Montagnes 2010

Guillaume Tell was the composer’s last and longest opera. I do not think I would go on to say that it was also necessarily his best, but it is certainly an amazing work full of life. It is, in many ways, both a summation of his operatic genius and a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been had he continued to write for the stage. Like his other last operas it was written for Paris and in its scale and mixture of public and private events is a clear forerunner of such works as Les Huguenots and Don Carlos. At the same time it can be regarded as essentially classical, but with that style subtly transfigured into one that is just as essentially romantic. It represents a turning point in the history of opera, so that the obvious question arises as to why it is so seldom encountered on the stage, and why many music-lovers know it solely by its undoubtedly magnificent overture.