Fromental Halévy’s La Tempesta, based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, was commissioned for London. An existing French libretto by Scribe was translated into Italian, the norm for operas from whatever foreign source given in London. The premiere of 1850 was successful, but the work disappeared along with almost all the composer’s 40 operas. After 170 years of neglect, a piece needs resurrection rather than revival, so you send for Wexford Festival Opera.
Scribe had to create a version with action, characters and voice types on the template of 19th-century opera. Shakespeare’s work is dominated by Prospero, and has only one female, Miranda, and while she and Fernando can sing a love duet, more female singing is required. So Miranda’s role becomes active enough for her later to attempt to stab Fernando (they are supposed to be besotted with each other but as the Bard said elsewhere, the course of true love never did run smooth). And since Ariele is a spirit, the soprano register will work well for that role also, and Ariele is seen and heard early on, conjuring the storm for Prospero. Calibano’s mother dies before Shakespeare’s play begins, but is given voice by Scribe. In this production Sicorace is incarcerated unseen, but three times loudspeakers are lowered so she can address her son. So we have an opera with three contrasting female roles.
The plot too is adjusted. Calibano captures Miranda, but his encounter with the shipwrecked sailors, or more precisely his first encounter with drink, enable her to escape. Ariele has more agency, despite being incapacitated for a while by the magic flowers Calibano obtains. There is still the final reconciliation, when all except Calibano prepare to sail back to Naples. Perhaps the main loss is of a truly dominant Prospero. As roles are enhanced around him, he is no longer the compelling puppet master of the Jacobean stage.
In his production, director Roberto Catalano says “the island becomes a construction site where the nostalgia of the painful past can be healed” and set designer Emanuele Sinisi provides an effective colourless set, its back wall bearing the legend “NOSTALGIA”, plus a cement mixer and a pile of bricks. The wall is not just incomplete but has a large hole down to stage level serving as an entrance. In the upper levels of the wall bricked up windows right and left open as required for characters to observe or sing when needed. In later scenes, a huge Homeric statue’s head, still in scaffolding, serves several functions including Ariele’s prison and a tower from which Prospero denounces his betrayers.