The Tempest

Published Wednesday 14 March 2007 at 15:45 by George Hall

Thomas Ades’s full-scale Shakespearean opera returns to its launching-pad two years after its initial production, having been seen in the interim in Strasbourg, Copenhagen and Santa Fe. It impresses as before with some fine music, especially in the third act, where a great chaconne seems to bind the whole score together. But doubts remain about the piece’s long-term viability, though fewer about this performance.

The composer conducts a score containing some vivid orchestral writing with confidence. Simon Keenlyside brings a sense of power and complexity to Prospero, though the character is not clearly established from a musical point of view. The same could be said of the musically bloodless Miranda and Ferdinand, scrupulously though the roles are sung by Kate Royal and Toby Spence. Cyndia Sieden once again astonishes with notes that take us beyond any known soprano range, but it’s surely a flaw that important words thereby get lost. Philip Langridge is a tower of strength as the King of Naples, though Ian Bostridge’s Caliban is vocally and visually squirm-making.

Librettist Meredith Oakes’ paraphrased text also creates a mixed impression. It’s clear but inevitably registers as dumbed-down Shakespeare. Tom Cairns’s production, designed by him in tandem with Moritz Junge, is a hit-and-miss affair, striking in places, at others visually undistinguished. This is certainly a major work by one of our finest composers but whether it has staying power remains to be seen.