Sung by Diana Soviero, with the Seattle Opera Orchestra conducted by Steven Mercurio, 1996.

Made famous by the movie “Philadelphia,” this aria comes from Giordano’s melodramatic historical thriller set against the background of the French Revolution. Lovely young Maddalena di Coigny, the daughter of aristocrats, describes how revolutionaries killed her parents and burned her home, and how she took hope from the words of the poet Andrea Chenier.

Photo by Jeffree Luke