Rossini Guillaume Tell

The hero of this admirably complete August 2013 Guillaume Tell from Pesaro is homegrown maestro Michele Mariotti The inimitable overture is mercifully unstaged and terrifically played with splendid cello and flute solos the fine standard never flags Rossinis extraordinary 1829 score audibly presages Meyerbeer Berlioz Glinka Verdi and Wagner among many others Graham Vicks direction privileges class conflict with a clenched fist on the redandwhite forecurtain The Edwardian costumes place Austrians in white evening garb the blackclad Swiss polish the floor while the rulers savor a filming much of that to follow the fisherman Ruodi in a boat with a blonde and fake scenery with Tell and his family providing tech support Vick deploys geographical and historical kitsch liberally but not always pointlessly Ron Howells pretentious mannered choreography however beggars belief