Andrea Chénier; Daegu Opera House
The Daegu Opera House will stage the masterpiece opera "Andrea Chénier," which deals with the French Revolution, four times from the 17th to the 18th and from the 24th to the 25th.
The story is about the short life of French poet André Chénier (1762–1794), who disappeared from the guillotine in the French Revolution. The title is written in Italian instead of French. André Chénier was a poet who advocated the idealistic principles of the French Revolution and an academic who was engrossed in Greek classical literature, but was executed as a traitor for criticizing the reign of terror led by Robespierre.
The opera added virtual characters and stories to create a dramatic production. Luigi Ilica, the biggest screenwriter of his time, wrote the Italian script as the representative work of Italian composer Umberto Giordano. It premiered in 1986 in La Scala, Milan, and features a story structure belonging to the Verizmo (realism) Opera.
The opera insists that one day ahead of the French Revolution, Chénier attends a party held by Count Cuwani and meets and falls in love with the count's daughter, Maddalena, but after learning about it, she is on the death row list and chooses to die with Chénier on behalf of a female death row.
The poems written by André Chénier during his lifetime were reborn as two arias in the work, "Un diall'azuro spazio" and "Come unbel di maggio," and are further enhancing the reality of the drama of opera, featuring real people during the French Revolution as well as real backgrounds such as cafes and prisons.
This season's opera "Andrea Chénier," which can be met at the Daegu Opera House for the first time in 14 years, will be headed by Maestro Marcello Motadelli, who is brilliant in authentic Italian opera.
Tenor Park Sung-kyu, who overwhelms the audience with his rich voice and energy tenor Yoon Byung-gil and strong high notes, plays the main character "Shenier," while Korea's best dramatic soprano Lim Se-kyung and soprano Lila Lee (Lee Yoon-jung), who is playing the leading role on numerous European stages, play the role of his lover "Maddalena."
In addition, baritone Choi Jin-hak and Oh Seung-yong, who have shone on many opera stages at home and abroad, will sing "Zeraar," a revolutionary who secretly loves Maddalena. On top of that, stable performances by Dio Orchestra, a group that resides in the Daegu Opera House and specializes in opera, and Daegu Opera Quire will be performed.
Kim Ji-young, who is in charge of directing, emphasized "focusing on the angle of the stage structure" on the appreciation point of this work.
Not only does the set of ring models installed at the top to express freedom, equality, and philanthropy, which are the values of the French Revolution, change its angle by film and content, but the huge set modeled after the face of Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793), who is called an icon of the French Revolution, shows the strong will of the revolution in Act 1 and Act 2, and in Act 3, where the country is in crisis, it is recommended to pay attention to the scenes that emphasize psychological changes through various angles, such as the appearance of the front and the side with its face turned 90 degrees.
