Organization

Zanger

Tenor

Marcelo Álvarez

Andrea Chénier

Baritone

Dimitri Platanias

Carlo Gérard

Soprano

Maria Agresta

Maddalena di Coigny

Mezzo-soprano

Inés Zikou

La Contessa di Coigny

Bass

Yanni Yannissis

Roucher

Christos Kechris

Un Incredibile

Julia Souglakou

Madelon

Nikos Stefanou

L'Abate

Vangelis Maniatis

Schmidt

Marinos Tarnanas

Il Maestro di Casa

Konstantinos Mavrogenis

Dumas

George Mattheakakis

Fouquier-Tinville

Kostis Rasidakis

Mathieu

Regisseur

Nicolas Petropoulos

Dirigent

Philippe Auguin

Licht ontwerper

Kostuum ontwerper

Set designer

Choreograaf

Fausta Mazzucchelli

Koor meester

Agathangelos Georgakatos

Marissia Papalexiou

Bersi

Lighting Revival

Christos Tziogkas

Revival director

Ion Kessoulis

Choreography Revival-Movement

Stratos Papanousis

Pietro Fléville

Greek National Opera

Orchestra

GNO Orchestra

Others

GNO Chorus

Italiaans

The life of the famous French poet André Chénier (1762-1794) was the subject of the most successful opera (set to a libretto by Luigi Illica) of Umberto Giordano ̶ one of the most representative exponents of operatic verismo, and in particular of the Giovane Scuola. The opera premiered at La Scala, Milan, on 28 March 1896, a century after the French Revolution ̶ which is also when the action is set- whose ideas decisively affected the developments in Greece that gave rise to the 1821 Revolution.

The hero who bears the name of the opera's title was born in Istanbul to a French father and a Greek mother. We first meet him in 1789 in the Parisian aristocracy circles supporting the French Revolution and joining the revolutionary movement along with Gérard. Gérard (a role based in part on the French Revolution hero Jean-Lambert Taillen) turns from a servant of aristocrats into a leading figure of the sans-cullotes, namely the people from the lower strata of the bourgeoisie who were actively involved in the revolutionary political struggle (sans-cullotes means "those without breeches" - because in contrast to the aristocrats who wore knee-breeches [cullotes], they wore trousers). However, their love for the same woman turns the friendship between the two men into a rivalry. Three years later, when Chénier gets arrested as a conspirator against the Revolution for decrying the atrocities committed under the Reign of Terror, Gérard is the one who will prepare the indictment against him. Although he will later realise his mistake and try to set the poet free, his effort will be in vain, and Chénier will be led to the guillotine.

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