Thomas Adès

The
Tempest
CONDUCTOR
Opera in three acts
Thomas Adès
Libretto by Meredith Oakes, after the play by
PRODUCTION William Shakespeare
Robert Lepage
SET DESIGNER
Saturday, November 10, 2012, 1:00–3:45 pm
Jasmine Catudal
COSTUME DESIGNER New Production
Kym Barrett
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Michel Beaulieu
VIDEO IMAGE ARTIST The production of The Tempest was
David Leclerc made possible by a generous gift from
Mrs. Bert S. Turner and Robert L. Turner
CHOREOGRAPHER
Crystal Pite Additional funding was received from the
Wyncote Foundation, as recommended by
Frederick R. Haas and Daniel K. Meyer, M.D.

The Tempest is a co-production of the Metropolitan

Opera, L’Opéra de Québec, and the Wiener
Staatsoper, Vienna

In collaboration with Ex Machina

GENERAL MANAGER
Peter Gelb

MUSIC DIRECTOR
James Levine

PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR
Fabio Luisi
 2012–13 Season

The 6th Metropolitan Opera performance of

Thomas Adès’s

The Tempest
conductor
Thomas Adès

cast in order of appearance

Prospero Gonzalo
Simon Keenlyside John Del Carlo

Miranda King of Naples

Isabel Leonard William Burden

Ariel
Audrey Luna

Caliban
Alan Oke

Ferdinand
Alek Shrader

Stefano
Kevin Burdette

Trinculo
Iestyn Davies

Antonio
Toby Spence

Sebastian
Christopher Feigum

Saturday, November 10, 2012, 1:00–3:45 pm

 This afternoon’s performance is being transmitted live
in high definition to movie theaters worldwide.

The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from

its founding sponsor, The Neubauer Family Foundation.

Bloomberg is the global corporate sponsor of The Met: Live in HD.

Chorus Master Donald Palumbo

Assistant to the Set Designer Marie-Ève Pageau
Assistant to the Costume Designer Mark De Coste
Assistant to the Choreographer Katherine Cowie
Musical Preparation Bradley Moore, Caren Levine, Natalia Katyukova, Matthew Aucoin,
Timothy Redmond
Assistant Stage Directors Rebecca Blankenship, Gregory Anthony Fortner,
Peter McClintock, and Sarah Ina Meyers
English Coach Felicity Palmer
Met Titles Michael Panayos
Scenery, properties, and electrical props constructed and painted by Scène Éthique
(Varennes, Québec), Acmé Décors (Beloeil, Québec), Cadmium (Montréal), and
Metropolitan Opera Shops
Costumes executed by Gene Mignola, Inc.; Garo Sparo Inc.; Scafati Inc.; and
Metropolitan Opera Costume Department
Wigs by Metropolitan Opera Wig Department

EX MACHINA PRODUCTION STAFF

Artistic Consultant Rebecca Blankenship
Production Manager Pierre Phaneuf, Assistant Viviane Paradis
Technical Director Michel Gosselin, Assistant Eric Gautron
Props Project Manager Francis Farley
Rig and Safety Adviser Guy St-Amour (Productions Artefact)
Video Project Manager Catherine Guay
Acrobatic Coach Geneviève Bérubé
Assistant Stage Director in Quebec City Félix Dagenais
Production Coordinator Vanessa Landry-Claverie
Producer Michel Bernatchez

Performed by arrangement with European American Music Distributors Company,

U.S. and Canadian agent for Faber Music Ltd., London.

This performance is made possible in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Before the performance begins, please switch off cell phones and other electronic
devices. Yamaha is the official piano of the Metropolitan Opera. Latecomers will not be
admitted during the performance.

The Met will be recording and simulcasting audio/video footage in the opera house
today. If you do not wish for us to use your image, please tell a Met staff member.

Met Titles
To activate, press the red button to the right of the screen in front of your seat and follow the instructions
provided. To turn off the display, press the red button once again. If you have questions please ask an
usher at intermission.
 Synopsis

Prospero has been usurped as duke of Milan by his brother, Antonio. With the
support of the king of Naples, Antonio had Prospero put out to sea on a rotting
ship with his daughter, Miranda. They survived thanks to the king’s counselor,
Gonzalo, who supplied them with food and clothing. They ended up on an
island where they now live. Meanwhile, Antonio enabled the king of Naples to
take control of Milan.

