(Section C)
Led by LAURANCE TURNER
Conducted by JOSEPH LEWIS
RUTH NAYLOR (soprano)
Louise sings this beautiful song, ' Depuis Ie jour ', to Julien in the little house they have found for themselves in Montmartre. He has asked her if she .is happy, and this is her reply, a joyous tale, of what life means to her now that they have found each other. She sings of her old drudgery having made way for a very fountain of light and happiness.
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.