Royal Opera House, Encore Showing
Damiano Michieletto makes his Royal Opera House debut with a new production of Rossini’s final opera and greatest masterpiece.
Director: Damiano Michieletto
Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Starring: Gerald Finley
Opening with one of the most famous overtures in all opera, ‘Guillaume Tell’ is the story of the titular Swiss archer and patriot, and his struggle against Austrian occupation.
Including the legendary scene in which Tell shoots an apple off his son’s head, inspiring his countrymen to rebel against their oppressors, Rossini’s final opera features one of his most outstanding musical scores.
Guillaume Tell had its premiere in 1829, when Gioachino Rossini was 37. He wouldn’t write another opera in the remaining 39 years of his life. Rossini’s letters suggest he knew Guillaume Tell would be his farewell to opera – an idea that seems to be confirmed by the magnificent music he was inspired to produce. The score – harmonically daring and fiercely difficult for the singers – has an opulent architectural grandeur, heightened with vivid evocations of the soaring Swiss landscape and an incisive dramatic interpretation of Schiller’s heroic play.
(4hr 0min)