There have been surprisingly few attempts to tackle Shakespeare’s The Tempest in opera, the most notable being Thomas Adès’ acclaimed 2004 effort, set to Meredith Oakes’ adapted libretto. It was this work that made a great impression on Anthony Bolton, and he always planned to have a go himself, instead drawing on Shakespeare’s own text (heavily abridged) and focussing on the atmospheric island setting. A couple of decades on, following retirement from investment banking and with his first opera (The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko) coming first, to mixed reviews, here we are, with Island of Dreams being premiered at Grange Park Opera.
Sir David Pountney directs, with a staging achieved through David Haneke’s video projections onto three large screens, two of which can be moved around to create variety of depth and space. Visually impressive, these conjure up a variety of settings, from Prospero’s steampunk, Tardis-like control room (lacking the mentioned library of books, however) to a post-apocalyptic wasteland and a deserted fairground en route. It is a fantasy island of course, but it must be vast to range from tropical blue sea and white sand to an alpine meadow (at this point, Miranda’s magical melismas threatening to morph into “The Hills are Alive…”), passing through tropical rainforest on the way.
Act 1 has a lot of scene setting to do, with the arrival of Prospero’s betrayers, post shipwreck. Herein lies a key issue – there is very little ensemble singing, with mostly solo delivery of text lacking in character development. Prospero in particular has a lot of lengthy, jagged exposition which lacks musical direction. Prospero and Miranda engage somewhat, and when Miranda meets Ferdinand, there is more interaction, but otherwise, we have to wait until Act 2 for any dramatic intensity and for the pace of action to pick up. Some of Bolton's strongest music is given to Prospero, which was delivered with power and impressive energy by Brett Polegato.
Hugh Cutting was engaging as the sprightly Ariel, energetically flitting about, sprinkling magic and mischief, sounding clear as a bell. Ffion Edwards’ Miranda was also bright, crystal clear and dramatically convincing, with Luis Gomes as Ferdinand blending well in their moments together, (often unnecessarily and uncomfortably entwined around a wooden pole). Bolton’s music takes a rather incongruous shift into suddenly more romantic territory for these two; while suitable for their falling in love moment in Act 1, it does rather jar with the uncompromisingly angular music up until that point.
Comedy and Shakespeare: always a challenge. Is it really that funny? Richard Suart as servant Stephano and Adrian Thompson as jester Trinculo did their best here, and there is some musical mileage in the play on Trinculo’s name, but the drinking song, with Andreas Jankowitsch’s sad Caliban reminiscent of the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, felt laboured. Vocally, the trio did a fine job, but the mix of atonality and bawdy drunken music is an odd blend that doesn’t quite work, the former undercutting the comic.
Willam Dazeley (Alonso), Philip Clieve (Antonio), Harry Nicoll (Gonzalo) and Henry Grant Kerswell (Sebastian)have relatively little to do beyond pulling their various sized suitcases around, and are presented as slightly sleazy characters without much in the way of individual identity, but all four deliver their jagged lines with clarity and aplomb.
There are some nice touches of orchestration, a jangling mandolin signposting Miranda and Ferdinand’s love match, and Mexican composer Rosas’ Sobre las olas (Over the Waves) makes an unexpected yet effective appearance on accordion. George Jackson conducted the Gascoigne Orchestra with tight precision throughout, and Act 2’s orchestral ‘magic carpet’ interlude gave the Gascoigne Orchestra a chance to shine. The offstage chorus provide atmospherically ethereal spirit voices, with one particularly fine moment in Act 2; a shame, however, they and Chorusmaster Philip White received no curtain call.
Moments of musical drama in Act 2, visually impressive projections and the fine singing and playing of this challenging score are to be commended, but greater coherence stylistically, musically and dramatically would make more sense of Shakespeare's densely complex original material.
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