When William Tell ordered his arrows, he got them special dequivery. (I'll take a bow for that one.)
@Mike No pun here, I can't follow that, so I'll break the tradition of not replying in kind. Sorry. I just wanted to say that you make me laugh even when I do not wish to laugh.
@Mike What a fletching sense of humor you have.
@Mike Yodelight us with your plucky puns. We alpine when you're not here, but we try not to cause arrow. I don't need to Tell you that that the last four have been a kind of string quartet.
@Mike Another feather in your cap -- right on target. Can you get any better? Time Will Tell.
@Mike While your puns always hit the bullseye, this one nocked me for a loop.
@Mike If they got lost in the delivery, W. T. might think, " what's the point"!
@Mike - It’s good we’ve been taut to respect arch humor. Otherwise you’d be way off target. As it is you’re the apple of our eye.
Wow this was lovely, haven’t see a nice tribute theme like this for a while and a great grid and animation. I just wish I hadn’t read the title, or the editors had been more circumspect about it, because I read the first theme clue, popped down to the bottom and filled in WILLIAM TELL, and the rest of the theme filled itself. Or even if it had said “subject of this theme” rather than “legendary folk hero”. Still, can’t fault this theme or its construction, very on target all the way. Last, I’ll get it out of the way, where does William Tell (or the Lone Ranger, as it’s usually told) take his garbage? To da dump, to da dump, to da dump dump dump…
Very fun! Tons of thematic entries and a cool graphic upon completion. It was serendipitously delightful for me that my final entry was the rebus square, which was also when I realized the popular beverage is SNAPPLE. Very impressive construction and remarkable symmetry of the various themers. MARKSMANSHIP and SHOOTING STAR are great, as is FRUITFUL and TAKE A BOW. The embedded crossing of BOW and ARROW is excellent. Congratulations, Jeffrey and Evan. You really scored a bullseye.
Listening to The Overture I'm all aquiver.
@Anita Me, too, Anita. I found a you tube of the overture with the score. I love matching the visual representation of the music with the music itself. It's amazing how compelling some of this old war horses are when you give them a fresh listen. I'd forgotten so much of the overture was slow and moody.
SHOOTING STAR and TAKE A BOW each brought a “Hah!”, and when I saw I’M OK right under WILLIAM TELL, what popped in my head was that those were the words of his son right after the arrow went through the apple.
A big hello from Switzerland, and vielen Dank to the two authors of this puzzle! I loved the theme and the word play and the fact that you also fit Rossini and a word from Latin into the grid. Congratulations, and thanks again for a fun ride.
@MaryAnn was it a crossbow or a “bow and arrow” in the tale?
@MaryAnn Switzerland is the nearest think, for me, to Xanadu, or Sangri-la, or Tolkein's Aman. A mystical place that I've heard of, but never seen, never will see, and seems to be of unearthly beauty. I can't imagine anything bad ever happens there, or anything violent, or anything sleazy. Then I remember that about them being essentially a fence for stolen Jewish property, and the whole dream collapses. Leaving me feeling worse than ever.
That was fun! But if you’d allow me to (briefly) don my pedant hat, HTTPS is not the start of an encrypted URL. URLs are in plaintext (as evinced by the fact that you can read them) and the protocol is there to tell you whether the _communication_ that happens between your browser and the server is encrypted (HTTPS) or unencrypted (HTTP). This is important for sites where you might want to make a purchase and as a result, provide sensitive data like your card number. HTTPS is pretty de rigueur now, such that any site that does not support it will probably be snagged by your browser with a big red warning asking you to confirm whether you’d like to proceed. Doffing that hat now ;-)
@Mishlev I love how that hat looks on you. I wear it quite a bit, too.
@Mishlev You are, in all senses, technically correct.
@Mishlev This was one where I resisted filling in the answer for a while on principal. Thanks for mentioning it!
Wanted to write as a New Yorker in Switzerland, I loved this puzzle then noticed my long ago chosen username. Guess I’ve been presciently waiting for years for this theme.
Now I've got the William Tell overture going around and around in my head. Along with a few "Hi yo, Silver"s. Small price to pay for a delightful puzzle. Does this happen to others? I'll abandon a section (today it was the NW) thinking I have absolutely no chance, because I've gotten all the ones I can get, and everything else is just an utter mystery. Then, when I go back, I find something I've missed and suddenly everything falls into place. And then I hear it. Click! That "click" is terrific. I bet our brains are injecting the coolest drugs ever directly into our gray matter.
