Jack Werner (pianoforte)

Rossini's last opera, William Tell, was a much more serious work than The Barber of Seville and the other light-hearted operas of his early career. The libretto is based on Schiller's famous play, and Rossini put his best effort into making the opera as dignified a work as the subject called for. Where, in the play, room could be found for a ballet it is difficult to say, but no opera in those days, however serious, would have been tolerated in performance unless it provided for the appearance of the corps de ballet. William Tell was no exception to this inviolable rule.