The opera Guillaume Tell by Gioacchino Rossini, based on the play Wilhelm Tell by Friedrich Schiller, Rossini’s last opera, was first performed at the Paris Opera on August 3, 1829. Soon after its premier, the opera became a favorite with the public, in spite of its being heavily censored in some countries due to the seemingly subversive nature of its story line, the people rising against a foreign power. The Overture to Wilhelm Tell though, became entrenched in the repertoire as a popular stapl...