The Overture is some of the most extended music throughout the whole play, setting the scene for what is to come. It’s fast-paced and energetic, and Woolfenden creates the idea of a storm with quick falling scales that fall again and again like waves. The whole cue is structured around two different ideas: the falling scales, and a march-like section, where Woolfenden uses rhythms and cadences that allude to the Elizabethan music that Shakespeare might have been familiar with.
The Overture concludes on a dissonant trill, immediately throwing the audience into the chaos of the opening storm scene. This scene was full of noise, with an extensive sound design. In his music cue book, Woolfenden listed the sounds as:
‘Rain, thunder, lightning, creak, crack, flaps, rigging, whistle, bells, explosions, fireballs, vocal noise work’.
On top of this there was the sound of wind playing throughout the opening scene, and whistles being sounded to evoke the panic on board the sinking ship as dry ice swirled around the stage. It must have made quite a racket — so much so that many reviewers complained that they couldn’t hear what the actors were saying at all! The Leicester Graphic review said that ‘The Tempest raged and roared … actors were shouting themselves hoarse whilst out front all we got was the sound and fury of the storm. … After what appeared to be some hours, it quieted down a lot’. Norah Lewis writing for the Birmingham Mail also complained that ‘it was impossible to hear what the stricken voyagers were saying.’
It wasn’t just the sound levels that were the problem — the opening night in general was plagued with misfortune. There was a technological problem which meant that the planned lighting extravaganza never materialised. The backstage was thrown into complete darkness, causing Sheridan Fitzgerald (Miranda) to run into some sharp object and cut her face. She had to perform the first scene with Michael Hordern (Prospero) wiping blood off her face!
A particularly evocative review from The Times gives us some idea what the opening scene might have looked like:
‘A glowing orange sun fades out and the curtain changes to a transparent silk, riven with flashes of lightning, and the blanched faces of the ship’s company picked out in the darkness.’
Click here to access the score.