@Francis happens to me all the time. Including today in the NW. cheers and good puzzling
As I start to write this comment, it's 5:31 p.m. on Saturday, quite appropriately, since this is tomorrow's puzzle, 5/31, which also happens to be my birthday (that day of the year when the Target Practice begins anew...) I won't be listening to Rossini's Overture because, tbh, it frazzles me. But the puzzle did give me musical inspiration for my personal celebration of the passing of time... Enya, that NEW AGE goddess, with "Only Time" - <a href="https://youtu.be/7wfYIMyS_dI?si=XX6MC9CZdkItKVZF" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/7wfYIMyS_dI?si=XX6MC9CZdkItKVZF</a> And Coldplay, with the song "Clocks", singing the lyrics "shoot an APPLE off my head" - <a href="https://youtu.be/d020hcWA_Wg?si=GLNGqVlhG6wm14r2" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/d020hcWA_Wg?si=GLNGqVlhG6wm14r2</a> So thank you, Jeffrey and Evan, for the soundtrack to my day tomorrow. The puzzle itself was greatly satisfying and put me in a good mood, which is always what's wished for from a solving romp. Thank you for that as well! (Continues in reply)
(Continued) At this opportunity, I'd also like to express my gratitude to the legendary Will Shortz and the whole Games editing team whose knowledge and creativity are admirable to the nth degree ; to our fabulous columnists whose write-ups are top-notch and de rigueur reading; to the graphic artists whose talent always puts the icing on the cake; to all constructors whose love of the game shines through in the craft; and to all you beautiful people in this forum, whose contributions of opinions, teachings, experiences, stories, memories, music, poetry and wit are the stuff of nourishment for the mind and the heart. Thank you for daily accompanying me on yet another trip around the sun, and being intrinsicate to what I deem as my well-being. This virtual part of my existence has become a cherished part of my real life, and all of you matter greatly to me. Thank you to all, with all my heart. 💖
@sotto voce Happy Birthday Here's a non-frazzling section of the overture to relax you called Ranz des Vaches. <a href="https://youtu.be/oFEDQXJ4vRQ?si=k7ET4OA2u7-QDtQZ" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/oFEDQXJ4vRQ?si=k7ET4OA2u7-QDtQZ</a>
Lovely puzzle. Enjoyed it a lot It wasn’t too hard to grapple And it was juicy as Snapple I’m happy to tell It was really swell And sweet as an apple Swathi
@Pananjady Swathi Oh thank you! I finally just got what SNA was. D’Oh!
I usually forget to look at the title for a Sunday puzzle, but for some reason I saw it today. Which almost immediately gave away the theme, and led me to start by identifying the archer: Robin Hood? No, doesn’t fit. Geena Davis? Not likely. Oh, gotta be William Tell! I had no idea what happens to Lady Liberty at night (none of my business, really), so my fill there went “lit up” > “unlit” > UPLIT. Are we sure she agreed to that? As an unabashed fan of the rebus, I’m abashed to say I missed this one. I thought maybe “the big A” was a shortened, more familiar form of “the big apple”? (Snapple never came into play because those squares filled in from the crosses.) But no matter, the shooting arrow made everything worthwhile. Can’t beat a good closing animation.
@Heidi Honestly, is nothing sacred anymore!? How much and where a woman is lit or unlit, if such is her wont, isn't for idle chatter. <a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/vNkZcPhO8DM?si=VyXn6tpQDrMkYECu" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/shorts/vNkZcPhO8DM?si=VyXn6tpQDrMkYECu</a> Cmon puzzle maker people, do better! Har!
@Heidi I couldn’t find my mistake, so I turned on the auto check. Turns out, I had respected Lady Liberty’s privacy and left her unlit. I had never heard of a newee, but I’d never seen pewee spelled in that fashion, either, and I figured the “wee” part was what the clue was referring to.