Act I
Miranda suspects that the magic practices of her father, Prospero, are
responsible for a huge storm that has sunk a passing ship. Prospero informs
her that the people on board were the court of Naples—his enemies, whom
he has shipwrecked in order to punish. He recounts the story of being usurped
and conjures his daughter to sleep. Prospero then summons his spirit, Ariel,
who describes to him how the tempest destroyed everyone on board the ship.
Prospero instructs Ariel to revive them and bring them to the island.

Caliban appears, heir to the late ruler of the island, Sycorax. Prospero’s
power keeps Caliban from his rightful inheritance, and he curses Prospero for
mistreating him. Caliban, lusting after Miranda, is threatened by Prospero, then
banished to his cave.

Ariel reports on the shipwrecked, now brought ashore and restored. Prospero
orders Ariel to bring him Prince Ferdinand, son of the king of Naples. Prospero
wants the king and the courtiers to suffer by thinking that Ferdinand has drowned.
In exchange for this help, Ariel asks to be released from servitude. Ariel sings of
the fate of Ferdinand’s father, thereby luring Ferdinand ashore. There, he finds
Miranda, who wakes, thinking him a creation of Prospero’s. She wonders at the
sight of another human and they fall instantly in love. Prospero is startled that his
spell on Miranda has been broken and is angered by Ferdinand’s interest in his
daughter. He immobilizes Ferdinand and sends Miranda away. He then calls on
Ariel and prepares to further his vengeance on the rest of the court.

Pause of approximately four minutes

Act II
Washed up on the island, the courtiers discover no trace of the storm; the sky is
tranquil and their clothes are dry and in perfect condition. Stefano and Trinculo
are confounded by the lack of damage and drunkenly relive the terror of the
storm. Unseen, Prospero instructs Ariel to taunt the court. The king weeps for
his lost son and Gonzalo tries to give him hope. Antonio says he saw Ferdinand
swimming toward the land, but Ariel—using the voice of Sebastian, the king’s

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brother—insults Antonio to provoke an argument. Caliban appears and is
mocked by the courtiers, who give him jewelry and alcohol, which he feels
makes him strong. The sound of Ariel’s voice is heard, frightening the courtiers,
who believe it to be a ghost. They are calmed as Caliban describes the sounds
and voices of the spirits of the island, which make him dream he’s in paradise.
Asked who his master is, Caliban is silenced by Prospero. Gonzalo presses the
group to search through the jungle for the prince.

Stefano and Trinculo doubt that Ferdinand will be found alive. Caliban tells
them that his master is responsible for the disaster and asks for their help to
regain his land. In exchange, Caliban falsely offers Miranda’s hand in marriage
and kingship of the island to both Trinculo and Stefano.

Ferdinand faces a future of imprisonment on the island, but he is comforted by

the thought of Miranda. She expresses her feelings for him and Ferdinand replies
in kind. This breaks Prospero’s spell and Ferdinand is released. As they leave,
Prospero realizes he has lost Miranda to a stronger power than his own: love.

Intermission (AT APPROXIMATELY 2:25 PM)

Act III
Stefano and Trinculo are nearing Prospero, and Caliban contemplates his
approaching freedom. Meanwhile, Ariel has led the shipwrecked on a twisted
journey across the island. He asks to be released, but Prospero won’t yet let
him go.

The king and courtiers enter, so weak they can hardly walk. They believe they will
all die of hunger and that Ferdinand is dead. The king decides to disinherit his
brother, Sebastian, and nominates Gonzalo as his heir.

Lulled by Ariel’s music, everyone falls asleep except Antonio and Sebastian. They
plot to murder both the king and Gonzalo in order to seize power. Ariel wakes
everyone, and Sebastian and Antonio claim to have heard strangers about. Ariel
causes a strange feast to appear, which Gonzalo sees as a sign of beneficence
from heaven. Gonzalo dwells on the thought of reigning over a land such as this.
The food vanishes and Ariel appears as a harpy, accusing the courtiers of various
crimes. Now facing a wasting, slow extinction, the frightened courtiers flee to
another part of the island.

