People were voting with their feet as well as their voices: quite a few had already left during the second interval. Not everyone, it should be added, had got that far. Michieletto’s decision to recast the third act ballet – in which the tyrannical Gesler’s henchmen force a group of girls to dance with them – as a protracted and pruriently voyeuristic gang rape, resulted in an immediate reaction of unprecedented anger, as sustained booing swept through the auditorium, drowning out the music, and continuing until the end of the episode.Ī few individuals carried on heckling the singers – unfairly – through to the start of Act IV. The groundswell of concern about the bifurcation between musical excellence and weak theatrical standards at Covent Garden has been gathering for some time now. Come and experience Rossini’s greatest operatic achievement with us in the final new production of the season.The Royal Opera is, perhaps, going to have to start reconsidering its priorities and its relationship with its audience after the first night of Damiano Michieletto ’s wretched new production of Rossini’s Guillaume Tell.

The score is Rossini’s most ambitious and inspired, packed with magnificent arias and choruses, atmospheric evocations of the Swiss landscaped and episodes of great dramatic power – which provides a wonderful showcase for the Royal Opera Corus and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

His courage is tested to the limit when he falls into the hands of the tyrannical governor Gesler.

Based on Schiller’s heroic drama, the opera tells the story of the Swiss patriot Guillaume Tell, determined to free Switzerland from Austrian rule. Music Director of the Royal Opera Antonio Pappano conducts a cast that includes many who sang on his acclaimed 2011 recording of the opera.

Rossini’s epic finale masterpiece Guillaume Tell returns to the Royal Opera House after an absence of more than 20 years in a new contemporary production by award winning director Damiano Michieletto, who makes his UK debut.

The royal opera house guillaume tell