The Tempest ( Stormen ), Op. 109, is incidental music to Shakespeare 's The Tempest , by Jean Sibelius . He composed it mainly in the late summer 1925, his last major work before his tone poem Tapiola . Sibelius derived two suites from the score.
24-423: The music is said to display an astounding richness of imagination and inventive capacity, and is considered by some as one of Sibelius's greatest achievements. He represented individual characters through instrumentation choices: particularly admired was his use of harps and percussion to represent Prospero , said to capture the "resonant ambiguity of the character". Sibelius had completed his 7th Symphony , which
48-591: A beast man, or sometimes a mix of fish and man, a dwarf or even a tortoise. Banished from Algiers , Sycorax was left on the isle, pregnant with Caliban, and died before Prospero's arrival. Caliban, despite his inhuman nature, clearly loved and worshipped his mother, referring to Setebos as his mother's god, and appealing to her powers against Prospero. Prospero explains his harsh treatment of Caliban by claiming that after initially befriending him, Caliban attempted to rape Miranda. Caliban confirms this gleefully, saying that if he had not been stopped, he would have peopled
72-538: A large orchestra. It was first performed in Copenhagen on 15 March 1926. The first night attracted international attention but Sibelius was not present. Reviews noted that "Shakespeare and Sibelius, these two geniuses, have finally found one another", and praised in particular the part played by the music and stage sets. Only four days later Sibelius set off for an extended trip to work on new commissions in Rome. He did not hear
96-618: A rack behind: we are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. — The Tempest , Act 4, Scene 1 The final soliloquy and epilogue is the other candidate. Now my charms are all o'erthrown, And what strength I have's mine own, Which
120-503: Is a fictional character and the protagonist of William Shakespeare 's The Tempest . Twelve years before the play begins, Prospero is usurped from his position as the rightful Duke of Milan by his brother Antonio, who puts Prospero and his three-year-old daughter Miranda to sea on a "rotten carcass" of a boat to die. Prospero and Miranda survived and found exile on a small island inhabited mostly by spirits. Prospero learned sorcery from books, and uses it to protect Miranda. Before
144-529: Is a long history of enthusiastic speculation on the name's origin or derivation. One of the most prominent suggestions concerns Caliban being an anagram of the Spanish word caníbal ( Carib people ), the source of cannibal in English. The character may be seen as a satire on "Noble cannibal" from Montaigne's Essays (A.30, "Of Cannibals"). Also popular has been comparison to kaliban or cauliban in
168-403: Is half human, half monster. After his island becomes occupied by Prospero and his daughter Miranda , Caliban is forced into slavery. While he is referred to as a calvaluna or mooncalf , a freckled monster, he is the only human inhabitant of the island that is otherwise "not honour'd with a human shape" (Prospero, I.2.283). In some traditions, he is depicted as a wild man, or a deformed man, or
192-406: Is most faint: now, 'tis true, I must be here confined by you, Or sent to Naples. Let me not, Since I have my dukedom got And pardon'd
216-438: Is the "Cloud-capp'd towers...". Our revels now are ended: These our actors—, As I foretold you—, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air; And, like
240-602: The Lahti Symphony Orchestra , Lahti Opera Chorus, and soloists under Osmo Vänskä , as part of the complete recordings of all Sibelius's works. Recordings of the suites include those by Sir Thomas Beecham , Sir Charles Groves , Horst Stein , Leif Segerstam and Michael Stern . The references in brackets are to the origin of the music in the original score. Suite No. 1 for Piano, Op. 109/2 Suite No. 2 for Piano, Op. 109/3 Prospero Prospero ( / ˈ p r ɒ s p ər oʊ / PROS -pər-o )
264-703: The Old Vic include: Portrayals of Prospero for the New York Shakespeare Festival include: Portrayals of Prospero for the Globe Theatre include: Portrayals of Prospero for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival include: Other stage portrayals of Prospero include: Prospero-esque characters have included: Audio portrayals of Prospero include: Caliban (character) Caliban ( / ˈ k æ l ɪ b æ n / KAL -i-ban ),
