William Tell Premieres
Rossini's last opera brought history, massed chorus and ballet onto one Paris stage in 1829.
Related
Time and place
3 August 1829, Paris, the Salle Le Peletier, home of the Paris Opéra. Rossini's four-act French opera Guillaume Tell was conducted by François Habeneck. The libretto, by Étienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, adapted Schiller's play and set the story in fourteenth-century Switzerland.
What happened
Rossini cut a five-act libretto down to four, but kept the large chorus, the inserted ballet and the historical spectacle. The overture falls into four parts: dawn played by five-part cellos, a storm, a mountain call like a ranz des vaches, and a march of Swiss soldiers. In the opera itself, soloists and chorus alternate in scenes of resistance to Austrian rule, while stage movement and music push forward together. The first performance ran for hours, and the audience was astonished by its scale.
What changed
The model of French grand opera became clearer: historical subject, four or five acts, massed chorus, ballet, spectacular sets, and music strong enough to carry stage machinery. After this work Rossini largely stopped writing opera and turned to sacred music and the salon. The overture left the theatre and became a concert favourite. Meyerbeer, Berlioz and Verdi all drew on the formula.
Listen to the turn
Begin with the opening, where five cellos answer one another in the low register and the sky seems to brighten. Then hear the storm and the mountain call, with the orchestra changing the scene through colour. Finally the march, regular as a crowd walking. Three stretches of music set place and mood without a word.
Related
This turn belongs to Romantic; see Grand Opera and Overture, and Cello.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- Grove Music Online, entry "Guillaume Tell" — premiere, cuts and cast checked, not quoted
- Philip Gossett, Divas and Scholars (University of Chicago Press) — Paris Opéra practice checked, not quoted
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.