Rossini: William Tell French Version

Guillaume Tell is one of my favorite operas, and since there are so few recordings, when a new one appears it's definitely an event. Since 2 of the last major recordings, the Gardelli in EMI and the Muti in Philips lost money because they were 5 LP's or 4-cds expensive albums (in fact EMI told Muti that they didn't want to record his La Scala production because they didn't do well with the Gardelli), Tony Pappano must have put a lot of pressure on EMI to venture once more into the Swiss Alps. Pappano was quite right in choosing the original French version, since Guillaume Tell is a French opera, just like Donizetti's La Favorite and Verdi's Don Carlos. The French originals are infinitely superior to the mediocre (and in the case of La Favorite, disastrous) Italian adaptations. So how this new recording compares to the others? First of all it's very well conducted, Pappano clearly communicates how much he loves the score (how couldn't he) and keeps his large forces under tight control. His nervous, Toscanini-like fast tempi make sure that everybody is on his or her toes. He has a better overall outlook of the large canvas than Lamberto Gardelli, and he is a better and more experienced conductor than the 26 year old Riccardo Chailly, who surely was too young at the time he made the DECCA recording. The Muti version recorded live at La Scala has long been my favourite recording. It is also extremely well conducted by perhaps the most experienced living conductor in this score, since Muti was already conducting it at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino of 1972 with a young Eva Marton as Mathilde. Muti's direction is more patrician, expansive and magisterial than Pappano's, and perhaps a little bit more elegant too, and he has the better orchestra and chorus. This in no way diminishes the good playing of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, but the Orchestra of La Scala is certainly the better band. As for the singing Pappano's cast is good and able, though the competition is fierce. In the title role Gerald Finley, a bass-baritone, sings in good clear French, and his voice is very beautiful, no complaints there, though Gabriel Bacquier with Gardelli is even more idiomatic, Milnes with Chailly more sonorous, and the great Giorgio Zancanaro with Muti more individual and memorable. Montserrat Caballé with Gardelli has the ideal voice for Mathilde, and she floats those gorgeous pianissimi as only she can. Mirella Freni (DECCA) is good, but hers is not the ideal voice for the role. Cheryl Studer for Muti substituted at the last minute for an indisposed Lella Cuberli, a great pity because she was the great Rossini soprano of her generation; Studer is certainly not bad, and like Caballé has the ability to float a note. Pappano's newcomer Malin Byström has an interesting but strange voice, in the middle it sounds like a mezzo, but can go upwards without difficulty. Technically Studer is better, her coloratura is more accurate and I imagine she has the bigger voice, so that in the concertantes she is more present, but Byström is not bad, only her French leaves something to be desired. When you are trying to cast Guillaume Tell your biggest nightmare is the tenor lead, Arnold Melcthal, a role that needs the power of a Franco Corelli, the high tessitura of a Juan Diego Florez and the good French of a Nicolai Gedda. Obviously most of the tenors who have recorded the role are found wanting. In studio condition Gedda for Gardelli and Pavarotti for Chailly sound good and please, though Pavarotti never dared to sing the role on stage and Gedda only sang 2 performances (for Muti) and almost ruins his voice. In an interview he admitted it was the biggest mistake of his career. That's why I admire so much Chris Merritt, a tenor much criticized in some quarters for his peculiar voice and sound production, but he was the one that really delivered the goods on stage during the 90's. John Osborn for Pappano is not as heroic or fearless as Merritt, but when you consider the difficulties of the role you just have to be thankful that someone is willing to sing it. There's another Guillaume Tell recorded live at the Vienna State Opera with Thomas Hampson in the title role and Fabio Luisi in the pit, but the soprano is terrible, so I can't recommend it (ORFEO). So, if forced to choose I would still say that Muti is numero uno, but the Pappano is a welcome addition, a lovingly conducted and satisfactorily sung version, very well recorded in the new Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. It is also much less expensive than the Muti or the Chailly. The Gardelli now is in budget, but despite the heavenly presence of la Caballé now sounds its age. In spite of small reservations this new recording is warmly recommended. Everything that makes William Tell a great opera is on evidence here.

