An Epic Opera In Music and Vision 17 ottobre

An Epic Opera
Rossini's 'William Tell',
from Rome to the BBC Proms,
by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

On 16 October 2010, at the 2,800 seat Santa Cecilia Auditorium in Rome, Antonio Pappano unveiled a new production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell in a concert version without sets, costumes or corps de ballet. The production will travel to the BBC Proms in London and will be recorded by EMI. It is a nearly complete version of the opera because Pappano has re-introduced much of the music from the 'traditional cuts' -- the only significant cut remaining is the long third act ballet. The forthcoming EMI recording will most likely become a 'reference edition', taking the place of the 1973 production conducted by Lamberto Gardelli, one of the rare recordings of the French philological or nearly philological version. For decades, Guillaume Tell had become Guglielmo Tell, in Italian, in the 'Calisto Bassi version', also frequently performed, in German translation, in German Theatres.
In 1988, Riccardo Muti opened La Scala's season with a new almost complete version, but in Italian (the 'Paolo Catetellan version'); the resulting DVD shows that it was half a disaster, also due to the poor stage sets and direction by Luca Ronconi. To the best of my memory, in modern times, the full Guillaume Tell has been staged only at the Rossini Opera Festival (ROF) in 1995; Gianluigi Gelmetti was the conductor, Pier Luigi Pizzi the stage director and also responsible for the sets and costumes, the cast was good (Pertusi Kunde, D'Arcangelo, Olsen, Austin-Kelly, Dessì, Bacelli, Norberg-Shulz) and one of the best Italian ballet companies had been called for the dances. There is no recording of that production. It lasted over six hours, including a ninety minute intermission for a set dinner; the four performances were never revived and badly damaged the ROF finances.
Pappano loves Guillaume Tell : three years ago, he offered a production in Rome, but the 16-20 October performances are based on a score much closer to the full version composed by Gioacchino Rossini under a commission from the Académie Royale de Musique (then the French Royal Opera House).
Guillaume Tell is Rossini's last opera. After this tremendous effort, he retired from the theatre at the age of thirty-seven. He had a long depression, and a tiresome legal fight with the French authorities, to have the 'Royal pension' as stated in his contract with the Académie Royale de Musique. After five years, he won the legal controversy and retired in Paris, where he died thirty-seven years after the triumphal opening night of Tell. During those long years, his musical silence was interrupted only by the composition of religious and piano scores.
Thus, Guillaume Tell is, in a way, a mysterious opera. Is it the last will and testament of one of the most prolific composers of the beginning of the eighteenth century? Is it the final effort of an artist who thought that his time was up, and music theatres were going toward avenues very different from his? Is it the demonstration to himself and to the world of music to be able to successfully challenge grand-opéra, then prevailing on the French scene? What road would Rossini have taken if he had not decided to call it quits and retire at the age of thirty-seven? Would Rossini have become a grand-opéra composer or would he have followed the melodrama à la mode of Verdi?
All these questions have been left unanswered. The 'Calisto Bassi version' applauded by our parents and grand-parents and even frequently recorded, tilts between the Donizetti-Verdi melodrama, the Meyerbeer grand-opéra, and the Weber-Marschner Romantic opera. In short, it is a strange mixed soup. The Gardelli 1973 recording places emphasis on the similarity with grand-opéra, as did the 1995 Pesaro production.

