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65% Critic Match
Rossini: Guillaume Tell
“Guillaume Tell Recorded live at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, August 2013”
6.5 / 10• 2013• 4h 7m•NR• French
Music
Storyline
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.
Cast & Crew
Nicola Alaimo
Guillaume Tell
Lead
Simone Alberghini
Melcthal
Juan Diego Flórez
Arnold
Amanda Forsythe
Jemmy
SO
Simón Orfila
Walter Furst
MR
Marina Rebeka
Mathilde
LT
Luca Tittoto
Gessler
What People Are Saying
4.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Graham Vick's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
3.0
“Every frame feels alive. Rossini: Guillaume Tell is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
