First Sunday music spot: Overture from "William Tell" by Rossini
This is the overture to Rossini's opera, "William Tell."
The final part of the overture, a brilliant musical picture of a troop of cavalry at the gallop, is known to musicians as "The March of the Swiss Soldiers" but it was also used as the theme tune for The Lone Ranger, hence the joke that the definition of an intellectual as being someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.
Any good performance of an exerpt from "William Tell," like this excellent rendition of the overture by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, reminds me of a very enjoyable evening spent listening to that opera, performed by the Austrian National Opera, in a box at the Vienna Opera House when I was on holiday in Austria in the late 1990's.
Those of us in the box were a very cosmopolitan group - including a German, an American and a Dutchwoman as well as a Brit - listening to a performance in French of an opera set in Switzerland by an Italian composer and performed in Austria. It seemed at the time to be almost like a metaphor for how Europe and the world was coming together. But there was one incident that evening which now looks like a precursor of the reaction against that process.
The hero of the opera, William Tell, is a Swiss patriot/nationalist and the villain, Gesler, is the Austrian governor he leads a rebellion against. This version of the opera included a scene where Gesler's Austrian troops - clearly identified by the double eagles on their staffs - smash up the village where William Tell lives.
It was brilliantly staged and the tourists in the audience all spontaneously applauded at the end of the scene. In response there was some good natured booing from the Austrians in the audience. The booing from the home crowd caused me to suddenly remember which country I was in, and inspired astonishment that the scene we had just watched - clearly depicting that host country as the bad guys - had pulled no punches whatsoever. If an equivalent scene had been staged in London depicting British soldiers as cruel vandals I would have expected a far angrier reaction.
With the benefit of hindsight I can now see that the tension I sensed at that moment - between the internationalism of the liberal elite and those who feel that their country is being insulted or done down - has become a major driver of the politics of this decade.
For many people free trade and free movement of goods, people and above all ideas has had enormous advantages. But those benefits have not been spread widely enough.
For many other people who have not benefited from those things there is a perception that an unaccountable internationalist elite establishment which does not listen to them has left them behind.
Some of the grievances which fuel those perceptions have a degree of justification, others do not and are sometimes deeply alarming, but whether you support or hate the political movements driven by that sense of grievance there is no doubt that these grievances are widely felt around the world. Votes for Trump, Brexit, the populist government in Italy, and nationalists in many parts of Europe including Catalonia, Scotland, Hungary and yes, Austria have been fuelled by them.
So, just as "William Tell" was an intensely political opera when it was written and often faced difficulties being staged because of it's support for a revolutionary, it still inspires political reflections today.
The final part of the overture, a brilliant musical picture of a troop of cavalry at the gallop, is known to musicians as "The March of the Swiss Soldiers" but it was also used as the theme tune for The Lone Ranger, hence the joke that the definition of an intellectual as being someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.
Any good performance of an exerpt from "William Tell," like this excellent rendition of the overture by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, reminds me of a very enjoyable evening spent listening to that opera, performed by the Austrian National Opera, in a box at the Vienna Opera House when I was on holiday in Austria in the late 1990's.
Those of us in the box were a very cosmopolitan group - including a German, an American and a Dutchwoman as well as a Brit - listening to a performance in French of an opera set in Switzerland by an Italian composer and performed in Austria. It seemed at the time to be almost like a metaphor for how Europe and the world was coming together. But there was one incident that evening which now looks like a precursor of the reaction against that process.
The hero of the opera, William Tell, is a Swiss patriot/nationalist and the villain, Gesler, is the Austrian governor he leads a rebellion against. This version of the opera included a scene where Gesler's Austrian troops - clearly identified by the double eagles on their staffs - smash up the village where William Tell lives.
It was brilliantly staged and the tourists in the audience all spontaneously applauded at the end of the scene. In response there was some good natured booing from the Austrians in the audience. The booing from the home crowd caused me to suddenly remember which country I was in, and inspired astonishment that the scene we had just watched - clearly depicting that host country as the bad guys - had pulled no punches whatsoever. If an equivalent scene had been staged in London depicting British soldiers as cruel vandals I would have expected a far angrier reaction.
With the benefit of hindsight I can now see that the tension I sensed at that moment - between the internationalism of the liberal elite and those who feel that their country is being insulted or done down - has become a major driver of the politics of this decade.
For many people free trade and free movement of goods, people and above all ideas has had enormous advantages. But those benefits have not been spread widely enough.
For many other people who have not benefited from those things there is a perception that an unaccountable internationalist elite establishment which does not listen to them has left them behind.
Some of the grievances which fuel those perceptions have a degree of justification, others do not and are sometimes deeply alarming, but whether you support or hate the political movements driven by that sense of grievance there is no doubt that these grievances are widely felt around the world. Votes for Trump, Brexit, the populist government in Italy, and nationalists in many parts of Europe including Catalonia, Scotland, Hungary and yes, Austria have been fuelled by them.
So, just as "William Tell" was an intensely political opera when it was written and often faced difficulties being staged because of it's support for a revolutionary, it still inspires political reflections today.
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