Premiere of Andrea Chénier

Giordano’s masterpiece is still stirring emotions

The poster advertising the opening
night of the Giordano masterpiece

Andrea Chénier, the greatest and most enduring opera to be written by the composer Umberto Giordano, was performed for the first time on this day in 1896 in Milan.

It was immediately acknowledged as a triumph and many members of the audience at Teatro alla Scala on the first night were moved by the emotional intensity of Giordano’s music.

The four-act opera was based on the life story of the French poet Andrea Chénier who was executed by guillotine in Paris in 1794, during the French revolution, at the age of just 31. He was accused of being a counter revolutionary in the final days of the so called ‘reign of terror.’ 

Ironically, just three days after Chénier’s horrific death, France’s radical Jacobin leader, Maximilien Robespierre, one of the main architects of ‘the terror’, was himself arrested and sent to the guillotine.

Giordano’s music, in particular the arias he wrote for the tenor who sings the title role, captured the turmoil and poignancy of this dangerous time in France’s history. The quality of the music has enabled the opera to remain popular over the centuries.

Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras are three of the great tenors to have sung Giordano’s emotional arias to great acclaim during the 20th century, often featuring the haunting Un dì all'azzurro spazio from the final act in their concert repertoire. The music remains a favourite with singers today because it provides an opportunity for a talented tenor to demonstrate his skills and the quality of his voice.

Giordano worked with the tenor Alfonso Garulli to create the role of Andrea Chénier, but Garulli became ill at the eleventh hour and his place on the first night in 1896 had to be taken by the young tenor Giuseppe Borgatti.

On the night of the premiere in Milan, Borgatti’s triumph in the role escalated him to the top tier of Italian opera singers and he went on to become acknowledged as Italy’s greatest Wagnerian tenor.

The tenors Giovanni Martinelli and Beniamino Gigli were also famous for their portrayals of the role of Andrea Chénier, and Enrico Caruso sang the part at performances of the opera in London in 1907.

Giuseppe Borgatti was a late
substitute in the title role

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Italian tenors Franco Corelli, Mario del Monaco and Carlo Bergonzi were also acclaimed for their interpretations of the title role.

The libretto for the verismo opera was written by Luigi Illica and on the night of the premiere in 1896 the orchestra was conducted by Rodolfo Ferrari. 

Singing opposite Borgatti, in the role of Chenier’s lover, Maddalena, was the soprano Avelina Carrera, and the part of the servant, Carlo Gérard, was sung by the baritone Mario Sammarco.

As well as the famous arias sung by the tenor playing the title role, Andrea Chénier also contains a beautiful aria for Maddalena, La Mamma Morta. This featured in the 1993 film Philadelphia, when a recording of the aria by Maria Callas was used in the soundtrack.

The final haunting duet, Vicino a te, which is sung by Chénier and Maddalena as they prepare to climb the scaffolding to go to the guillotine together, has also stood the test of time and is regularly performed. Corelli and the Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi were famed for performing this duet.

Teatro alla Scala is among a wealth of theatres
in Milan staging entertainments of many kinds

Travel tip:

Milan has come to be regarded as the opera capital of Italy because it is home to Teatro alla Scala, the theatre where many singers have made their debuts and operas have been premiered. La Scala was built after fire destroyed the Teatro Regio Ducale, previously the home of opera in the city, and a new theatre was built on the site of the former Church of Santa Maria alla Scala. The cost was funded by the owners of the boxes at the former Teatro Regio Ducale and it was designed by neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini, opening on 3 August 1778. Milan went on to have a wealth of theatres staging a variety of entertainment, such as Teatro Dal Verme in San Giovanni sul Muro, which opened in 1872. The Piccolo Teatro in Via Rivoli opened in 1947 and Teatro dell’Arte in Viale Alemagna was redesigned and reopened in 1960. Teatro Litta next to Palazzo Litta in Corso Magenta dates back about 370 years and is believed to be the oldest theatre in the city. La Scala’s museum displays costumes and memorabilia from the history of the theatre and is open every day except the Italian Bank Holidays and a few days in December. 

