William Tell

Poster Advertising the Premier of Rossini's Opera in 1829

I have just come into my office after listening tonight's Henry Wood Promenade Concert from the Royal Albert Hall. It was a concert performance of Rossini's last opera William Tell. This last great effort of Rossini produced a masterpiece which over the years has been hacked around, performed in bits, adapted and finally neglected almost into oblivion. I don't know when the opera was last performed in Britain. Covent Garden mounted a production in 1990, resurrected it once and then forgot about it. Previous to that they performed it in 1889. Has it been performed anywhere else? I suspect not.

I have loved the music of Rossini since I was a teenager. In those days — the early 1950s — the only Rossini opera that was performed regularly was The Barber of Seville. Occasionally someone had a go at La Cenerentola but there was not much else. There may have been performances in Italy at Rossini festivals but the musical establishment had little time for Rossini operas. They condemned Rossini as no more than a tune-smith and a writer of trivila operas. There are many wonderful overtures — some used several times by Rossini as introductions to various operas but the operas that followed these overtures were utterly ignored. In about 1955 I bought — or, more accurately, my father bought for me — a 3-LP set of the complete Barber of Seville with Victoria de los Angeles, Nicolai Monti, Gino Bechi and a splendid Nicola Rossi-Lemeni as Don Basilio. The Orchestra was made up of musicians mainly from La Scala conducted by Tullio Serafin — who definitely knew Verdi, personally, and probably Rossini as well. I enjoyed these records immensely and played the discs over and over again — learning the Italian words of many of the arias. Then, I thought, it seems odd that a composer could produce a masterwork like The Barber, lots of great overtures — including the great tone poem of William Tell — yet all the other operas — nearly 40 of them — were all rubbish. It did not make sense. So I searched for recordings of other operas. I have to say that I did not get very far. I did dig out Philips discs of extracts from Mosé and William Tell. Nicola Rossi-Lemeni was the Mosé and again there was much marvelous music. There were severe practical reasons for not performing this opera. Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and the waters of the Red Sea part to let them pass and then engulf the pursuing Egyptians. This is not easy to do on a stage.

But apart from these two discs there seemed little available until the early 1980s, when, suddenly, there was a great revival of interest in Rossini operas — stimulated by such performers as Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne and Samuel Ramey. Now, almost every Rossini opera is available complete on cd. I have quite a few including the William Tell, recorded in 1980 with Sherrill Milnes, Luciano Pavarotti, Mirella Freni and Nicolai Ghiaurov. but still live performances of this opera are few. Again there are technical reasons — like shooting an arrow through an apple and arranging for Tell to row out into a stormy Lake Lucerne. But above all is the problem of finding tenors who will tackle the part of Arnolde with its strings of high volume top notes.

Tonight's performance at the RAH appeared to be a complete revelation to all the supporting BBC staff and the musical experts. It was very much a display of absolute astonishment that Rossini — Senior Crescendo and the composer of a string of comic operas — could write grand opera on this scale and of this quality and then find it neglected for the best part of 200 years. Tonight's performance was rapturously received and so it deserved. This production was put together for Rome last year with the Orchestra del Accamaedia Santa Cecilia and conducted by Antonio Pappano. The conductor was thunderstruck when he worked on this last year and realised just what a great work this was. Is this Rossini really the same man who wrote The Barber of Seville? Has it taken nearly 200 years for the quality of this work to be appreciated? I think the answer is. unfortunately, a guarded yes! I hope now that it does not again become neglected. It was Rossini's last opera even though he lived for another 38 years after its composition. Did he pour everything into this and then realise that he had nothing left to give? I think, also, that as he got older, Rossini became more unsure of himself. As a young man he would dash off operas in a few weeks and never worry what others thought about his works — as long as he got paid. But later, I think he did worry. Consider his hesitations and doubts when he was composing his Petite Messe Solennelle towards the end of his life.

I don't know if the spirit of Rossini was anywhere near the RAH this evening. I hope that it was and if so, I am sure that the old maestro would have been pleased.

The opera William Tell sets the story of Tell and the Swiss resistance to Austrian rule. Today Otto von Hapsburg, until last week when he died at the age of 94, the last member of the Hapsburg dynasty that had oppressed Switzerland was buried in Vienna. Very fitting is it not?

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