History & Fun Facts
William Shakespeare wrote The Tempest in 1610-1611, and it is widely considered to be the playwright's last play. Shakespeare typically adapted his plots from other sources, but The Tempest has a (mostly) original storyline. Some scholars believe the playwright drew inspiration from Ovid's "Metamorphoses," Erasmus's "Naufragium," and Peter Martyr's "De orbe novo."
The Tempest was played before King James I on 'Hallowmas nyght' (1 November) 1611: this was its first recorded performance. It had another court performance two years later as part of the festivities marking the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to Frederick, the Elector Palatine of Bohemia.
Shakespeare may well have written the play with an indoor playing space in mind, because by the time The Tempest was written, the King's Men (Shakespeare's acting company) had begun to use the indoor Blackfriars Hall as a theatre.
After the English Civil War and overthrow of the Monarchy, many social reforms were enacted; in 1642, all plays were banned. After the Restoration of the Monarchy and a lessening of Puritan influence, the ban was repealed. However, The Tempest was reintroduced to the public in 1667 in a completely different form: less than 30% of Shakespeare's original text was retained, and other authors added more characters and romantic comedy to better suit the tastes of the day. It was not until William Charles Macready's production at Covent Garden in 1838 that the Restoration additions to the text were finally removed and The Tempest was back to how we believe Shakespeare intended.
The Tempest may take its overall structure from traditional Italian commedia dell'arte, which sometimes featured a magus and his daughter, their supernatural attendants, and a number of rustics. The commedia often featured a clown ... and his partner, who bear a striking resemblance to Stephano and Trinculo; a lecherous Neapolitan hunchback who corresponds to Caliban; and the clever and beautiful Isabella, whose wealthy and manipulative father, Pantalone, constantly seeks a suitor for her, thus mirroring the relationship between Miranda and Prospero.
(Vaughan, Virginia Mason; Vaughan, Alden T. The Tempest. The Arden Shakespeare, 1999.)
PC: Claude Gillot
In the 17th century, Ariel was played by a man, but from the early 18th century until the 1930s, the role was played exclusively by women.
After 1930 it quickly became rare for Ariel to be played in the pretty, submissive, lyrical style of the past. Marius Goring, at the Old Vic in 1940, led the way with his remote, alien characterization, indifferent to human affairs and longing only for freedom.
Thanks to a precedent set by John Herschel, son of astronomer William Herschel who discovered Uranus, two regular moons and seven of the outermost moons of Uranus are named after characters from The Tempest. These include Ariel, Miranda, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, Trinculo, Francisco and Ferdinand.
The Tempest contains more music and musical interludes than any other Shakespeare play. Two arrangements that might have been used in Shakespeare's time still exist - one for "Full Fathom Five" and another for "Where The Bee Sucks There Suck I," both printed in the 1659 publication Cheerful Ayres or Ballads. The scores are attributed to Robert Johnson, who regularly composed for the King's Men.
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There have been no fewer than 46 different opera adaptations!
PC Frans Hals
The Folio's opening stage direction requests: 'A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning.' Playhouses of the time were equipped with fireworks and thunder-sheets for such effects. If that was not enough, a cannonball could be rolled down a wooden trough to produce more thunder or a loose length of canvas be turned on a wheel to simulate the sound of high winds. 'Enter Mariners, wet', another direction later in the scene, indicates the simple effectiveness of Jacobean stage practice - imagine an enthusiastic stage-hand backstage, ready and armed with a brimming bucket!
From the "The History and Science of Sound," Theatrical Sound Designers and Composters Association