This recording won’t be anyone’s first choice for
William Tell,
in whatever language, but it does capture what must have been a memorable
performance at the Rossini in Wildbad Festival. Its chief virtue, in fact,
is its live-ness. Much more than
Pappano’s live concert
version, this is a performance that lives and breathes the air of the
opera house. That brings disadvantages in the often intrusive stage noise,
audience applause and the noticeable tiring of some of the singers, most
notably Judith Howarth’s Mathilde. It also brings gains. Chief among those
is the energetic conducting of Antonio Fogliani who manages the whole thing
with great skill and enervated pacing, clearly feeding off the energy of a
live audience. Famously, Rossini’s drama is often far from riveting in
Tell, most damagingly in the first act, but Fogliani keeps things
going briskly enough, and the orchestra follows him admirably. True, there
are inaccuracies and fluffs, but the gains are notable enough for these not
to matter although they will also probably rule this set out for any
newcomers to the opera; that and the fact that there is no libretto, only
the
French text provided online.
The singers range from good to very good, except for the gruff yelling of
Giulio Pelligra in the brief cameo role of Rodolphe at the end of Act 1.
Andrew Foster-Williams is a very good Tell. He passes the test of
Sois
immobile very capably and he grounds the ensembles of the first and
second acts very strongly indeed. Michael Spyres is perfectly fine as
Arnold, and manages the frequent leaps above the stave ably but, while I
found him solid, he was never exciting, and nowhere near the levels of
exhilaration reached by John Osborne or, most thrillingly of all, Pavarotti.
Judith Howarth’s Mathilde begins well with a rich, creamy account of
Sombre forêt and her duets with Arnold in Act 2 and the
first scene of Act 3 find them both on their best form, but she tires in the
third act and doesn’t sound good at all in the fourth. Tara Stafford is
winningly boy-like as Jemmy, however, and Alessandra Volpe delivers the
goods capably enough in her brief appearances as Tell’s wife.
Even better, though, are the chorus, who have a lot to do and make the
most of it. The big crowd scenes in the first and third act draw you in
willingly, and the radiant finale sounds great. They are best of all,
though, in the great summoning of the cantons at the end of Act 2, and this
sequence is probably the highlight of the whole set, with Fogliani’s
conducting at its most incisive and the three male principals striking
sparks off each other and the chorus in turn.
This set’s USP is that it claims to be the “first recording of the
complete opera”. This isn’t much explained in the booklet notes, but I
assume that, by this, they mean that they open out all the cuts. I noticed
it in several places, such as an aria for Jemmy in Act 3 that I hadn’t
picked up before, or a much longer storm scene in Act 4 that wasn't
necessarily a gain. They even include as an appendix some things that they
hadn’t fitted into the main event, though this mainly consists of yet more
ballet music of which, I suspect, only complete completists will want to
avail themselves. The one interesting curiosity is the alternative finale
that he wrote for Paris in 1831 which consists of a choral version of the
famous Gallop from the Overture, but it only serves to make you realise how
much better the widely accepted finale is.
As I write this in Spring 2015, it seems that this is turning out very
much to be
William Tell’s time. This recording follows Pappano’s
recent one, and I eagerly await a DVD of the recent Pesaro production
starring Juan Diego Flórez. There are also an unprecedented
three
productions of it in the UK in 2014-15: the Teatro Regio di Torino did it in
concert in the 2014 Edinburgh Festival, WNO did a brilliantly sung
production, and the Royal Opera will mount one in Summer 2015. Purists will
tell you that
Tell only works in its original French. Not I. Of all
the recordings I’ve heard, my favourite is Chailly’s Decca CD with the
National Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s sung in Italian, but I find that the
open vowels and ripe consonants of the language fit the music like a glove.
It also plays to the strengths of his outstanding set of principals,
including Sherill Milnes, Luciano Pavarotti, Mirella Freni and Nicolai
Ghiaurov. Throw authenticity out the window and go for that one as a first
choice.
Simon Thompson
Previous review:
Ralph Moore
