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• The Tempest (2004)
  By Thomas Adès, libretto by Meredith Oakes, based on William Shakespeare’s homonymous play
  Co-production Festival d’Opéra de Québec (Québec), The Metropolitan Opera (New York) and the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna) in collaboration with Ex Machina
Designers
• Stage Director
  Robert Lepage
• Assistant Stage Director
  Félix Dagenais
• Set Designer
  Jasmine Catudal
• Costumes, Wigs and Make-Up Designer
  Kym Barrett
• Lighting Designer
  Michel Beaulieu
• Video Image Artist
  David Leclerc
• Choreographer
  Crystal Pite
• Artistic and Musical Consultant
  Rebecca Blankenship
• Workshop performers
  Geneviève Bérubé, François Isabelle, Marco Morin, Katrine Patry, Jacinthe Pauzé-Boisvert, Francis Roberge, Eric Robidoux
Production
• Props Project Manager
  Francis Farley
• Rig & Safety Adviser
  Guy St-Amour (Productions Artefact)
• Video Project Manager
  Catherine Guay
• Costume Designer Assistant
  Mark De Coste
• Set Designer Assistant
  Marie-Ève Pageau
• Technical Director
  Michel Gosselin
• Technical Director Assistant
  Éric Gautron
• Production Manager
  Pierre Phaneuf
• Production Assistant
  Viviane Paradis
• Production Coordinator
  Vanessa Landry-Claverie
• Producer
  Michel Bernatchez
• Set Building
  Scène Éthique (Varennes, Québec) and ACMÉ décors (Beloeil, Québec)
• Scenic Painting
  CADMIUM (Montréal)

The Tempest

Victim of a conspiracy, Prospero – former Duke of Milan – is exiled on an island with his daughter Miranda. Using his magic powers, he enslaves Caliban, half-savage monster, and commands Ariel, a spirit of the air. Seeking revenge, he unleashes a storm causing the shipwreck on his island of his ennemies’ vessel. Prospero will thus be able to submit them to tests which will transform them all.

For his version of The Tempest, Robert Lepage transforms Prospero’s island into a theatre where behind-the-curtain games are plenty and from which the fallen Duke seeks his revenge.

Over the years, Robert Lepage has staged Shakespeare’s Tempest numerous times. His production of Thomas Adès’s operatic adaptation will explore the fascinating counterpoint of modern and classical elements of this version as it celebrates the Shakespearean roots of the play on which it’s based.

In Lepage’s production, Prospero’s island will be portrayed as the antique stage and auditorium of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, a setting that symbolizes the Milanese society from which Prospero has been banned. By setting an opera inside an opera, Lepage underlines the “mise en abyme” – or the story of the King, Antonio, Ferdinand and their court marooned inside Prospero’s story – present in the libretto.

Robert Lepage and his Ex Machina team will weave in together their distinctive signature, different medias and art forms into a production that marries traditional stagecraft from the 18th and the 19th centuries with contemporary storytelling devices.

The Tempest will take the stage at the Festival d’opéra de Québec on July 26-28-30 and August 1 2012, at the New York Metropolitan Opera on October 23-27-31 and November 3-6-10-14-17 2012, then at the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna).