Review: Where is Heroic GUILLAUME TELL Now that We Need Him? On Stage at the Met

Always looking for new worlds to conquer, Gioachino Rossini wrote GUILLAUME TELL (WILLIAM TELL) with a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis (based on Schiller's play "Wilhelm Tell"), having moved to Paris when it became the center of the opera world. Despite his successes there, this was to be his operatic swan song, at the mere age of 37, even though he would live another four decades. Its story of triumph over oppression and the evil--glorifying a revolutionary character--meant that it had some censor problems in its time. But the message resonated, loud and strong, at a performance the night after the troubling American election.

Its length (close to five hours)--added to the difficulty of the music for the tenor--has meant that the opera has had a spotty performance record here. Indeed, the Met's new production by Pierre Audi is its first since 1931, though there have been some brief visits elsewhere in the city, by Opera Orchestra of New York and Turin's Opera di Torino two years ago (both at Carnegie Hall and in Italian rather than French).

Under Fabio Luisi's baton, the Met orchestra and chorus were in fine form, drawing nuance and sparks from Rossini's score. There's no dispute that the overture is an orchestral high point, including the theme that fans of "The Lone Ranger" and Saturday morning cartoons know well. It is divided into four distinct sections: The Prelude (with a rousing cello solo by Jerry Grossman), the Storm, the Call to the Dairy Cows (with a great English horn part for Pedro Diaz) and the Finale, also known as March of the Swiss Soldiers--but better known for its galloping "Heigh-ho, Silver" passage. For the chorus, under Donald Palumbo, the final ensemble might have been best of all, after the tyrant is killed and the Swiss anticipate their liberation from Austrian rule.

After the thrilling overture, the rest of the performance had big shoes to fill. For the most part, it succeeded brilliantly, with a couple of great performances from the stellar cast, starting with baritone Gerald Finley, who blazed his way through the title role. His anguished account of "Sois immobile" as he instructs his son, Jemmy to stay still while he shoots an apple from his head--forced to do so by the evil Gesler (a Rudy Giuliani type)--was wrenching. Soprano Janai Brugger was wonderful and touching in the pants role as Jemmy.

Soprano Marina Rebeka made a gorgeous Mathilde (a Habsburg princess, protector of Jemmy and love of the rebel Arnold) in every way, with a dramatic and almost impossibly flexible sound. Her thoughtful yet devastating accounts of "Sombre foret" and "Pour notre amour plus d'esperance" in Act III, as Arnold leaves to avenge her father's death, were memorable.

The opera's most challenging character--a brutally difficult, high-lying role that's difficult to cast--is Arnold, the son of the Swiss conspirator Mechtel. Tenor Bryan Hymel is the opera world's current go-to guy when it comes to heroic French opera (Aeneas in Berlioz's LES TROYENS put him on the map). He has all the notes to succeed in the role, but seemed to be marshalling his resources until his arias in Act IV, where he ripped loose with his great "Asile hereditaire," singing of the home he lost and the final, "O muto asil."

It was refreshing to hear the mellow voice of mezzo Maria Zifchak, as Tell's wife Hedwige, away from Suzuki in MADAMA BUTTERFLY, which has become her signature at the Met. The role of the menacing, Gestapo-like Gesler seemed as if written for bass-baritone John Relyea and he took full advantage of it, both vocally and dramatically. Bass Kwangchul Youn did well as old, patriotic Melcthal, Arnold's father, while Marco Spotti, an Italian bass making his Met debut, impressed as Tell's loyal ally, Walter.

I can't say I was taken with the abstract production itself, by Pierre Audi and his design team--George Tsypin (set design), Jean Kalman (lighting) and Andrea Schmidt-Futterer (costumes)--or the choreography of Kim Brandstrup. On the other hand, it didn't distract too much from the gorgeous singing on stage and, misgivings aside, it was good to see GUILLAUME TELL in the flesh at the Met. It was a shame, though, that it came at a time when it had so much political relevance to our lives.

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