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Overture (from French ouverture, lit. "opening") is a music instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. [1] During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overtures which were independent, self-existing, instrumental, programmatic works that foreshadowed genres such as the symphonic poem.
The Italian overture is a piece of orchestral music which opened several operas, oratorios and other large-scale works in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. An Italian overture typically has a three- movement structure [ 1 ] – the outer movements are quick, the middle movement is slow.
The William Tell Overture is the overture to the opera William Tell (original French title Guillaume Tell), composed by Gioachino Rossini. William Tell premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement (he continued to compose cantatas, sacred music and secular vocal music).
Act 4, last scene, in the Dresden Opera House (1842) The opera opens with a substantial overture which begins with a trumpet call (which in act 3 we learn is the war call of the Colonna family) and features the melody of Rienzi's prayer at the start of act 5, which became the opera's best-known aria. The overture ends with a military march.
The opera was Rossini's last, although he lived for nearly 40 more years. Fabio Luisi said that Rossini planned for Guillaume Tell to be his last opera even as he composed it. [1] The often-performed overture in four sections features a depiction of a storm and a vivacious finale, the "March of the Swiss Soldiers".
In Italian opera after about 1800, the "overture" became known as the sinfonia. [55] Fisher also notes the term Sinfonia avanti l'opera (literally, the "symphony before the opera") was "an early term for a sinfonia used to begin an opera, that is, as an overture as opposed to one serving to begin a later section of the work". [55]
The overture to the opera is one of Hérold's most famous works and is a staple of orchestral repertoire. Performance history Zampa ...
After this premiere, Beethoven's friends suggested he revise and shorten the opera into just two acts, and he did so with the help of his close friend, Stephan von Breuning. The composer also wrote a new overture (now known as "Leonore No.3"; see below). In this form, the opera was first performed on 29 March and 10 April 1806, with greater ...