For me, adulting often looks like understanding, acknowledging what is seen, planning ahead and not getting *too* caught up in sheer whimsy. But when a puzzle is simply fun, this grown-up CC is replaced by the other CC who watched balloons float away, until they were utterly invisible. The Dutch have a cool word, “kinderlijk.” It does mean “childlike," but more specifically it describes a reaction that is innocent, wide-eyed, and purely uninhibited, similar to a child discovering a magical surprise. Thank you for this Sunday whimsy that gave me a double dose of kinderliik with the little gift at the very end!
I pulled up the puzzle and scanned the empty grid. First thing I saw were the gray squares – a lovely representation of a religious cross. My eyes went to the space in the SE where it looked like the revealer went, and I saw that its letter count was just right for JESUS CHRIST. A most memorable cascade of imagining the possibilities followed. BTW, did you know that in neither the Times nor any of the other major crossword outlets has that answer ever appeared before? Huh! Regarding the puzzle itself, it’s one thing to come up with a puzzle idea, and a huge leap to bring it to fruition, and I’m not surprised it took Jeffrey and Evan months to pull it off. They skillfully succeeded, IMO. I loved the surprising rebus. I also believe that making a bow and arrow out of BOW and ARROW is brilliant. Congratulations, gentlemen, on your college graduations, and thank you for a fun outing with a memorable start!
@Lewis Even in Wordle and Spelling Bee religious figures (JESUS CHRIST, ALLAH) are not included, and I know friends who will not write GOD, but instead use "G-d"... However, the Dalai Lama, Disciples, and other figures (saints, etc.) are not off-limits.
@Lewis I had the same thought seeing the gray squares. So glad I didn't try to fill in the revealer the way you did, but laughing out loud imagining your solve!
Very cool. I had the rebus literally the last clue to solve. I thought it would be some city in Switzerland, which seemed off-brand but hey maybe. Do they call Geneva The Big G? That would be weird, and that would mean there's a popular drink called SNG. Nope. Maybe The Big B? And the drink is SNB? Nope. Checked the clue again. Ah ok it can be anywhere, think think the Big... Aha payload achieved. Nice one!!!!!
I haven't read any comments yet, nor the Wordplay column, but I knew what my comment would be when I got here: Great puzzle. Perfect Sunday fun. And the arrow, the apple and the animation when finished tied the bow on top of this excellent weekend present. Now I'll catch up with all of you and see if anyone agrees. If you don't, you're wrong! :)
I oh-so-confidently filled in WILL FERRELL at 116A based on a few down clues, and then spent the rest of my puzzle so sure of myself, yet so perplexed as to when Will Ferrell became an expert marksman. And why dedicate a whole puzzle to this supposed feat and how had I never heard of it?! Once I finally returned to the bottom right corner I realized by the crosses that it had to be reworked. Silly me. Good start to my Sunday.
The rebus square was a nice "tell."
Excellent puzzle! I’d point out the inclusion of tech giants META and TESLA along with APPLE, as a mini-theme (?). And SAW and WETS connecting to SPARROW, which in turn connects to PEWEES — a saw-whet is a type of small owl.
@Roy I've got to admit, I never saw that until you pointed it out. Great catch!
Feeling lucky that it only took a couple of minutes to find and fix UnLIT/nEWEES for the happy music.
I spent way too much time wondering why the Statue of Liberty was now? UNLIT at night. Fun puzzle.
@Chris Me too! Was this an energy saving move, I wondered? Somewhat relieved to finally figure out that she is indeed still lit at night.
@Chris Initially, I had LITUP. Close, huh?
A good many of you will be old enough to remember Tom Swifties, a craze of the early ‘60s. The puzzle’s theme recalled to my mind one of my favourites: “Halt and hand over your money pouch!”, Robin Hood said, arrowgantly. For you young ‘uns, I bit of history about this so-called lowest form of humour: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/kjzktjba" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/kjzktjba</a> I believe Tom Swifties first instilled in me a love of (good) puns. (Feel free to share some of your favourite Tom Swifties.)
@Strudel Dad Thanks for the link. This may be my favorite Wikipedia article ever.
@Strudel Dad "Look at the brook," she babbled. "What a waterfall!" he gushed. "The cake is ruined," she said, flatly.
@Strudel Dad My favorite is: "But I don't have an air rifle," Tom said lackadaisically.
