- Umberto Giordano. Dramma istorico in four acts. 1895.
- Libretto by Luigi Illica.
- First performance at Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 28th March 1896.
| Andrea Chénier, a poet | tenor |
| Carlo Gérard, a servant turned revolutionary | baritone |
| Maddalena de Coigny | soprano |
| La Contessa de Coigny, her mother | mezzo-soprano |
| Bersi, her mulatto maid | mezzo-soprano |
| Madelon, an old woman | mezzo-soprano |
| Roucher, a friend of Chénier | bass |
| Pietro Fléville, a novelist | baritone |
| Fouquier Tinville, public prosecutor | baritone |
| Mathieu, a waiter turned revolutionary | baritone |
| Dumas, president of the tribunal | baritone |
| Schmidt, gaoler at St Lazare prison | baritone |
| Incredibile (Incroyable), an informer | tenor |
| The Abbé, a poet | tenor |
| Major-domo | baritone |
The first act is set in pre-revolutionary France, where Charles Gérard, a servant to the de Coigny
family, reveals his contempt for his employers and his love for their daughter. The poet André Chénier is present at a party at the Château Coigny and is induced to recite, at the request of
Madeleine de Coigny, but in doing so criticizes the injustices of inequality he sees around him. The
second act takes place after the revolution has started. Chénier sits in a café, with the servant Bersi
at another table, both observed with suspicion by the informer Incroyable. Rouchet enters with a
passport for Chénier, urging him to escape, but he is both confident and, at the same time, intrigued
by letters he has received from a woman, whom he now seeks. She is revealed as Madeleine, also the
object of the now revolutionary Gérard's search. Gérard and Chénier meet and fight. The former
falling wounded warns Chénier of his danger but denies knowledge of his assailant when questioned
by the police, summoned by Incroyable. Chénier is to be arraigned, and Gérard is persuaded to sign
the indictment. Madeleine promises her love to Gérard, if he will intercede for Chénier with the
tribunal. He does so, but in vain, and Chénier is condemned to death, joined on the scaffold by
Madeleine, who has changed places with a woman prisoner.
Andrea Chénier offers a fictional account of the French poet, who took part in the French revolution and was later executed. It is an example of Italian verismo , operatic realism, and contains musical allusions to the old régime in the first act and to music associated with the revolution in later acts. Particularly well known are Chénier's two arias, the so-called Improvviso di Chénnier , his revolutionary song in the first act, and his Come un bel dí di Maggio (As a fine day in May), a poem written in prison.