When the Ballet Outshines the Opera

I have to confess that, while I have had only a few opportunities to do so, I have never managed to sit through a performance of Gioachino Rossini’s William Tell opera in its entirety. On the other hand I first encountered the ballet music that Rossini composed for this opera back when I was in high school; and those excerpts continue to delight me, probably even more than the overture, which may be the best-known opera overture in music history. I was reminded of that delight last month when Michael Morgan visited the podium of the San Francisco Symphony and performed the “Pas de six” interlude that takes place during the first act of the opera.

This turns out to be the tip of an Alpine peak, however. There is a much longer ballet divertissement in the third act of the opera, which is just as engaging as the “Pas de six” and includes choral resources. Taken as a whole, this ballet music appealed to Benjamin Britten enough to find its way into two orchestral suites, entitled, respectively, his Opus 9 Soirées musicales and the Opus 24 Matinées musicales, which, in turn, became source music for George Balanchine’s “Divertimento.”

I decided that I enjoyed this music so much that I would try to listen to it in the context of a recording of the entire opera. I selected the Naxos album, which was based on recordings made in July of 2013 during four days of performances at the Trinkhalle in Bad Wildbad, Germany, conducted by Antonio Fogliani. To compensate for the overall length of the composition, I made it a point to listen to only one act every day over the course of four successive days. This made the overall experience a bit more tolerable, but the ballet episodes still rose above the rest of the opera.

Indeed, my preference for the ballet music was further satisfied by the five tracks following the conclusion of the final act. These were taken from the “supplement” addition to the critical edition of Rossini’s score. The first four of those tracks were also for ballet, three for a pas de deux, and one for the pas de trois that would later find its way into the opera’s third act.

Nevertheless, the real treat was to be found in the last of those tracks. This turned out to be “Des bois, des monts, de la cité” (from the woods, the mountains, and the city). This was a choral setting of the music that concludes the overture for this opera. The Wikipedia page for the opera gives this section the title “March of the Swiss Soldiers;” but the music is anything but a march. Indeed, the Wikipedia description goes on to call it “an ultra-dynamic ‘cavalry charge’ galop heralded by horns and trumpets;” and it would be hard to find anyone who does not perk up at the sound of those trumpets. Adding a full chorus just adds to the fun of the listening experience; and, if he has not yet finalized his plans for the performance by the San Francisco Opera Chorus this coming December, I would be bold enough to suggest to retiring Chorus Director Ian Robertson that this would make for a delightfully enthusiastic farewell gesture!