We begin a series from the San Francisco Opera on this week’s Sunday Opera (10/28 3:00 p.m.) with Umberto Giordano’s love story set during the French Revolution based loosely on the life of its title character, the poet Andrea Chenier. The production features Yonghoon Lee as Chenier and Anna Pirozzi as his love, Maddalena. The remainder of the cast includes George Gagnidze, Joel Sorenson, Robert Pomakov, Catherine Cook, Jill Grove, and David Pershall with Nicola Luisotti conducting.
Stay tuned after the opera for forgotten work by Giordano, “Marcella,” a 1907 work about a disguised prince, a simple country girl, and a romance that cannot be. We’ll end the program on a more positive note with a ballet by Albert Roussel and his ballet “Bacchus et Ariane” that has a very happy ending.