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#1732868577605288-618: The Romani language , which mean black or with blackness. The first Romanichal had arrived in England a century before Shakespeare's time. Since 1889, it has been suggested that Shakespeare may have named Caliban after the Tunisian city Calibia (now called Kelibia ) that is seen on maps of the Mediterranean dating to 1529. Many other, though less notable, suggestions have been made, primarily in
312-562: The baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not
336-499: The conclusion of the play, however, and Caliban agrees to obey Prospero again. Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming, The clouds me thought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked I cried to dream again. There
360-600: The deceiver, dwell In this bare island by your spell; But release me from my bands With the help of your good hands: Gentle breath of yours my sails Must fill, or else my project fails, Which
384-404: The island with a race of Calibans – "Thou didst prevent me, I had peopled else this isle with Calibans" (Act I:ii). Prospero then entraps Caliban and torments him with harmful magic if Caliban does not obey his orders. Resentful of Prospero, Caliban takes Stephano , one of the shipwrecked servants, as a god and as his new master. Caliban learns that Stephano is neither a god nor Prospero's equal in
408-412: The island, Prospero becomes master of the monster Caliban , the son of a malevolent witch named Sycorax , and forces Caliban into submission by punishing him with magic if he does not obey. The Tempest is believed to be the last play Shakespeare wrote alone. In this play there are two candidate soliloquies by Prospero which critics have taken to be Shakespeare's own "retirement speech". One speech
432-568: The music for the first time until the autumn of 1927 when the Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki staged the work. For this performance, he composed an alternative Epilogue, bringing the number of items to 35. The Overture has been described as "the single most onomatopoetic stretch of music ever composed". Sibelius published the Overture as a separate piece, and arranged two suites from
456-420: The music, comprising 19 pieces. These suites condensed and combined items from the stage music, sometimes in ways that obscure the drama. It is in the form of these suites that the music has been most frequently heard in the concert hall and on recordings. Various recordings do not stick to the formal suites but include other items. The complete Incidental Music was not recorded for the first time until 1992, by
480-480: The play begins, Prospero freed the magical spirit Ariel from entrapment within "a cloven pine". Ariel is beholden to Prospero after he is freed from his imprisonment inside the pine tree. Prospero then takes Ariel as a slave. Prospero's sorcery is sufficiently powerful to control Ariel and other spirits, as well as to alter weather and even raise the dead: "Graves at my command have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth, by my so potent Art." - Act V, scene 1. On
504-464: The subhuman son of the sea witch Sycorax , is an important character in William Shakespeare 's play The Tempest . His character is one of the few Shakespearean figures to take on a life of its own "outside" Shakespeare's own work: as Russell Hoban put it, "Caliban is one of the hungry ideas, he's always looking for someone to word him into being ... Caliban is a necessary idea". Caliban
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#1732868577605528-477: Was going to stage the work the following year, directed by Adam Poulsen. Sibelius wrote it from the autumn of 1925 through to the early part of 1926, during which time he turned 60. (Although according to Sibelius's journal, he was working on some minor additions and changes music in May 1927.) The complete music lasts for over an hour. It originally consisted of 34 pieces, for vocalists, mixed-voice choir, harmonium and
552-482: Was to be his last, in 1924. The Tempest and Tapiola were to be his last great works, and he wrote little else for the remaining 32 years of his life, which came to be known as "The Silence of Järvenpää ". The idea for music for The Tempest was first suggested to Sibelius in 1901, by his friend Axel Carpelan. In 1925, his Danish publisher Wilhelm Hansen again raised the idea, as the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen
576-906: Was to please. Now I want Spirits to enforce, art to enchant, And my ending is despair, Unless I be relieved by prayer, Which pierces so that it assaults Mercy itself and frees all faults. As you from crimes would pardon'd be, Let your indulgence set me free. Portrayals of Prospero in Royal Shakespeare Company productions include: Portrayals of Prospero at
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