Prospero realizes that through his magic he has brought hell to the island.
Miranda takes Ferdinand to Prospero and tells him that they are in love. Prospero

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 Synopsis CONTINUED

summons Ariel to bless them. With Prospero’s plan of revenge complete,

Ferdinand discovers that his father is still alive. Caliban enters and demands
Miranda for himself. Miranda rejects Caliban, and Prospero immobilizes him.
Ariel describes how the king and Antonio are demented with fear and horror. If
he were human, Ariel says, he would pity them. Moved by the spirit’s feelings,
Prospero resolves to be merciful and vows to release Ariel within the hour.

The king and courtiers appear, and Prospero reveals himself to them. Antonio,
who thought he had killed Prospero, is astonished, and the king asks to be
forgiven. Prospero reveals Ferdinand and Miranda to the king, who can barely
believe his son is alive. Ferdinand introduces Miranda as his wife. The courtiers
are surprised to find both their prince living and their ship repaired, and the king
announces the match between Naples and Milan. Prospero offers forgiveness to
Antonio, who rejects it. Prospero resolves to relinquish his magic powers. As he
breaks his staff, he begs Ariel to stay with him, but Ariel flies away to freedom.
Caliban is left alone on the island.

Reprinted courtesy of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

40 Visit metopera.org
 In Focus

Thomas Adès

The Tempest

Premiere: Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2004

A three-act work based on Shakespeare’s play, with music by Thomas Adès and
a libretto by Meredith Oakes, The Tempest centers on Prospero, the former
duke of Milan, who has been deposed and living in exile for years on a deserted
island with his daughter, Miranda. He has in his power the spirit Ariel and the
indigenous creature Caliban. When those responsible for Prospero’s exile—
including his brother, Antonio, and the king of Naples—sail near the island,
Prospero, with the help of Ariel, conjures a storm to shipwreck them, exact
his revenge, and arrange his return to Milan. Full of dreamy and highly lyrical
language in Shakespeare’s most musical vein, the play contains many diverse
ideas and elements: the desire for revenge, the proper and improper use of
power, the nature of magic, the superior force of young love, and the possibility
of reconciliation. The text of the opera uses the play and its themes as a point of
departure for musical imagination, with Oakes’s libretto, as Adès has explained,
“a translation of Shakespeare into modern English, to be all the more faithful
and concentrate the drama.” The opera’s score likewise aims for fidelity to the
spirit of Shakespeare’s play, with an almost limitless palette of moods. There
is comedy, romance, and action, as well as reflection and fantasy, depicted in
music that is essentially lyrical but includes brash and dissonant episodes when
the story demands it. The Tempest is a rare example of a recent opera that has
achieved extraordinary critical and popular acclaim.

The Creators
Thomas Adès, who conducted the 2004 world premiere production of The
Tempest at Covent Garden, was born in 1971 in London and studied piano and
composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and music at King’s
College, Cambridge. He is known internationally as a composer, conductor, and
pianist. Among his notable compositions are the chamber opera Powder Her
Face (1995), the orchestral works Asyla (1997), Tevot (2007), and Polaris (2010), the
violin concerto Concentric Paths (2005), and the piano concerto In Seven Days
(2008). Meredith Oakes (b. 1946) is an Australian playwright, poet, translator, and
journalist. She has lived in London since 1970. The plays of William Shakespeare
(1564–1616) have provided an abundance of material for such diverse opera
composers as Giuseppe Verdi, Charles Gounod, Benjamin Britten, Gioachino

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 In Focus CONTINUED

Rossini, Samuel Barber, and even Richard Wagner (whose youthful 1836 work
Das Liebesverbot is based on Measure for Measure).

The Setting
In the Met’s production of the opera, Prospero—a 19th-century impresario and
the exiled duke of Milan—has re-created Milan’s La Scala opera house on the
island as a magical box for his sorcery—a place where the arts of theatrical
illusion create the aura of fantasy that makes the extraordinary themes of the
drama possible and plausible.