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Leonardo Da Vinci's wall painting of The Last 
Supper is kept in a climate-controlled conditions

Travel tip:

Milan is also famous as the home of the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece, The Last Supper, on the wall of the refectory at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, Leonardo began work on The Last Supper (known as Il Cenacolo in Italian) in 1495 and completed it four years later. He felt traditional fresco painting techniques would not capture the intensity he wanted so he experimented by painting on to dry plaster on the wall of the refectory. But his new method was not as durable as the traditional one and the painting soon deteriorated. By 1556, the painting was described by one commentator as ‘ruined’. Over the years it suffered from poor restoration techniques, vandalism by French soldiers, having a doorway cut into it to provide a shortcut for monks coming and going for their meals, and wartime bomb damage. By 1978 only a small part of Leonardo’s original work remained. A restoration project was organised to reverse the damage and the refectory was sealed and converted to provide a climate-controlled environment. Using modern techniques, the restoration team slowly removed everything that had been added after Leonardo completed the painting in 1498. The areas that couldn’t be repaired were repainted in subdued colours so they could be distinguished from the original painting. After more than 20 years’ work, longer than it took Leonardo to paint it, The Last Supper was once more revealed in 1999. The refectory has since remained a protected environment and visitor numbers inside at any one time are carefully restricted.

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More reading:

Why Giovanni Martinelli was seen by Americans as the successor to Caruso

How a football World Cup took Luciano Pavarotti's fame to a new level

Umberto Giordano's place among the greats of Italian opera

Also on this day:

1472: The birth of Renaissance painter Fra Bartolommeo 

1892: The birth of prohibition agent Vincenzo Capone

1918: The birth of star baritone Anselmo Colzani

1925: The birth of film producer Alberto Grimaldi

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Giuseppe Borgatti - tenor

Beautiful voice brings fame for former bricklayer

Borgatti was an illiterate bricklayer
before his vocal talent was spotted

Opera singer Giuseppe Borgatti, who became known as Italy’s greatest Wagnerian tenor, was born on this day in 1871 in Cento in the province of Ferrara.

Borgatti began his working life as a bricklayer and stone cutter, until a wealthy patron discovered that he had an outstanding voice and arranged for him to have music lessons. 

He went on to sing leading roles at Teatro alla Scala in Milan for a period of 20 years and he was the first Italian tenor to be invited to sing at the annual Wagner festival held in Bayreuth in Germany.

After being born into a poor family, Borgatti had grown up to be illiterate, but when his singing talent was discovered, a local aristocrat paid for him to have professional singing lessons and to acquire some basic education.

When Borgatti was in his early twenties, he made his debut at Castelfranco Veneto, singing the title role in Faust by Charles Gounod. After performing at some Italian opera houses, he was given the chance to sing the role of Chevalier des Grieux in Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in a production in Venice. 

Later in the year, he appeared at Teatro del Verme in Milan as Lohengrin, which was his first Wagnerian role.

Borgatti’s big breakthrough came when he sang the title role in Andrea Chénier on the night of the premiere of the opera at La Scala in Milan. The composer of the opera, Umberto Giordano, had worked with the tenor Alfonso Garulli to create the role of Andrea Chénier, but Garulli became ill at the eleventh hour and his place on the first night in 1896 had to be taken by the young tenor Borgatti.

On the night of the premiere, many members of the audience in Milan were moved by the emotional intensity of Giordano’s music sung by Borgatti. 

The opera was a big success and his triumph in the role escalated him into the top tier of Italian opera singers. 

Borgatti continued to appear in Italian operas, but also worked closely with La Scala’s principal conductor, Arturo Toscanini to try to master the main tenor parts in the Richard Wagner repertoire. He also travelled to Spain, Russia, and South America with other Italian opera stars to perform. 

Borgatti on stage at as Siegfried in the
third opera of Wagner's The Ring Cycle

In 1901 he took part in a grand concert at La Scala, held to mark the death of Giuseppe Verdi, in which the rising young star Enrico Caruso also appeared. 

