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All three leading roles in Giordano's "Andrea Chenier" were in fresh hands at this performance. Making their first appearances this season in this opera were Richard Tucker, in the title role; Herva Nelli, as Maddalena; and Leonard Warren, as Gerard. Charles Anthony also took the role of the Spy for the first time this season. The rest of the cast was familiar, with Martha Lipton, as the Countess; Rosalind Elias, as La Bersi; Sandra Warfield, as Madelon; Salvatore Baccaloni, as Mathieu; and, in other roles, George Cehanovsky, Gabor Carelli, Norman Scott, Osie Hawkins, Frank Valentino, Lawrence Davidson, and Louis Sgarro.

After a listless first act on the part of the singers, the orchestra, and Fausto Cleva, the conductor, the performance grew steadily in dramatic intensity and musical surge until Miss Nelli and Mr. Tucker brought down the house with the impassioned final scene of the doomed lovers. In Act I, Mr. Tucker forced his voice, shouting out certain climactic tones instead of singing them as written. But as the evening progressed, he sang more freely and with more lustrous tone. "Come un bel di maggio" found his voice at its lyric best, and in the final pages of the score his singing had heroic power without the tightness and sense of squeezing that had marred it earlier in the opera.

Like Mr. Tucker, Leonard Warren could summon up grandiose power when he needed it, but his most beautiful singing was in the more lyric passages. In Act III, he made the outburst of passionate desire for Maddalena actually terrifying in its force, and, earlier, the "Nemico della patria" was graphically worked out. Mr. Warren is so good in Act III that one wishes that he would bring up his characterization of Gerard in Act I to the same level of conviction. His denunciation of the "ancien regime" lacks the bitterness of his confession to Maddalena of his tortured longing. Throughout the evening, however, he was able to produce the most voluminous tones with firm support and impeccable resonance.

Miss Nelli spun out some exquisite tones in appropriate passages, and in the final scene she let herself go in an impressive tragic climax. But elsewhere, notably in the aria "La mamma morta," her singing and acting, for all their expertness, were small in scale and pallid.

A word of praise should go to Mr. Anthony for a finished characterization, as the Spy. He sang the "Donnina innamorata" with overtones of slimy malice that made one want to strangle him, which is exactly what Giordano intended. Mr. Baccaloni's capital Mathieu was as vivid as ever, and Mr. Valentino sang especially well at this performance.

Search by season: 1955-56

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