Friedrich Schiller attracted several 19th century composers wanting to make operas of his historical dramas. Verdi succeeded with Don Carlos (with much rewriting), and Verdi and Tchaikovsky each had good things (and lesser) in their operas on Joan of Arc. Rossini set the mold for grand opera with his attempt - Guillaume Tell. He also garnered criticism for having so much love interest for the tenor. But this is an amazing opera. THere are moments that speak to us like the serious moments in any Rossini opera, and there are moments that reach forward at least 50 years. No wonder Berlioz, Wagner, and others praised it. The trouble is that there is just so much of it. Any recording of the work deals with the length either by performing everything or else making cuts. THe first recording I encountered was the Cetra recording. Cetra Soria edition had good 1950s sound. The Everest edition managed to muck this sound up in pseudo-stereo. There are still great performances to turn to there. Giuseppe Taddei IS tell. He ruminates bitterly at the beginning, and leads the finale to the opera with wonderful voice. His "Resta immobile" is to the top, moving, and yet never over done. Mario Fillipeschi played Arnoldo, and he tosses high Cs and C#s out there as if they were easy. Giorgio Tozzi joins them in a fabulous trio in act two. Gessler is portrayed by a young Fernando Corena, who drips sarcasm. Matilda is Rosanna Carteri, and her "Selva Opaca" is far above those of more famous and more recent sopranos. Mario Rossi reduces the opera to 2 hours and 45 minutes. While that's hardly short, most conductors are much closer to 4 hours. Graziella Sciutti is Jemmy, and Plinio Clabassi is Melchtal. THe sense of drama pervades every measure. It was my first full opera recording, and it set a standard many other recordings miss. There was a highlights recording with Tony Poncet as Arnold on Philips. I've never heard the whole thing, but Arnold's aria and his duet with Matilda (act two) are marvelously sung. His top notes are not easy, but they are certainly there. I think Jean Borthayre sings Tell. EMI-Seraphim issued a highlights recording, too. Nicolai Gedda and Ernst Blanc starred. It was strange that EMI issued this, when only a couple of years later, they had the first full French recording. Gabriel Bacquier is Tell there. He is good, but the top was already getting iffy. He, along with Taddei, at least has the required highs and lows. Gedda was just a little past prime, but he was still a formidable singer. He sings every high C. Montserrat Caballe portrayed Mathilde, and she is good and bad. She sounds outside the drama. She also sounds at times like she barely knew the role. THis is true of many of those singers. Mady Mesple, the Jemmy, is okay, but her voice is too bright. Gardelli paces the opera cautiously. He is the better conductor, but it is Rossi who captured the awesome expanse of the last finale (Gardelli is too fast and perfunctory there.) Gedda is on yet another set. He is good, Eva Marton is too big a voice for Matilda, and Peter Glossop is William Tell. All his intellect can't disguise his non-Italianate sound. Muti conducts well. The sound is bad. Muti conducts another set, Giorgio Zancanaro (the Tell) has an unfortunately dry voice that wanes quickly on the bottom. He just isn't strong enough. Chris Merritt made a career of Arnold and Arnoldo (either language suited him). Cheryl Studer as Matilda is stylistically at sea. She tries hard, but there is too much coloratura for her to handle easily. Decca/London issued another Guglielmo Tell late in the careers of Milnes and Pavarotti. It is one of Pavarotti's greatest recordings. He sings well and is totally involved. Sherrill Milnes' voice was beginning to get cloudy in the middle, and this role sits rather low for him. His isolated high notes are great, better than anyone else's Nicolai Ghiaurov does not find Walter Furst (the Tozzi role) nearly as comfortable. Mirella Freni sounds good, but she had passed her coloratura days, and some of the role sounds labored. Her aria is not her best work. The lesser roles are adequately taken. Riccardo Chailly takes some tempi awfully fast. It gives certain scenes a rushed quality that would be much better without it. I have not heard the Thomas Hampson recording from Vienna. But, unlike the above, it is undoubtedly cut some. This brings us to the new recording. The edition follows a new edition by M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet. She based her edition on the changes that were made after the score was printed (before production.) This deals some cuts in the score that Rossini may have agreed to, but I doubt he liked them. Like Porgy and Bess, you can't go only by what was included in the first production. The "Buzzard Song" was cut before the premiere of that opera, and yet Gershwin recorded it a year later with Lawrence Tibbett. Here, the recitative before the act one ballet (roughly 4 pages in my piano-vocal score) is omitted. This cuts Tell's wonderful "Gessler orders our vows." It also makes a strange key change before the beginning of the ballet. In Act five, the whole scene of the trio and prayer for Mathilde, Jemmy and Hedwige is cut. Yet some moments include music no other recording includes. The first CD could have accepted that one recitative. The last CD has plenty of space for the trio and prayer. So why are they cut? Ah, but the performance has some major performances to contend with. I regret to say Gerald Finley isn't one of them. His Guillaume Tell starts out well. But he is clearly singing perfectly but removed from the drama. He puts in studied nuances, true, but there is just not enough honest, full-out singing. His aria is not terribly interesting. (Another cut comes in that scene, too). Compared to Taddei's Arrow scene, Finley is just not enough. Tell is an outspoken patriot, and Finley seems too much like a philosopher. John Osborn, however, is a major find as Arnold. He is not quite as stentorian as either Fillipeschi or Pavarotti, but he is better than Merritt, and artistically on a par with Gedda. He can still be understood even when singing repeated high Bbs! He tapers phrases to make the words retain their true accents. Malin Bystrom is Mathilde, and she too is incredible. Her "Ombre foret" (Selva opaca) is so limpid, and her high notes have body to them. The coloratura she tosses off in Act three is amazing. Celso Albelo, the fisherman, starts the whole proceedings tossing off his little serenade (and high Cs) with the ease that many others could only wish for. Marie-Nicole Lemieux portrays Hedwige well. It makes the cut of her best scene more regrettable. Antonio Pappano conducts with great attention to dynamics, a wonderful sense of pacing, and he even manages to convey the sense of drama that a live performance gets. Some of his ballet work, however, is totally graceless, squarely conducted and beat through. Compare to the work of Rossi (not nearly as famous as Pappano) and you can hear phrase after phrase dance in the old recording that plods here. The audience only applauds at the end of acts, with the exceptions of the Overture, the act two duet (Mathilde and Arnold) and the great scene for Arnold - "Asile hereditaire - Amis, mes amis." The latter is a forerunner of Alfredo's act two aria (Traviata) and Manrico's great aria in Trovatore. A word must be said about the dynamics of the recording. It is something invading movies now, too. Live theater can afford to have the PPP sections really hushed. But in home listening, when I crank up my system to accomodate hearing the quiet moments, I am subsequently blasted out by the orchestra and choruses. The Horn and bells in the beginning of act two (both offstage) are basically inaudible.) The orchestral interjections in the recitative to Arnold's great scene are also inaudible. Come on, engineers, I know that modern recordings CAN capture that wide range, but I don't like to be so painfully blasted away. My automatic volume controls don't apply to CD listening. A pianissimo pizzicato in the strings might just need a little boost.

