Rossini's opera William Tell was premièred on this day in 1829, the last of the composer's operas before he went into retirement. Berlioz – usually disdainful of Rossini's music – was impressed: "I must admit that the whole piece is rendered with unquestionable superiority, such verve as Rossini had not yet shown, and that the William Tell overture is a work of immense talent that resembles nothing so much as genius.”
Juan Diego Flórez, the leading Rossini tenor of our day video from Decca's recent Blu-Ray release: