It was first performed by the Comédie-Italienne at the first Salle Favart in Paris on 9 April 1791 and was revived on 24 May 1828 at the Salle Feydeau in a version much revised by Henri-Montan Berton with music borrowed from other works of Grétry, including Amphitryon, Céphale et Procris, Aucassin et Nicolette, Callias, and Élisca, and a new libretto by Jean-Baptiste Pélissier.[1] Grétry's Guillaume Tell disappeared from the repertoire as Rossini's 1829 opera on the same subject gained preference.
The opera is set in 13th-century Switzerland. Like Rossini's later work of the same name, it portrays the heroic struggle of the liberty-aspiring Swiss patriots led by Tell against the evil and oppressive Austrians under Guesler, the local governor.
Recording
Guillaume Tell, Marco Laho (Guillaume Tell), Anne-Catherine Gillet (Madame Tell), Lionel Lhote (Gessler), Orchestre et Chœurs de l'Opéra royal de Wallonie, conducted by Claudio Scimone (Musique en Wallonie, 1 CD, 2013)