Probabilmente la miglior versione del Guglielmo Tell mai eseguita. Dischi e astuccio in ottimo stato per essere di seconda mano.

Dieser Guillaume Tell (in französisch gesungen, wie eben nach dem Original) ist bemerkenswert sehr gut. Alles kann man vergleichen mit der Tell-Einspielung unter Lamberto Gardelli mit Nicolai Gedda, Monserrat Caballè aus dem Jahre 1972, welche bislang die Beste und hier bei Amazon immer noch zu erwerben ist. Was hier, bei dieser "William Tell"-Einspielung unter Antonio Pappano (Jahr 2011), die Live-Aufnahme betrifft, muss ich sagen: No Problem! Ich führte mir diese Einspielung drei Tage lang zu Gemüte, jeden Tag eine CD von diesen dreien. Ich hörte nur einen einzigen "Huster", abgesehen von den typischen, obligaten und euphorischen Klatsch-Beifallsbekundungen nach gewissen und kaum zu erwartenden halsbrecherischen Darbietungen. Es gibt keine störenden Nebengeräusche - ich habe eine A1-Musik-Anlage, da hört man alles was stört - aber wie gesagt, bei dieser Aufnahme gibt's derartiges nicht zu finden. Einziges Manko: Auch wenn auf dem Cover unter dem Oper-Titel "IN THE ORIGINAL FRENCH" zu lesen ist, ist hier wahrscheinlich nur die Sprache gemeint, jedoch nicht die heraus gestrichene Musik-Nummer, die der Tell bald nach seiner Uraufführung zuhauf erlebte, sogar schon unter Rossinis Lebenszeit. Im Gegensatz zu der oben erwähnten Gardelli-Aufnahme, fehlt hier bei der Pappano-Aufnahme die doch wirklich schöne und anmutige Arie des Gemmy, also von Tell`s Sohn. Unter Gardelli hat diese Arie am Ende des 3. Akts (oder vor dem Beginn des 4. Akts) auf der 4. CD als erste Nummer eingebaut. Bei der Pappano-Aufnahme fehlt diese Arie, sonst ist alles wie bei Gardelli; auch die Spiel- und Gesangs-Qualität - fast wie eine Kopie von Gardelli's Aufnahme. Außer diesem Manko, gibt es nichts zu bekritteln. Dieser "Tell" ist eine Bereicherung. Darüber aber mehr im vorletzten Absatz meiner Rezension. Nicolai Gedda hat allerdings am Ende der höchst anspruchvollen "Arnold"-Cabaletta "Amis, amis, secondez ma vengeance" etwas mehr Luft beim Aushalten des hohen C oder CIS. Gedda hält diese Note zirka 9,80 Sekunden lang aus auf der Gardelli-Einspielung. Hier, bei der Pappano-Einspielung, gibt der gute John Osborn sich die beste Mühe und schafft die gleiche Stelle über 7 Sekunden lang(!). Beide "Arnold"-Tenöre aber sind immer noch besser als der weltberühmte Tenor Pavarotti. Pavarotti schafft diese Stelle, in der 1978/1979-Tell-Aufnahme unter Riccardo Chailly (Mirella Freni als Mathilde), nur 5 Sekunden lang dieses hohe C/CIS auszuhalten. Diese Chailly-Aufnahme ist aber auch sehr hörenswert und ist, wie die von Gardelli, eine gestochen scharfe und klare Studio-Aufnahme des Tell. Allerdings ist die Tell-Einspiekung unter Chailly in der italienischen Fassung. Diese ist auch hier bei Amazon noch erhältlich! Für Rossini-Fans unbedingt ein MUSS! Trotz des Ausfalls der "Jemmy-Arie" bei Pappano, aber weil seine Interpretation hier wirklich stolz gelungen ist (mehr Transparenz im Orchester, leisere Instrumente und besonders die Triangel werden sehr hervor gehoben, auch bei lauten Stellen!!!), vergebe ich dieser Einspielung fünf Sterne. Ein unbedingtes MUSS für alle Opern-, Rossini- und Tell-Fans. Auf dieser Aufnahme garantiere ich jedem Interessenten, dass Sie Neues entdecken werden - wie ich! Ein neues Bild - ein neuer Tell - ein neuer Rossini! Wer eine schlechte von einer guten Tell-Aufführung unterscheiden kann, wird mit mir und mit vielen anderen Rossini-Fans unisono sagen: die Pappano-Tell-Einspielung ist echt, ehrlich, sauber und brillant.

