William Tell is an opera in four acts by the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (see Rossini, Gioachino Antonio ). He composed it in Paris, giving it the French title Guillaume Tell, and using a French libretto (text) by Etienne de Jouy, Hippolyte Bis, and Armand Marast. The story is based on the German poet Friedrich Schiller’s dramatic treatment of a Swiss legend. Rossini’s William Tell received its first performance at the Paris Opera on Aug. 3, 1829. It was the composer’s last opera. The opera’s overture is one of the most familiar works in classical music.
Loading the player...William Tell Overture
The story is placed in the year 1307. Switzerland is suffering under the harsh rule of Austria as represented by the cruel viceroy Gessler. The patriot William Tell, a skilled marksman, leads the resistance against Gessler. One of his chief supporters is the elderly Melchthal. Melchthal’s son Arnold is in love with the Austrian princess Mathilde. During one of his adventures, Tell rescues Leuthold from his Austrian pursuers, and the two escape by boat.
Arnold and Mathilde meet and declare their love for each other. Tell interrupts their meeting with news of Melchthal’s death. Arnold joins the rebellion Tell is organizing, and the conspirators now come together from the various Swiss cantons (states). Arnold and Mathilde reluctantly part. Next day in the village of Altdorf, Gessler sets his hat on a pole in the main square and orders the people to bow to it. Tell alone refuses. Gessler, who knows of Tell’s skill with the crossbow, promises to let him go free if Tell can shoot an apple from the head of his son Jemmy. Tell hits the apple and then reveals that if he had hurt his son, he would have killed Gessler. Gessler has him arrested and taken to prison in the castle of Kussnacht, in the middle of Lake Lucerne.
On the lakeside, Arnold rouses his men to fight and leads them into battle. Mathilde, who has been looking after Jemmy since Tell’s arrest, takes him back to his mother and then lights the beacon that signals the start of the rebellion. Tell escapes from the castle in a boat that is driven ashore. Tell leaps out and shoots Gessler dead. The victorious Swiss sing in praise of their newly won freedom from foreign domination.