From left to right: Elena Xanthoudakis, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Malin Byström, Antonio Pappano, Gerald Finley and John Osborn with, behind, the Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Photo © 2010 Riccardo Musachio
The main novelty of the Pappano production -- more evident in the current version that in that of 2007 -- is that it shows how Rossini, albeit very Italian and living in Paris for the longest part of his life, was close to German Romantic opera and nearly anticipated Wagner. Under Pappano's baton, Guillaume Tell is a choral work in its very essence, like Weber's Der Freischütz, Marshner's Hans Heiling and Wagner's masterpieces (especially Die Meistersinger). Nature is also fundamental to the score (like in La Donna del Lago). Pappano and the chorus master Ciro Visco place emphasis on these aspects -- not only on the number of choruses but also on the fact that every other musical number in the score contains a reference to, or manifests a connection with, the choral inspiration of the whole. As relevant as the chorus is the musical description of the landscapes, the hills, the mountains, the lake, the valleys and of natural events (the storm in the lake).
Mostly due to Guillaume Tell, even in the abridged versions then circulating in Switzerland and Germany, Rossini's only emulator and greatest admirer would be Wagner -- who never had access to La Donna del Lago, the other opera where Rossini's genius delved into the mystery of nature, and where the chorus is the protagonist. Wagner knew that he was indebted to Rossini: who, listening to Siegfried Idyll, is not reminded of the far-off sounds of the hunt in the opening scene of Guillaume Tell? Who listening to the last choral scene of Die Meistersinger is not reminded of the final scene of Guillaume Tell? Finally, the well-known and very popular overture. The first passage -- the lyric andante with the divided cellos, the tremendous storm and the idyllic pastoral with cor anglais and flute -- exudes mountain air (as in the second act of Siegfried). After this, the brisk march seems quite conventional, but its rhythm and sparkle are always effective. This juxtaposition of dazzling inspiration and slight, trivial routine is also in Wagner's overture to Rienzi -- an oft-performed concert piece whilst the full opera is seldom on stage.

Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Photo © 2010 Riccardo Musachio
Pappano is known as one of the greatest Wagner conductors; his Brussels Ring is still memorable -- and he was quite young then! In short, his reading of Guillaume Tell shows that it is an epic opera -- distant from the French grand-opéra and the Italian melodrama but on the way to German later epic operas. Thus, Rossini appears under his right and well-deserved light: a real European composer, not necessarily linked to a small town on the Adriatic shore in the reactionary Papal Kingdom.

John Osborn and Malin Byström. Photo © 2010 Riccardo Musachio
The vocal cast is almost completely changed as compared with the 2007 performances. The opera requires eleven soloists. I focus only on the principals. The American agility tenor, John Osborn, is the only main singer in both the 2007 and 2010 productions; three years ago, he was hesitant in the first act but gained depth and ease as the opening night performance proceeded. Now, he coped skillfully with a terrifying role, dense with high Cs and B naturals, and always in the high register. He unveiled his vocal means in the first act, and showed them fully in the fourth Act aria Asile héréditaire, after which he received five minutes of applause.

Gerald Finley and Elena Xanthoudakis. Photo © 2010 Riccardo Musachio
Tall, attractive (indeed, sexy) and a vocally perfect Mathilde, Malin Bryström is a young Swedish soprano with a lot of experience with Mozart operas, and recently at La Scala in Gounod's Faust; it is easy to foresee Wagner in her future. She is an 'absolute soprano' with a range from lyric to dramatic, with a pure and very clear timbre and perfect phrasing. Very sweet in Sombre forêt, she acquires an Imperial stand in her confrontation with Gesler (Carlo Cigni). It is useful to recall that the tenor and the soprano (Arnold and Mathilde) are the two characters with real psychological development: tormented between love and loyalty to their different status -- he a Swiss, she is an Austrian-German aristocrat. The other nine are symbolic characters without nuances or psychological development.

Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Elena Xanthoudakis. Photo © 2010 Riccardo Musachio
This is the case of the protagonist, Guillaume Tell: he has an important aria Soi, immobile and he is almost always on stage, but he is one-dimensional -- a 'do-gooder' constantly aiming at freedom for his oppressed Fatherland. The Canadian baritone Gerald Finley gave him substance with his crystal clear voice, perfect French diction and well molded acute. Of the others, it's worth mentioning Elena Xantoudakis, a well-rounded Jenny, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, a passionate Edwige, and Celso Albelo in the short role of the fisherman (but with a very difficult aria).
Copyright © 18 October 2010 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

GIOACCHINO ROSSINI
ANTONIO PAPPANO
ROME
ITALY
GERALD FINLEY
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