GIORDANO: “ANDREA CHENIER.” Eva Marton, Jose Carreras,...

GIORDANO: “ANDREA CHENIER.” Eva Marton, Jose Carreras, Giorgio Zancanaro; chorus of the Hungarian State Radio and Television; Hungarian State Orchestra conducted by Giuseppe Patane. CBS Masterworks M2K--42369 (two compact discs). Scarcely competitive at any level, this Hungarian--made production misses the idiomatic fervor of Giordano’s veristic rewrite of the French Revolution; most of the large cast seems to have learned Italian by rote; Patane’s plodding conducting scarcely aspires even to routine. Carreras exhibits none of the heroic scale or burning lyricisim for the domed poet--hero. Marton transforms the simple Maddalena into an unpleasant Valkyrie with a French pedigree, phrasing crudely, mustering none of the requisite legato. In any other company, Zancanaro’s snarling Carlo Gerrard would be considered irredeemably provincial. Here, his healthy Italian baritone provides a modicum of pleasure.