William Tell at the Met

William Tell or Guillaume Tell is an enormous opera. The performance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera began at 6:30 p.m. and ended at 11:45 p.m.

While there are times when I thought Rossini could have applied Ockham’s Razor to his score I had to keep reminding myself that I was pretty exhausted. One’s sleep preparation before an opera of this length is just about the deciding factor as to one’s experience.

Sleep preparation is one of the arts of the audience. If I don’t get at least 15 minutes of shut eye during the day then I will get drowsy during a symphony or opera.

My flight had arrived at 3:00 p.m. the day of the opera. That I made it from Newark to my hotel in South Manhattan and then back up to Lincoln Center in time for the 6:30 p.m. curtain was a miracle. However, my eyes and brain were quite heavy.

About 4 hours and 40 minutes later I had performed at least 38 head soporific-head-bobs but then the concluding music began. I did not know Rossini had this in him.

There is a gravitas of expression that is looking way down the line toward the operas of Puccini, Verdi, and even Wagner. We will never know where Rossini was headed because William Tell was his last opera.

Rossini retired at the age of 37 but lived another 40 years. Who does that?

As with all great operas, William Tell has a blatant political edge. The final lines of text are:

“Liberty, come down again from the skies and let your reign begin anew! Liberty, come down again from the skies!”

The Political volatility of the mid-19th Century along with the difficulty of casting William Tell has made it more and more esoteric over the years. The current production at the Met is its first since 1931. There have only been three other productions of William Tell in the United States during that period.

The current Met production is from the Dutch National Opera, which is shown in the YouTube clip. To skip to the final “liberty music,” go to the 3:10:30 mark in the video.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot. The overture is famous and the apple thing happens in the middle of the story.