This 1931 recording of Giordano’s Andrea Chenier turns out to be a second-rate performance of a second-rate work. No one has ever called this opera a masterpiece and probably won’t; it’s a potboiler filled with verismo-style emotions and exclamations, and for the most part its success or failure lies on the shoulders of the tenor singing the title role. Here we have Luigi Marini, a not-bad tenore robusto with all the notes, lots of energy, and little else—the tone is not unpleasant, but neither is it alluring. He’s slightly too easy to forget. Carlo Galeffi’s Gerard is similarly weak. You would be hard-pressed to point out actual bad spells, but the overall effect is ineffective. The star—indeed, the reason for owning this at all—is Lina Bruna-Rasa, a gutsy, thrilling soprano with great communication abilities. She turns Maddalena into a real character. The second CD ends with nearly a half-hour of arias sung by Bruna-Rasa (and the Nile Duet with Galeffi) and they’re very exciting. But if it’s a Chenier you’re looking for, this one has too many holes in it.