L'opéra - cette partition , est suffisamment exceptionnel en lui-même pour que tout nouvel enregistrement de cette oeuvre soit événementiel- surtout à l'heure actuelle où il semble de bon ton de ne plus enregistrer, hélas ! . On sort cependant déçu de cette écoute; pourquoi ? certes les coupures quoique minimes nous prive effectivement d'une des plus belles pages de la partition (la prière du IVe acte). Mais cela n'explique pas tout. La direction enflammée de Pappano est peut être trop démonstrative, pour une partition qui demande aussi de l'intériorité. On ne doute pas un seul instant qu'en "direct " les applaudissements que l'on entend soient mérités, mais... non, décidément, après deux écoutes successives quelque chose cloche au bon royaume rossinien. Les solistes alors ? Gérald Finley se tire admirablement avec musicalité du rôle-titre. John Osborn, se tire avec les honneurs du rôle meurtrier d'Arnold (mais a-t'il la voix en fait requise pour cela, rien n'est moins sûr; mais il "triche" avec panache et là encore musicalité ) . Marie-Nicole Lemieux est une admirable épouse de Guillaume... et on en vient à la véritable pierre d'achoppement : Malin Byström (dont personnellement je n'avais jamais entendu parlé). Et là on se trouve devant une bien piètre chanteuse. Lors d'une représentation, elle peut certainement faire son boulot honorablement, mais pour un enregistrement, il me semble qu'il faut faire mieux que son boulot. Aucun panache, voix terne et attaques prudentes, effacent toue la beauté de ce rôle où Rossini a mis le meilleur de lui-même. Bien sûr, on ne mise pas tout un Guillaume Tell sur la partie de Mathilde, mais quand même !!!!! Quel gâchis !!! Du coup - si l'on veut bien passer sur cet insupportable sabir que font les chanteurs "internationaux" de notre belle langue française - on aurait pu tenir là peut être la version moderne du chef-d'oeuvre de Rossini. Hors, il n'en est rien. Lorsque l'on regarde l'absurde photo (hideuse) de la pochette, on se dit: "Tiens, EMI ne veut pas (se) prendre au sérieux cette édition ! " Et lorsqu'on l'écoute, on se dit c'est bien ça : de l'esbroufe, mais il semble que Guillaume Telle ne mérite pas un travail sérieux pour l'éditeur.... Un coup d'épée dans l'eau donc. Il vaut mieux retourner à nos chères versions du passé : en italien la sublime version Chailly / Freni / Pavarotti - DECCA, et en français, la très bonne version effectivement de Gardelli avec Caballe / Gedda - EMI (tiens-tiens, là ils y croyaient alors !), et qui eut été certainement la plus grande version si le rôle-titre avait été confié à Ernest Blanc et non à Bacquier.

Very nice opera.

Unbeatable - and gets right around the unfortunate visual aspect to ROH performance of July 2015.