by Sam Juliano
The music in Thomas Ades’s opera The Tempest slowly creeps up on you like an increasingly windy night, when you realize before it’s too late that you haven’t dressed properly for the sudden change in weather. It’s first act harmonic dissonances yield to soaring lyrical intensity late in the second act, and after a short prelude to Act III which showcases some of the composer’s most beautiful and atmospheric music, the hectic dramatic machinations of the Bard’s great play are informed by lustrous vocals by a cast of international renown.
In all fairness a listener is treated in the first act to some rhapsodic lyricism, even if the “musical language” here was purposefully discordant as a result of Prospero’s wicked summoning of the storm aimed to ensnare his enemies and to deceive Ferdinand and his shipwrecked court, while Prospero’s daughter Miranda is deeply saddened by her father’s behavior. Ades makes a conscious artistic decision to suggest that the blossoming love of Miranda and Ferdinand surpasses even the power of Prospero. It is through these late passages when forgiveness, reconcilliation and generosity dominate the drama, that Aides and his superb lyricist Meredith Oakes reach the heights of operatic voice interplay where world class tenor Simon Keelyside, soprano Kate Royal and tenor Toby Spence accomplish some powerful voice fusion that conveys the dramatic power of Shakespeare’s stirring character interactions. It would be hard to conceive of anyone not being moved by tracks 10, 11 and 12 on disc 2 of the double-CD set, where the singing and orchestration collaborate to overwhelming effect. Ades understands where he had to let loose, and it may seem to many opera neophytes that he was in a “holding pattern” waiting for the drama to dictate when to land. The ravishing coda may simply be explained as saving the best for last, but it’s the end result of a painstaking compositional plan where discord is conveyed by thorny and jolting music and tenderness and passion are expressed through almost Puccini-esque lyricism. (more…)
Wonders in the Dark