Turns out ROSSINI has the same number of letters as Strauss. Just sayin’. Not that I thought… oh who am i kidding? Yes i had the right folk hero but the wrong composer… My dumbassery extended further, because for some reason i had William Tell as Austrian in my head — perhaps because “Strauss” means “ostrich”, which sits next to “Austrian” in my mental shelving system… This is what insomnia does to you, when you solve at 430am!
"Where does William Tell take his trash?" "To the dump, to the dump, to the dump dump dump."
@Bill See my reply to your earlier masterclass. I first read this one and had to look twice as to which Bill authored it. I give you a pass, my friend.😆
Fun puzzle, small nit to pick: the rebus square really should have been shaded gray as well, especially given the animation at the end.
@JGDC Actually I'm glad it wasn't; figuring out the rebus was a great aha for me, and would have been much less so had I known the square was special.
In hindsight, APPLE seems obvious, especially considering I could not for the life of me come up with a three letter beverage brand beginning with SN_. But in a puzzle otherwise totally void of rebuses, I really can’t help but feel cheated out of a gold star when that was the only square that stood in my way. A rebus never even crossed my mind.
@LP I agree. Kind of a cheat rather than a gimmick.
@LP I couldn’t agree more! To have one rebus appear out of nowhere made this confusing. I felt a bit cheated upon seeing that apple was needed here.
@LP Not being able to figure something out doesn’t mean you were cheated. It just means you didn’t figure it out. It’s a puzzle. It happens.
@LP This isn't the first puzzle with only one rebus; it's unlikely to be the last. Don't beat yourself up about it, but also don't forget it. All's fair and all that.
SOOO FUN!!!! Thanks for a wonderful solve.
I spent way too much time on solving this puzzle (without breaking down and looking up a clue or two). I honestly hate single use Rebus puzzles.. to me, when there are a few answers that don’t fit, but it’s the only thing that could work. You automatically think rebus.. BUT when it is only one spot you figure you must be doing something wrong… Other than that, I loved the puzzle. Just enough trickery to make it tough and I loved the theme. I love it when the theme entry helps you fill out the themed entries… Rating: 8/10
Cute theme and animation at the end. Nice to see RAJAH today after RANEE in yesterday's puzzle. I really wish the editors had put more work into the cluing to make it a bit more challenging though. Other than a handful most clues felt like gimmes to me. Not sure if I've just been on the constructors' wavelengths throughout but this Thu to Sun we seem to have gone back to the 'new normal' of not-so-challenging end of week puzzles again.
@Rahul It's not just you.
@Rahul I’ve always found Sunday to be a mix of easy and obscure. The size of the grid almost requires a certain amount of gimmes, just to tie things together. And when you can do that while also featuring a fun theme… I have no complaints.
To my discredit I hadn’t heard of William Tell, but what a fruitful opportunity to learn!
@Hurst HOLY MOSES!! (You *have heard of Moses, right)?😋
Too bad Rossini's overture is in E minor (one sharp), and not C MINOR:-( Did anyone else take high school German classes in the late 1060's-70's? Did you, um, experience the teaching videos "Guten Tag" (beginner level) and "Guten Tag Wie Geht's" (intermediate-advanced), produced by the "International Film Bureau," whatever that was? Surreal yet didactic, I can still recite lines from Schiller's *Wilhelm Tell* by heart. (GTWG, episode/lesson 5): "Erlasset mir den Schuss: Hier is mein Herz!" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAgG6Mf1e_s" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAgG6Mf1e_s</a> "Look, listen, and you will learn German." (There is a scene in which the Hoffmann family is playing cards, using William-Tell themed cards. Apparently this is a thing: the face cards--king, queen, knave--are replaced with characters from Schiller's drama. They were especially popular in, of all places, Hungary. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-suited_playing_cards#Central_European" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-suited_playing_cards#Central_European</a>) Instead of Rossini, here's a little Yodelling Song, music by William Walton and lyrics(?) by Edith Sitwell, here performed by Felicia Montealgre Bernstein. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6ObEkGqPL0&list=RDj6ObEkGqPL0&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6ObEkGqPL0&list=RDj6ObEkGqPL0&start_radio=1</a> (Some of you might recognize this scene from its re-creation--almost as garish--in the recent biopic about Leonard Bernstein.) Great puzzle, guys!
The Overture is in E Major. Four sharps...F, C, G, D.. Major key is half step above the last sharp. The relative minor is C#.
