Rossini: Guillaume Tell
Guillaume Tell Recorded live at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, August 2013
The hero of this admirably complete August 2013 Guillaume Tell from Pesaro is homegrown maestro Michele Mariotti. The inimitable overture is (mercifully) unstaged and terrifically played, with splendid cello and flute solos: the fine standard never flags. Rossini’s extraordinary 1829 score audibly presages Meyerbeer, Berlioz, Glinka, Verdi and Wagner, among many others. Graham Vick’s direction privileges class conflict, with a clenched fist on the red-and-white forecurtain. The Edwardian costumes place Austrians in white evening garb; the black-clad Swiss polish the floor while the rulers savor a filming (much of that to follow) — the fisherman Ruodi, in a boat with a blonde and fake scenery, with Tell and his family providing tech support. Vick deploys geographical and historical kitsch liberally but not (always) pointlessly. Ron Howell’s pretentious, mannered choreography, however, beggars belief.
Directed by Graham Vick · Written by Étienne de Jouy
Where to Watch
Streaming
Cast
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Nicola Alaimo Guillaume Tell -
Simone Alberghini Melcthal -
Juan Diego Flórez Arnold -
Amanda Forsythe Jemmy - Simón Orfila Walter Furst
- Marina Rebeka Mathilde
- Luca Tittoto Gessler
