Donizetti: Rita, ou Le mari battu

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry’s death, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie brought the composer’s Guillaume Tell back to life in the city of his birth. With a mostly Belgian cast, they offer a brilliant revival of a monument of Walloon music history. Stefano Mazzonis Di Pralafera decided to exaggerate the comic bent of the original libretto by framing the production with exuberantly zany stage sets inspired by circus theater. Marc Laho incarnates the perfect hero (Guillaume Tell) and the sublime Anne-Catherine Gillet his wife (Madame Tell). The opera is set in 13th century Switzerland, and stages patriotic Swiss people’s heroic fight for liberty—with Tell as their chief—against the evil and oppression of the Austrians led by Guesler, the local governor. A superb production of a raucously entertaining opera!