MATTHEW
LOCKE'S TEMPEST
The
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
the
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe
25.01.2015
Easy
to forget that for years and years Shakespeare was enjoyed in
versions geared to the changing tastes of the public, bastardized,
bowdlerized, enhanced by spectacle and musical production numbers.
A
taste of the Restoration in the candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse,
where the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment brought us Matthew
Locke's Tempest. Elizabeth Kenny and her musicians, with stage
director Caroline Williams, presented a potted version of the 1674
show put on by Betterton in Dorset Garden, hastily pulled together
when the scheduled Psyche hit production troubles. It was based
closely on the Tempest done by Davenant and Dryden a few years
earlier. So a re-write of a re-write of a re-write.
The
emphasis was on the music, but we did have about twenty minutes'
worth of text, brilliantly delivered by Dickon Tyrrell - one of the
glories of the Golden Pestle – and Molly Logan. Between them they
played all the parts [Mustacho the Mate and Miranda's sister Dorinda
among the less familiar], with Logan memorably killing herself in a
duel.
The
singers were Frazer B Scott, Samuel Boden, who played the title role
in Ormindo here [it's back later this season] and Katherine Watson,
superbly delivering Adieu to the Pleasures and Follies of Love.
That
last by James Hart, one of several composers drafted in to supplement
Locke's work, amongst them Henry Purcell and Pelham Humfrey.
One
of the most spectacular sequences was the Masque of Devils, featuring
two excellent boy singer/actors, Harry Cookson and Andrew
Sinclair-Knopp.
This
hugely enjoyable, revelatory performance is the first in a candle-lit
season, including John Williams, Joanna McGregor and Anne Boleyn's
Songbook.
For
almost 200 years this was the most popular Tempest in town. A bit
like only knowing The Taming of the Shrew from seeing Kiss Me Kate.
There were some remnants of Shakespeare remaining – some of the
verse, and most of the plot, between the opening storm and Prospero's
valediction :
Henceforth this Isle to the afflicted be
A place of Refuge as it was to me;
The Promises of blooming Spring live here,
And all the Blessings of the rip'ning year;
On my retreat let Heaven and Nature smile,
And ever flourish the Enchanted Isle.
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