David McVicar directs a new production of Andrea Chénier, Umberto Giordano’s passionate opera about liberty and love during the French Revolution.

It tells the story of poet Andrea Chénier and servant Carlo Gérard, who both love young aristocrat Maddalena. When Maddalena loses everything in the French Revolution, Chénier offers her protection and in doing so incites the envy of Gérard, now a powerful official.

When Chénier is arrested during the Terror, Gérard condemns him out of jealousy. Maddalena makes a desperate appeal, which leads Gérard to defend Chénier before helping Maddalena to join him in prison, where the lovers face the guillotine together.

Celebrated for the lyrical music it offers the tenor, Andrea Chénier features a libretto by Luigi Illica that is inspired by the real-life Romantic poet André Chénier, who was guillotined just three days before Robespierre’s execution.

McVicar, whose productions include Le Nozze Di Figaro, Faust and Die Zauberflöte for the Royal Opera, directs the production, moving from the opulence of pre-Revolutionary France to the horrors of the Reign of Terror.

Andrea Chénier is performed in Italian with English surtitles.

Learn more about London operas within the West End.