Oberon's Glade

Tag: ANDREA CHENIER

  • Anna Tomowa-Sintow ~ La mamma morta

    anna t-s

    The great Bulgarian soprano Anna-Tomowa Sintow sings the aria “La mamma morta” from Giordano’s ANDREA CHENIER. Vladimir Ghiaurov conducts. No information on the date and venue is provided.

    Watch and listen here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFTfpuqGiro

  • Christina Anghelakova as Madelon

    Snapshot madelon

    Christina Anghelakova sings the aria of La Vecchia Madelon from a film of Giordano’s opera, ANDREA CHENIER.

    Watch and listen here.

  • Scenes from ANDREA CHENIER ~ Pretoria 1988

    Pohl

    This rare video of scenes from a 1988 production of Giordano’s ANDREA CHENIER from Pretoria, South Africa, caught my attention with the names of Carla Pohl (photo above) and George Fortune in the cast. Unfortunately, Mr. Fortune’s “Nemico della patria” is not included, but most of Maddalena’s music suits Ms. Pohl very well (though her hairdo is hardly credible at the time of the Reign of Terror).

    I saw Maurizio Frusoni as Cavaradossi in a very exciting TOSCA given at Bridgeport, Connecticut (of all places) in 1984 opposite excellent colleagues Olivia Stapp and Frederick Burchinal. Mr. Frusoni is a solid Chenier in the Pretoria production.

    Watch and listen here.

  • Doro Antonioli ~ “Un dì all’azzurro spazio”

    Doro

    Doro Antonioli sings Andrea Chenier’s Improviso, “Un dì all’azzurro spazio”, from Act I of the Giordano opera.

    Listen here.

  • Tucci & Corelli ~ Vicino a te

    Tucci corelli

    Gabriella Tucci and Franco Corelli sing the final duet from Giordano’s ANDREA CHENIER from a 1971 performance at The Met; Cornell MacNeil is Carlo Gerard, and Fausto Cleva conducts.

    Listen here.

  • Bergonzi/Gulin ~ CHENIER duet

    Bergonzi gulin

    Ángeles Gulín and Carlo Bergonzi sing “Vicino a te“, the final duet from Giordano’s ANDREA CHENIER, from a performance given at London in 1970. Anton Guadagno conducts.

    Listen here.

  • Milanov~Bergonzi~Sereni CHENIER – Atlanta 1960

    Zinka

    Above: Zinka Milanov

    A performance of Giordano’s ANDREA CHENIER given in 1960 by The Met on tour in Atlanta has just popped up on YouTube. Listen here.

    This was at the time when I was just falling in love with opera, though I had not yet discovered the Met Texaco broadcasts. Zinka was on the very first opera LP that my parents gave me; Bergonzi was Pinkerton on the first complete opera set I ever bought (the ‘second’ Tebaldi Cio-Cio-San); and not long after, I bought the de los Angeles TRAVIATA on which Sereni sang Germont.

    One of the things I loved most about finding this Atlanta CHENIER was that the cast includes three mezzo-sopranos who – over time – were to give me so many wonderful memories: Belén Amparán, Helen Vanni, and Mignon Dunn. And just look at the Met stalwarts cast in the supporting male roles:

    Atlanta, Georgia (Metropolitan Opera on tour)
    May 2nd, 1960

    ANDREA CHÉNIER

    Andrea Chénier..........Carlo Bergonzi
    Maddalena...............Zinka Milanov
    Carlo Gérard............Mario Sereni
    Bersi...................Helen Vanni
    Countess di Coigny......Mignon Dunn
    Abbé....................Gabor Carelli
    Fléville................George Cehanovsky
    L'Incredibile...........Alessio De Paolis
    Roucher.................Clifford Harvuot
    Mathieu.................Ezio Flagello
    Madelon.................Belén Amparan
    Dumas...................Osie Hawkins
    Fouquier Tinville.......Norman Scott
    Schmidt.................Louis Sgarro
    Major-domo..............Lloyd Strang

    Conductor...............Fausto Cleva

    So, despite the sometimes wonky sound quality, this recording is such a treasure to me. 

  • Bastianini & Tucci ~ scene from ANDREA CHENIER

    Snapshot bastianini

    Ettore Bastianini is Carlo Gerard (above) and Gabriella Tucci is Maddalena di Coigny in a scene from Act III of Giordano’s ANDREA CHENIER. Listed as being from Torino 1963, this seems to be a studio recording or radio broadcast: the sound quality is amazingly clear. Both singers are at their very finest.

    Listen to them here.

  • Saioa Hernández/Martin Muehle ~ CHENIER Duet

    Snapshot chenier

    Saioa Hernández and Martin Muehle sing the final duet from Umberto Giordano’s ANDREA CHENIER in a performance from Modena, 2019.

    Watch and listen here.

  • ANDREA CHENIER ~ Final Duet

    Gilda-cruz-romo

    So thrilled to have found this souvenir of one of my favorite sopranos, Gilda Cruz-Romo, singing Maddalena in the final duet from Giordano’s ANDREA CHENIER. Tenor Ermanno Mauro is the poet Chenier in this performance from Tulsa 1981. I simply love the vast wave of applause that sweeps over the house after “Viva la morte insiem!”

    I met and befriended Gilda at the time of her New York City Opera debut in 1969. I saw her many times at both NYC Opera and The Met. We stayed in touch after she retired and settled in San Antonio, Texas. I shall never forget her great kindness to me.