Willhelm Tell Overture

Not only is the opera piece “William Tell” only Rossini’s completed “grand opera” but it is the last of this genre written by the Italian master. The text was written by Étienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, after the eponymous play by Friedrich Schiller. The opera deals with the liberation struggle of the Swiss against the rule of the Habsburgs, in which the legendary Wilhelm Tell with his resistance to the standing in Habsburg services state governor Hermann Gessler that plays an important role. The libretto as for the opera follow Schiller’s example in the broadest sense, premiered in 1829 in Paris, at the Academie Royale de Musique.