While Antonio certainly looked the part, he just couldn't handle the score.
His acting was decnet enough, but his voice just didn't cut it.
I really wanted to like him, and this is the only thing in which I found a performance of his to be very poor.
Mandy's voice falls perfectly into the Che's range and his voice envelopes the role and wrings out a full character while deilvering a lush tone and he is perfect for the role. And, yes, ad wickedfan says, He sang the **** out of the score.
Antonio is a fine actor in his own right.
Mandy Patinkin is a musical theatre legend and did things with the role/score that Antonio could have only dreamed of doing.
"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.