Borgatti was honoured by being the first Italian tenor asked to sing at the Bayreuth festival in Germany in 1904, after which Cosima Wagner, the composer’s widow, praised his voice.

When he was at the height of his career in 2007 and his voice was at its peak, Borgatti began losing his sight due to glaucoma. After another seven years, he had to retire from the operatic stage, even though his voice was still excellent.

He continued to give concerts and the theatre in his home town of Cento was named in his honour in 1924. Eventually he lost his sight in both eyes and, in 1928, he gave his last public performance in Bologna.

After retiring, he taught singing in Milan. His best known pupils were the English Lyric tenor, Heddle Nash, and the German baritone, Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender.

Borgatti married one of his singing teachers, Elena Cuccoli, and they had a daughter, Renata Borgatti, who became a concert pianist.

Borgatti died in 1850 when he was 79 at Reno di Leggiuno, a resort he had moved to near Lago Maggiore. He left fewer than 20 recordings, which were all sung in Italian, of extracts from works by Wagner, Verdi, and Puccini. Borgatti had been La Scala’s original Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca in 1900 and among the recordings he left behind is the aria E lucevan le stelle, from Tosca.

Cento's impressive Rocca, the 14th century castle
originally built by the Bishop of Bologna

Travel tip:

Cento, where Giuseppe Borgatti was born, is a town in the province of Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna. It grew from being a little fishing village to become an established farming town and, in 1502, Pope Alexander VI took Cento away from the dominion of the Bishop of Bologna and made it part of the dowry for his daughter, Lucrezia Borgia, when she was betrothed to Duke Alfonso I d’Este. Cento was returned to the Papal States in 1598.The town’s 19th century theatre was named the Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Borgatti in honour of the famous tenor.  Known sometimes as "Little Bologna" for its arcaded streets and colourful buildings, it is famous as the birthplace of the Baroque painter Guercino, for its historic 14th-century Rocca fortress, and its world-renowned carnival.  Some of Guercino’s works can be seen in the Palazzo del Monte di Pietà, which houses the Civic Gallery, as well as in the Basilica Collegiata San Biagio, the Church of the Rosary and, in the frazione of Corporeno, the 14th-century church of San Giorgio.  The Rocca, a massive square castle with square towers, was built in 1378 by the Bishop of Bologna and enlarged by Giulio della Rovere, the future pope Julius II, in 1460.

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The Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso, built into
the rock face, is accessible only by boat or on foot

Travel tip:

Giuseppe Borgatti went to live at Reno di Leggiuno, a resort at Lago Maggiore in the province of Varese, when he retired and he died there in 1850. Reno di Leggiuno is a picturesque  hamlet on the Lombardy shore of the lake. The area is famous for the Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso, a Roman Catholic monastery perched on a rocky ridge overlooking the lake, which dates back possibly to the 12th century. It is thought to have been founded by a hermit, Alberto Besozzi. Though still in use as a monastery, it serves mainly as a tourist attraction and pilgrimage site. It can be reached by boat or on foot by climbing down a winding stairway and was declared a national monument in 1914. Reno di Leggiuno, which has a marina and a number of hotels, is a tranquil, authentic location featuring a scenic sand-and-pebble beach, lakefront dining, and panoramic views of the Borromean Islands. It is the birthplace of the footballer Luigi ‘Gigi’ Riva, while the actor and playwright Dario Fo, was born in nearby Leggiuno Sangiano. Reno di Leggiuno is about 25km (15 miles) northwest of the city of Varese.

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More reading:

The opera that propelled Umberto Giordano into the front rank of composers

How the great conductor Toscanini became an orchestra leader by chance

The painter Guercino, 17th century master who is Cento’s most famous son

Also on this day:

1542: The death of playwright Angelo Bealco

1826: The birth of inventor Innocenzo Manzetti

1861: Kingdom of Italy proclaimed 

1925: The birth of actor Gabriele Ferzetti

1939: The birth of football coach Giovanni Trapattoni

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