A tempest in an opera house

Last night’s opera was The Tempest, story by Shakespeare, music by Thomas Adés. There is a librettist (don’t remember the name) involved because (1) to turn a play into an opera one must throw out about 2/3 of the words, (2) the words have to be singable, and (3) in this case they decided to make the love between Ferdinand and Miranda directly stated rather than implied.

Prospero was supposed to be Duke of Milan, but scheming by his brother and the King of Naples exiled Prospero to an island, where he developed some magical powers. On the island with him is Ariel, a spirit of the air, Caliban, who I think is the island’s original owner, and Prospero’s daughter Miranda. Caliban has his eyes on Miranda.

Prospero causes a tempest, a storm at sea, so that a party ship with the King of Naples, his family including son Ferdinand, Prospero’s brother, and lots of nobility is sunk. Ariel makes sure everyone gets to shore safely. Prospero does this so that he can get his revenge. His revenge, not what he expected, is … his daughter will become Queen of Naples.

As spirit of the air, Ariel was rarely on the stage, she’s usually hanging from something. Her singing was also high. Most sopranos have a few high notes at key emotional moments. Ariel’s part was all high notes through the first two acts.

The set was unusual – it portrayed the inside of a grand old opera house. In one act the backdrop is the auditorium with the footlights and prompter’s box facing the audience. In the next we see the backstage scaffolding. In the last we see a side cutaway – rows of seating rising to the right facing a stage on the left with the machinery and half a prompter’s box and with the boxes behind. I don’t remember what the director said about this being just the thing, though the composer said, oh yeah, that makes perfect sense.

I’ve mentioned the prompter’s box. It’s a small raised area in the center of the foot of the stage in opera houses. There really is a person inside ready to remind singers of what they’re supposed to be singing. As I said, in this case the box was at the back of the stage facing the audience or in a cutaway side view. And that allowed a few entrances and exits be done through the prompter’s box.

Adés is a modern composer. The opera was premiered in 2004 – this Met production was from 2012 and I saw it when it was broadcast to area movie theaters. The composer used the language of modern music. Which means there was rarely a tune and some would call the harmony “thorny.” Even so, I enjoyed it both times.