@Bill 😂 My high school German was in the 1960-70s, so nine hundred years later, and yet it sound quite familiar I remember every week we had to memorize a page or so of dialogue, both parts, and we had to speak it in front of the rest of the class. It was agony. I don't know how many times in band I had my German book on my lap desperately trying to remember it for German class after lunch.
@Bill and Francis I too took German in the late 70s. Frau Marshal began each class with „Achtung, Achtung bitte Seite” (and then the page number). Our books were about 15 years old it seemed and all the pictures of our German teenage counterparts were always wearing dresses and suits and ties EVEN when they were not in school and talked about going to the opera or classical music concerts. We thought they were so uncool! I took up studying the language again during Covid and was very surprised how much I actually remembered. Although, my instructor told me that some of my vocabulary and my spelling were bit archaic!
@Bill, Wow. Surreal is right! Don’t know how effective they were at teaching German, but now I know how to say, “Spare me the shot!” Can’t wait to travel to Germany to try it out!
@Bill Again, you never disappoint! Here is my minor (pun intended) input: Prior to the finale, with which we are all too familiar, there is a *whole* lot going on in the WTO... I mean shiat-ton. A true masterpiece that evokes a myriad of emotions. I saw it performed live in Carnegie Hall under Leopold back in the 70s, and I still feel the chills. I've never dissected the dynamics of the key before, so thanks again! You rock, man.
What a clunker. A theme that should have stayed on the drawing board, if ever there were one. The animation at the end almost made this worse. We had a bit of everything (and too much) thematically---a "visual element" spelling ARROW/BOW, a rebus, animation---and it added up to a big dud. The very *tiny* APPLE almost hidden in one box within THEBIGAPPLE pretty much epitomized what a miss/mess this "Target Practice" was for me. Sure hope other folks liked this. Thirty minutes, and glad it was over. I really should skip Sundays. YEESH!
@Xword Junkie and yet this was one of my favourite puzzles for so many reasons - and answers like ‘ TAKEABOW’ still have me smiling, Just shows we’re all different thank goodness.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. And the best laugh and thrill at the end!
Not to be overly pedantic, but William Tell was a crossbow marksman, not a longbow, so he shot bolts and not arrows, thereby making the crosser that seeded the whole puzzle and the animation both inaccurate (at least, not as accurate as Tell himself)
@Jack M My research tells me that modern crossbow enthusiasts use the term bolt and arrow interchangeably. Many casual solvers would have been a little mystified by BOLT. Of course, Tell might have called it a bolt, but it would have been in Swiss German anyway so I think we are in reasonable territory for a crossword…
Rough two days. Yesterday was a struggle and today I simply couldn't find my mistake. I couldn't figure out why IAn wasn't the answer to "Cartesian conclusion" i.e. CartesIAN. Of course that made no sense with the crossing nETA as the answer for "Self-referential". But I just couldn't see it, finally gave up and looked at the answer key and am now quite annoyed with myself.
Most of the theme of the puzzle I liked. There was a good aha moment figuring out WILLIAM TELL, then BOW crossed with ARROW. But a bit ticked off about the single rebus square. Yeah, it made sense, but single rebuses feel like a game time rule change. Like the time you had to put six hyphens for a "Dashed Line" or the time there was a single number square. Most of the puzzle was enjoyable but the last bits were frustrating. Finding that rebus was made extra tough by some of the crossings of THE BIG APPLE and SNAPPLE being not so great. BAGS IT when CANS IT made more sense to me. DECIMUS a major Natick. ORATES I'm not completely sure how that fits the close "Holds forth". The rest of the puzzle was fun though. For Yellow Submarine I put RINGO first and took me a while to figure out it was looking for STARR.
@Chris To hold forth is an older term for expounding or lecturing on a topic, so ORATES is an appropriate answer.
@Chris Yes, TIL that Ringo and STARR have the same number of letters! 😂
@Chris If many other people are able to make it past whatever it was that stumped me, I figure it's on me.
@Chris "... single rebuses feel like a game time rule change." Well now that you've seen one, you should know now that it is not. It's tricky, I grant you. I recall a puzzle (a Saturday, I think) that had a single rebus. If confounded me for awhile, but logic led to it being the only possible answer that made sense.
