish my character right away. You know from the first lines that Chénier is a poet because he never uses straight lines. Giordano’s genius is how well he writes music to match this very complicated, very intelligent text.”
Yoncheva must wait until the third act for Maddalena’s great solo, “La mamma morta”—what the soprano calls “a confession of pain and rebirth through love”—but she particularly enjoys the opera’s duets, especially singing alongside a familiar face. “Piotr has been my stage partner since the earliest years of my career, so there is always a special connection when we sing together,” she says. “We know each other and each other’s voices, and that allows us to let go on stage and really live the characters in the moment.”
Beczała concurs, adding, “One of the keys to giving a good performance is feeling that you’re not alone on stage. It’s like waves in the ocean: If they clash, everything just ends up flat, but if they are in sync, they amplify each other’s vibrations and make an even bigger wave. That’s how it is with Sonya. We find something new in every performance and really bring out the best in each other."
