Rossini: Guillaume Tell

Guillaume Tell, premiered in Paris in 1829, was Rossini’s grandest opera and also his last, although the composer lived for almost 40 more years. Based on Friedrich Schiller’s epic play Wilhelm Tell, it tells of heroic resistance to Austrian oppression in 14th-century Switzerland. “The piece is an immense architectural challenge for a conductor,” says Antonio Pappano, “but I was just swept off my feet by its sheer energy and daring.”