Reviews are in!
"lively colorful and expressive . . . a powerful and original libretto . . . original, thought-provoking, engaging musical richness and full of ideas, “Prospero’s Island” was greeted by great applause." OperaWire (Lois Silverstein): Herbst Theatre 2023 Review: Prospero's Island April 8, 2023
"a riveting chronicle of moral corruption followed by a quest for redemption accompanied by equally compelling music." Berkshire Fine Arts (Victor Cordell): Prospero's Island: a Compelling Operatic Update of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and Cordell Reports: Prospero's Island April 6, 2023
"a brilliant update (of The Tempest) . . . incredibly polished." KALX, Berkeley (Heidi De Vries): Prospero's island (March 28, 2023)
"Prospero's Island offers many pleasures. Shearer's highly polished and transparent orchestration . . was a treasure chest of invention." Aisle Seat Reviews (Jeff Dunn): Prospero's Island: Good and Evil at Herbst Theatre (March 28, 2023)
"lively colorful and expressive . . . a powerful and original libretto . . . original, thought-provoking, engaging musical richness and full of ideas, “Prospero’s Island” was greeted by great applause." OperaWire (Lois Silverstein): Herbst Theatre 2023 Review: Prospero's Island April 8, 2023
"a riveting chronicle of moral corruption followed by a quest for redemption accompanied by equally compelling music." Berkshire Fine Arts (Victor Cordell): Prospero's Island: a Compelling Operatic Update of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and Cordell Reports: Prospero's Island April 6, 2023
"a brilliant update (of The Tempest) . . . incredibly polished." KALX, Berkeley (Heidi De Vries): Prospero's island (March 28, 2023)
"Prospero's Island offers many pleasures. Shearer's highly polished and transparent orchestration . . was a treasure chest of invention." Aisle Seat Reviews (Jeff Dunn): Prospero's Island: Good and Evil at Herbst Theatre (March 28, 2023)
Photo: Jeremy Knight
The Tempest, like other great Shakespeare plays, tells a gripping story that also is rich in meaning. The opera Prospero's Island, full of fantasy, romance and humor, will reference the colorful tradition of the play. But it will transport us to our own time, with a new impact. Its action unfolds from dawn to dusk over one momentous day, telling a story of unchecked power, arrogant exploitation of nature and awful revelation. In the course of the 90-minute opera, the lives of sheltered Miranda, loyal Ariel and despised Caliban will be changed forever as they, and we, confront the reality of war and the imperative of truth. With heartfelt words and stirring music, Prospero's Island will move audiences to tears through their laughter. Experience a new opera for our world, our time, and all of us!
The Genesis of Prospero's Island
A look into the workshop
Allen Shearer and Claudia Stevens, creators of Prospero's Island, have collaborated on ten chamber operas, with recent works including Middlemarch in Spring and Howards End America. Their process in developing Prospero's Island spans a dozen years. It began with an idea to transfer The Tempest, a play about a powerful magician marooned on an island with his daughter, into an opera set off the coast of Argentina in the 1950's. And to transform Prospero, its protagonist, from an enlightened despot who uses his power for good, into a more complex figure with a hidden, darker past. Shakespeare provides hints that his Prospero was not guiltless, and that absolute power can be a force for harm.
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The Tempest has had numerous adaptations in film and opera. Artists have been inspired by the play's fantastical characters and story of young love. Shearer and Stevens understood they had something new to bring to their adaptation. The opera's title reflects the broader meaning they sought: that a little kingdom with a supreme ruler is like a remote island. It depends on isolation from the world. Ultimately it cannot withstand the needs of others and the powerful forces of truth and reality.
Respect for the natural world is a subtext of the opera. For Shakespeare, "unnatural" meant something perverse, destructive, even evil. The opera's Prospero had defied nature. Committing a terrible breach of medical ethics and human decency, he had crossed human subjects with animals in his lab. Now, fifteen years later, the products of his egregious experiments have grown into troubled teenagers Ariel and Caliban. Despite his desire to atone for his crimes, orchestrating his own capture, Prospero has not given up his attempts to subvert nature and bend it to his will. On his island, he has compelled Falkland penguins to mimic human speech and culture. The opera also will foretell the war yet to come to the Falklands, an even greater violation of the sanctity of nature. Projections that celebrate the untamed magnificence of the Falklands will add powerfully to the opera.
Prospero's Island is dedicated to the late Shakespeare scholar Everett "Ken" Weedin, with gratitude for his devotion to Shakespeare's language, the timeless content of his plays and the enormity of his vision. Ken encouraged Claudia in her early writing about The Tempest at Vassar and as a reader and critic of an early draft of the opera's libretto updated to modern times.
Respect for the natural world is a subtext of the opera. For Shakespeare, "unnatural" meant something perverse, destructive, even evil. The opera's Prospero had defied nature. Committing a terrible breach of medical ethics and human decency, he had crossed human subjects with animals in his lab. Now, fifteen years later, the products of his egregious experiments have grown into troubled teenagers Ariel and Caliban. Despite his desire to atone for his crimes, orchestrating his own capture, Prospero has not given up his attempts to subvert nature and bend it to his will. On his island, he has compelled Falkland penguins to mimic human speech and culture. The opera also will foretell the war yet to come to the Falklands, an even greater violation of the sanctity of nature. Projections that celebrate the untamed magnificence of the Falklands will add powerfully to the opera.
Prospero's Island is dedicated to the late Shakespeare scholar Everett "Ken" Weedin, with gratitude for his devotion to Shakespeare's language, the timeless content of his plays and the enormity of his vision. Ken encouraged Claudia in her early writing about The Tempest at Vassar and as a reader and critic of an early draft of the opera's libretto updated to modern times.
Watch these highlights from the San Francisco premiere:
Video clip: Prospero (Andrew Dwan) causes a plan to crash, reassures Miranda (Amy Foote) none are harmed, and she begs for truth about the past.
Video clip: Ariel (Shawnette Sulker), Caliban (Bradley Kynard), penguins (San Francisco Girls Chorus) and Miranda participate in Prospero's "school."
Video clip: Ariel enchants fallen aviator Andy (Sergio Gonzalez)
Video clip: Miranda and Andy fall in love
Video clip: Caliban, Steffi (Julia Hathaway) and Trish (Angela Jarosz) shelter from the rain.
Video clip: Wedding of Andy and Miranda
Video clip: Prospero confesses his guilt to Ariel, and is taken away in chains
Video clip: Ariel (Shawnette Sulker), Caliban (Bradley Kynard), penguins (San Francisco Girls Chorus) and Miranda participate in Prospero's "school."
Video clip: Ariel enchants fallen aviator Andy (Sergio Gonzalez)
Video clip: Miranda and Andy fall in love
Video clip: Caliban, Steffi (Julia Hathaway) and Trish (Angela Jarosz) shelter from the rain.
Video clip: Wedding of Andy and Miranda
Video clip: Prospero confesses his guilt to Ariel, and is taken away in chains
