ROSSINI William Tell Overture

ROSSINI William Tell Overture

This popular overture, rather unfairly, is the best-known bit of the entire opera. It is no fault of Rossini’s, however, that he was so good at writing very attractive melodies and chose great librettists to work with at a time when Italians were flocking to the opera and demanded fresh new fare every other week. By the time it came to him to write William Tell the opera, he had already finished 38, most of which were successes, although fewer than ten are still regularly performed today. William Tell was to be his final complete opera, however, and he would write no more in this genre for the rest of his life.

The story of William Tell, a Swiss folk hero, was here transmitted through Friedrich Schiller’s play, and the overture is dramatic enough to function as a tone poem in its own right. A long, sustained introduction written only for the cello section — an absolute stroke of genius — signifies the dawn, which then explodes into a stormy E minor in the full orchestra. What follows is one of classical music’s most famous melodies: the soft G major tune in cor anglais and flute over pizzicato strings is a deliberately rustic “shepherd’s tune”, a trope permeating much of the Romantic period. This is interrupted by a fanfare on trumpets and horns, and another universally recognised melody arises, a military call for a cavalry charge – famously borrowed by the Lone Ranger franchise – bringing the overture to a masterly close and allowing an energetic curtain rise upon the action to follow. (Thomas Ang)

GIOACHINO ROSSINI (1792–1868)
William Tell Overture (1829)

Singapore Symphony Orchestra
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