BY RUSSELL PLATT [Newsday, 26 March 2007]

"Andrea Chénier" has come back to the Met, and that's good news. Umberto Giordano's 1896 score - with a well-paced libretto by Luigi Illica, who would go on to do grand work with Puccini - possesses a noble strength and clarity that sets it apart from some of the gaudier efforts of the verismo school.