(From Birmingham)
THE BIRMINGHAM STUDIO ORCHESTRA
Conducted by JOSEPH LEWIS
PRODUCED in 1829, when Rossini, at the age -L of thirty-seven, was at the very height of his fame, Tell was meant to be the first of a series of five Operas. Rossini had a contract from the Government of France which pledged him to write an Opera every two years, five in all. The next one was to have been Faust— one of the most interesting ' might-have-beens ' in the history of music. The Revolution of 1830, however, destroyed all these hopes, and though Rossini returned to Paris and went to law on his own behalf, winning his case after years of litigation at the very end of 1835, he wrote no more Operas for Paris or any other stage. The work was very shabbily treated by the Directors of the Opera under the new regime. First they cut it down from five Acts to three and then took to giving only one Act at a time, either as curtain raisers or as mere introductions or interludes for Ballets.
The Opera is in many ways unlike the light-hearted Barber of Seville and others of that gay and sparkling order which won him his worldwide fame. The subject is, of course, much more serious, and Rossini tackled it with a full idea of its importance. Patriotism and the liberty of peoples was very much in the air in those days, and the story, recast from Schiller's play, aroused world-wido interest. But besides that, Rossini had been closely concerned for some time before its composition with the study and production of the Beethoven Symphonies in Paris, and their dignity and bigness had no doubt something to do with his adoption of a more serious manner in this work.