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The Metropolitan Opera's Premiere Production of Thomas Adès' The Tempest

Sep. 26, 2012

The Metropolitan Opera's Premiere Production of Thomas Adès' <em>The Tempest</em>

Composer Thomas Adès assumes the podium at The Metropolitan Opera this month to lead performances of his powerful second opera The Tempest. Premiered in 2004 at the Royal Opera House and seeing its first performances at the Met in a new production by Robert Lepage, The Tempest has been praised as a modern masterpiece, garnering widespread acclaim from scores of international opera goers.

Written in collaboration with librettist Meredith Oakes, The Tempest is a free adaptation on Shakespeare’s play. Oakes has reconstructed the play into a singable libretto with contemporary vocabulary, and the artistry of the words yields the perfect amount of space for Adès’s music to take flight in what is today considered one of his most expressive works. Meredith Oakes writes:

The opera The Tempest is inspired by Shakespeare’s play, rather than literally being based on every aspect of it. There are key images from the play as well as new material. From among the play’s many themes and possible interpretations, the opera focuses on the difficulty, and the necessity, of mercy. The libretto uses contemporary vocabulary. Its lines are short, rhythmic and rhymed or semi-rhymed, echoing Shakespeare’s strophic songs more than his blank verse. This choice reflects the play’s magical, ritual, childlike elements, and acknowledges the traditional power of incantation in song. The operatic Prospero is the passionately vengeful man seen in the play, more than the wise disconnected actor also seen there. Despite his near-omnipotence, he finds things out as he goes along, and experiences contradictory emotions to the end.

Robert Lepage's premiere production of The Tempest runs for eight performances at The Metropolitan Opera, October 23 through November 17, 2012, and features Simon Keenlyside as Prospero, Isabel Leonard as Miranda, Audrey Luna as Ariel and Alan Oke as Caliban. For performance dates, tickets, and additional information, visit www.metoperafamily.org.

Learn more on Thomas Adès and his music at www.fabermusic.com.

Thomas Adès
The Tempest (2003)
opera in 3 acts
libretto (En) by Meredith Oakes 
for high soprano, mezzo-soprano, counter-tenor, four tenors, high baritone, baritone, two bass-baritones, and SATB chorus
3(2, 3.pic).3 (3.ca).3(1,2.Bb cl, 3.bcl).3(3.cbsn)-4.3.3(3.btbn).1-timp-2 or 3 perc-upright pno-hp(act 3 only)-str
122’

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