Author of eleven operas, choral works, and chamber vocal and piano compositions, Umberto Giordano (1867–1948) etched his name into music history with just one masterpiece, the opera Andrea Chénier, which was a stunning success. In this sense Giordano’s career was similar to those of verismo composers Ruggero Leoncavallo and Pietro Mascagni.

Luigi Illica’s libretto deals with the twilight years of the life of André Chénier, a prominent poet of the French revolution time (although, of course, there is no historical accuracy in the opera). Chénier loves Countess Maddalena de Coigny and is loved by her. The Countess’s former servant Gérard, a radical-revolutionary, a Jacobin, is also in love with Maddalena. Chénier wounds Gérard in a sword fight; the poet is arrested, committed for trial and convicted, although Gérard makes a stand for him because of Maddalena. The Revolution, love and jealousy, honour and dishonor, servants and lords – all these themes are reflected in Giordano’s wonderful music. The magnificent arias, especially Chénier’s Un di all'azzurro spazio, have invariably been in the repertoire of leading singers.

The opera, to which Pietro Mascagni had predicted a great success, was premiered in La Scala in 1896. After the premiere Giordano sent Mascagni a telegram with just one word: “Prophet”.