Robespierre passes, followed by a mob. Gérard, now high in favour, seeks to possess Madeleine, who comes to meet the poet. They are about to flee, when Gérard, notified by the spy, interposes. Chénier and Gérard fight with swords. Gérard is wounded. The lovers escape.
Act III. Revolutionary Tribunal. The crowd sings the "Carmagnole." Chénier has been captured. Gérard writes the indictment for his rival. Madeleine pleads for her lover, finally promising to give herself to Gérard if Chénier is spared. Gérard, moved by the girl's love, agrees to save Chénier if he can. At the trial he declares that the indictment against Chénier is false. But the mob, thirsting for more blood, demands the poet's death.
Act IV. Prison of Lazare at midnight. Madeleine enters to Chénier with Gérard. She has bribed the jailer to allow her to substitute for another woman prisoner. If she cannot live for her lover, she can, at least, die with him. Together she and Chénier go to the scaffold.
Two other operas by Giordano have been heard in America—"Fedora," after Sardou, Metropolitan Opera House, December 16, 1906, with Cavalieri and Caruso; and "Siberia," Manhattan Opera House, February 5, 1908. They have not lasted.