Gioachino Rossini: William Tell

Civil militias defending their county against the occupying army of a tyrannical foreign regime. A talismanic figure who leads his compatriots against the pillaging, raping forces of darkness. There are echoes of our times in Gioachino Rossini’s William Tell, framed poetically in Irish National Opera’s and Nouvel Opéra Fribourg’s stunning interpretation.

First performed in Paris in 1829, in the long shadow of the French Revolution, and just a year before the July Revolution that toppled King Charles X, it is tempting to view Rossini’s final opera as a subversive work. “What need is there for a crown?” Certainly, it is difficult to imagine William Tell being performed today in Putin’s Russia. “Independence or death!”

In INO’s fable-like reading, the beautifully minimalist sets (designer, Jamie Vartan) and shadow play of the sympathetic lighting (Sinéad Wallace) are emotive protagonists. Metaphors abound. A white zigzag delineates the Swiss mountain ranges, later transformed into a lightning bolt that tears the dark skies asunder, then a river of blood.

The Austrian oppressors led by Gesler (bass baritone, David Ireland) are built like gym-fit Marvel baddies, dressed head to toe in blood-bath red. (The Red Army? It does not seem like a coincidence.) The heroic Swiss villages, attired in rustic white and off-cream, some bearing wings or beaks, antlers or bunny ears, are as one with nature. Severine Besson’s eye-catching costumes lend much to the spectacle.

Director Julien Chavez frames the story as nature versus the anti-natural—the forces of good and evil have rarely been so starkly contrasted. The Swiss rural idyll, however, is tempered by the danger of avalanches, storms and wild rapids. Nature, like the love story between Mathilde (soprano, Rachel Croash) and Arnold (tenor, Konu Kim) is fickle. Demonic long-beaked creatures—blood-red, naturally—stalk the scenes like harbingers of death, while white spirit-figures shadow the oppressed like angels of mercy.

Even trimmed down, at over three hours this is a marathon for The Irish National Opera Orchestra and conductor Fergus Shell, but they navigate the contours of Rossini’s sublime score with unflagging energy. It is a feast that keeps on giving, with chorus after momentous chorus interspersed with poignant arias.

There are stirring performances from baritone Brett Polegato as the fearless Tell, and bass Lukas Jakobski, who begins as the Gandalf-like Melchtal and finishes as the fiery Swiss patriot Walter Furst. And Konu Kim sets the stage alight with a brace of spine-tingling arias, lifted on the wings of the chorus, in the thrilling finale. He is entitled, you feel, to milk the applause.

Against the booming defiance of the bottom end, the gorgeous mezzo-soprano of Imelda Drumm as Tell’s wife, Hedwige, and the no-less captivating soprano voices of Amy Ní Fhearraigh as Jemmy, and Rachel Croash as Gesler’s sister, represent beacons of hope and rationality.

A key feature of this INO/NOF co-production is the role of the four dancers, Laura Garcia Aguilera, Stephanie Dufresne, Jeanne Gumy and Sophia Preidel, who balance balletic grace with theatrical flair.

Their dance to Rossin’s famous overture, laced with humour, is a delight. In Act III, when Gesler forces the bloodied townsfolk of Altdorf to dance in celebration of Austria’s occupation of Switzerland, the quartet lead a dance macabre of the dehumanized that evokes the brilliantly disturbing work of the renowned French dance troupe, Compagnie Maguy Marin.

Transformed into deer, the four dancers cast a hypnotic spell as they tread as softly as the mist that shrouds the forest—the Gaiety Theatre audience seemingly holding its collective breath. Kudos to Nicole Morel, whose entrancing choreography throughout carries both aesthetic and narrative power.

Like the Swiss Alps themselves, Rossini’s score is replete with dramatic peaks as the tension mounts inexorably to the awe-inspiring finale. So many of these heights are scaled by the outstanding Irish National Opera Chorus, directed by Elaine Kelly. Chorus performances do not get better than this.

It has been over 140 years since William Tell was last staged in Dublin, but in fact the entire opera world has long overlooked Rossini’s operatic swansong. That might be about to change.

Epic, mesmerizing and provocative, Irish National Opera's stunning production of William Tell could single-handedly revive Rossini's neglected masterpiece and bring it back, kicking and screaming, into opera's mainstream repertoire. Unforgettable.