A collaboration between The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and director Caroline Williams in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, The Globe.
A version of Matthew Locke’s version of The Tempest.
Text adaptation and stage direction by Caroline Williams
Musical direction by Elizabeth Kenny
The Tempest:
Music performed by:
Katherine Watson (soprano)
Samuel Boden (tenor)
Frazer Scott (bass)
Text performed by:
Molly Logan
Dickon Tyrrell
‘ In 1674, Actor-manager Thomas Betterton wanted to put on a big show at his theatre, the Duke of York’s Theatre in Dorset Gardens, to steal the thunder of his rivals at the King’s Theatre. His plan to do an English version of one of Lully and Moliere’s comedie-ballets, Psyche, which he had seen in Paris, were delayed (it finally came to fruition in 1675), and so Betterton decided to revive William Davenant and John Dryden’s version of the Shakespeare’s The Tempest. This had been premiered in 1667, with music by John Banister and Pelham Humfrey. To this mix, Betterton added his creative team from Psyche, thus creating the first in that typically English mongrel genre, the semi-opera. Matthew Locke (who was composing music for Psyche) wrote suites of instrumental pieces, act tunes and the curtain tune which depicts the storm at sea. GB Draghi wrote dances, Thomas Shadwell wrote words for the Masque of Neptune and Psyche for Act V. This and the Act II Mask of the Devils were set by Pelham Humfrey, whilst Shadwell’s music teacher Pietro Raggio wrote a new song.
Add to this that the version of play completely re-writes Shakespeare adding new characters including a sister for Miranda, and you have the potential for a complete dogs dinner. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment admirably proved otherwise at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe Theatre on 25 January 2015, when musicians from the orchestra led by Alison Bury were joined by singers Katherine Watson (soprano), Frazer B Scott (bass), Samuel Boden (tenor), Harry Cookson and Andrew Sinclair-Knopp (trebles), and actors Molly Logan and Dickon Tyrrell. Lutenist Elizabeth Kenny devised and directed, whilst Caroline Williams did the adaptation of the text and was stage director. Rather than being offered a concert performance of the music, taken out of context, we were treated to a potted version of the play with all the music in its correct context. Molly Logan and Dickon Tyrrell brilliantly played all the characters. Caroline Williams version of the text, by including some of the stage directions, ensured that we knew what was going on. Logan showed herself adept at playing two characters simultaneously, even going as far as having a fight with herself when Ferdinand and Hippolito (another of the new character). ‘ Planet Hugill 2015