I've been waiting for a puzzle all about William Tell!!! Fun outing today. And it's nice to start the day with the sounds of a couple of alliterative phrases. Shooting star and marksmanship. Loved the special effects on solving.
@Jeff B MD No you haven't. Really?
In entering the rebus, the image of the 🍎 came up as an option, and I chose it. But no happy music. So I went back and entered the letters. 🎵 You might say this aspect of the puzzle missed the mark, at least for me. Otherwise, I could tell this was going to be a fun Sunday. No holes in the cluing, unlike Swiss cheese.
Thank you, Jeff and Evan, for this fabulous Sunday grid. I hit the TARGET of my official one-year streak today so I really, really enjoyed the theme and APPLE reward graphic upon completion!→🍎😊 Congratulations to both of you on your college graduation and best of luck as you make your MARKS upon your future endeavors!🎓👏🏼🎓
Strange thing is, I didn't even notice this was a rebus until I got to the comments. I figured that THEBIGA was a sufficient rubric for New York City, and I never even considered SNA, as there are so many drinks that I've never heard of (Kombucha, for example). Fortunately, the algorithm accepts the first letter of a rebus, so it was possible for me to ignore the issue altogether.
@Francis I heard this NPR piece this morning and thought of you. Because Northern Michigan, and I looked up Grand Marais once, so I know you're on the water. I guess that's where the comparison ends, but hey – you can't have everything! Interesting story, at any rate: <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/05/31/nx-s1-5702756/america-250-albert-big-abe-leblanc-changed-fishing-in-the-great-lakes-forever" target="_blank">https://www.npr.org/2026/05/31/nx-s1-5702756/america-250-albert-big-abe-leblanc-changed-fishing-in-the-great-lakes-forever</a>
I always loved the deviousness of having just one rebus in a puzzle (I only found one). It triggers the brain to think: "Oh no, where are all the others? What did I miss?" "There must be more. In fact, maybe someone got rebus happy (it happens) and there are too many." "Now I've got to go back and check all my fills to see where I've gone horribly wrong." Personally, I don't need any encouragement when it comes to overthinking things.
Half an hour or so before the final penny dropped and I realized my potential-post nit natick (nitick?) of UnLIT (Why would it be UnLIT at night!?) and nEWEE (What's a nEWEE?!) ("But PEWEE is just a little kid, not a bird!, till TIL). Hardly hard Sunday. But amusing.
I can't decide whether throwing a single rebus square into a puzzle is fair or not. I wouldn't have spotted it without some help from Dr. Google. I wonder what others think.
@Fred same. It's a clever answer tho, i admit!
@Fred What does fair even mean in this context?
@Fred I thought it was a nice touch, especially after I drew the APPLE and colored it in, adding a stem and leaf. Quite jaunty.
Loved this! Congrats on your graduation and best wishes in all that lies ahead of you both, especially many more years of friendship.
In the original tale, William Tell’s final and greatest shot flew in an SSHAPE toward his enemies and CHAFED their AORTAS. Surprised no one else has mentioned that. (Or is that just here sy?)
Loved, loved, loved this puzzle! Kudos, Evan and Jeffrey!
Delightful puzzle. Rebus was IMHO a charming addition.
Personally, I think the Statue of Liberty ought to be UnLIT for the foreseeable future. It's most obviously a remnant of the past.
@Francis Or we could have it lit up even more as hope for the future!!
@Francis I Tee-totally agree with you. It should be removed completely and the Emma Lazarus inscription interred, cancelled and stricken from the history books. Mad respect, my friend 😋
Very fun puzzle! My only nit is that by pretty much any definition, SOLTI crossing ROSSINI is a bona fide natick. But my general rule is that one is fine — adds some suspense to when the music will play.
@Stephen Also, the fact that Solti has a recording where he conducts Rossini’s overture makes this even more forgivable. It must have been irresistible to cross them.
@Stephen solti was a major talent who took the Chicago symphony to new greatness under his stewardship,
@Stephen Both were gimmes to me. What other letters did you try instead of S?
@Stephen To me those two were the easiest part of the puzzle! And Rossini instantly gave me William Tell. Just goes to show you ...
Rossini didn't just write an overture dedicated to William Tell, he wrote a full-length opera, which premiered in 1829
@Senex Sr. By definition, an overture implies a full work follows. The overture, though, is the most famous part.