William Tell

Composer: ROSSINI, Gioachino
  • Guillaume Tell was Rossini’s last opera, composed in 1829 for the Paris Opéra. Rossini had relocated to France in 1824, when the Opéra had offered him a lucrative contract.1
  • Guillaume Tell premiered at the Paris Opéra on August 3, 1829.2
  • The opera is based on Friedrich Schiller’s play Wilhelm Tell, which had been published in 1804.3
  • The Paris Opéra eventually got into the habit of presenting truncated versions of this long opera (frequently, just Act 2). Rossini was not thrilled about this. The director of the Opéra once encountered Rossini on the street in Paris and told him that they were about to perform Act 2 of Guillaume Tell. Rossini’s response was, “Indeed! All of it?”4
  • Fun Facts about the Overture5
    • It is unusual among opera overtures in that it contains four movements. 
    • Its opening is scored for five cellos. 
    • Hector Berlioz thought that the opening of the overture “the calm of profound solitude, the solemn silence of nature when the elements and human passions are at rest.” 
    • The English horn solo uses an authentic Swiss folk melody. The melody is a ranz des vaches, which Grove’s defines as “A Swiss mountain melody sung or played on an alphorn by herdsmen in the Alps to summon their cows.”6
  • Synopsis from The Metropolitan Opera 

Sources

  1. Philip Gossett  and Richard Osborne, “Rossini, Gioachino (opera),” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed April 2, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000004337.
  2. Richard Osborne, “Guillaume Tell (ii),” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed April 2, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000002744.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Gossett, “Rossini, Gioachino,” Grove Music Online.
  5. Osborne, “Guillaume Tell (ii),” Grove Music Online.
  6. “Ranz des vaches,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed April 2, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000022893.

Cut IDs

14655 40184 17059 18344 44438 49402 16869