The Music
The orchestra establishes the color and versatility of the score right from the
prelude, which depicts the tempest of the title in dramatic, almost cinematic
terms. The vocal writing reflects both traditional ideas and is effectively
innovative. The spirit Ariel, sung by a coloratura soprano, has some of the most
remarkable vocal lines, in an extremely high tessitura. Unlike in other operas,
where a soprano’s top notes often depict an emotional climax, the high range
here is inherent in Ariel’s nature. In the composer’s words, “that’s where the
character lives.” Shakespeare’s Caliban is generally understood as a being who
is the opposite of Ariel in his very nature. But in the operatic version, rather than
depicting him as a brute singing in a bass register, Adès cast the character as
a lyric tenor, inspired by the play’s descriptions of him as being like an eel or a
fish. Caliban’s Act II aria includes one of the score’s most ravishing passages,
in which he tells the shipwrecked newcomers not to fear the island’s “noises,
sounds, and voices.” Prospero is a baritone whose authoritative nature recalls
the stern father figures of the 19th-century Romantic operas of Verdi and
Wagner. His often expository music reflects the character’s struggle between
his lower and his nobler instincts as he comes to terms with the limits of his
powers—as a magician and as an all-too-human father. Comic elements are
supplied by the characters Trinculo and Stefano, who have “drunken” effects
such as hiccups written into their music. The few individually named courtiers
of the play become a full chorus in the opera, with a striking entrance in Act II.
Vocal ensembles are found at key moments as well—most notably in a sublime
quintet toward the end of Act III, whose convergent harmonies superbly depict
the idea of reconciliation, the quintessence of both the play and the opera.

The Tempest at the Met

Robert Lepage’s production, which opened October 23, 2012, marked the
opera’s Met premiere.

42 Visit metopera.org
Program Note

W
hen William Shakespeare wrote The Tempest at the beginning
of the 17th century, he conceived it as an acoustic experience as
much as a verbal one. Often sparse in his stage directions, in The
Tempest Shakespeare repeatedly asks for “solemn and strange music.” Caliban
further testifies that “the isle” on which Prospero unleashes his magic “is full
of noises.” So, of all Shakespeare’s plays, it was perhaps only natural that The
Tempest would invite the interest of countless composers over its 400-year
history. There have been many orchestral works based on the play but, despite
operatic attempts by Halévy, Fibich, Frank Martin, Michael Tippett, and Luciano
Berio, only Thomas Adès has come close to grappling with the richness and
strangeness of this great meta-theatrical text. If the play concerns the clout
of the theater—manifest in Shakespeare’s reference to his playhouse in “the
great globe itself”—Adès and his librettist, Meredith Oakes, focus on music’s
inimitable power to heal.
Much was expected of Adès when he received a commission for a new
opera at the beginning of the new millennium. Pole-vaulting more senior and
established figures on the British contemporary music scene, the Royal Opera
House’s invitation was proof of Adès’s already significant achievements. Having
been educated at the Guildhall and Cambridge—where he studied with
Alexander Goehr and Robin Holloway—Adès was soon writing pieces for Simon
Rattle in Birmingham (and then in Berlin) before launching his raucous chamber
opera Powder Her Face in 1995. Recording contracts and the directorship of
both Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the Aldeburgh Festival
followed. But would choosing Shakespeare for his second opera prove to be a
bridge too far?
In working with Oakes, an Australian-born playwright, Adès deliberately
distanced his adaptation from the original text. This was not to be a direct
conversion of Shakespeare to the operatic stage. Rather, taking Verdi and
Boito’s radical approach with Otello and Falstaff as a model, Oakes and Adès
fashioned a new three-act structure from Shakespeare’s five-act play. Oakes
preserved much of the original magic, but smashed together the play’s various
personalities. Reported action becomes action proper and the central dispute
between Naples and Milan plays out in a series of vignettes, dialogues, and
confrontations. Such a dichotomy can be heard in the very text the characters
sing, where simple couplets often underline conflict and resolution alike.
The focus of the opera’s struggle is, of course, Prospero. The rightful duke of
Milan, his brother Antonio exiled him and his daughter Miranda to an island, all
with the support of the king of Naples. Having heard that Antonio and the king’s
court are passing by on a ship, Prospero conjures a tempest to shipwreck them
all. The overture, completed shortly before the opera’s premiere in February
2004, shows Prospero at the height of his meteorological powers. At first we
hear whispered string harmonics—music of heavenly stasis. But that noise is
Ins1
 Program Note CONTINUED

soon blurred by a halftone step in both directions and a jarring sequence of

chords, starting in the depths of the orchestra and releasing a musical storm.
Swinging between microscopic dynamics and braying triple fortes, the music’s
knotty harmonies are based around that jarring halfstep. Rhythmically unstable,
lacerated by a metal sheet and an orchestral whip, these wild deviations in tone
become the hallmark of Prospero’s world. If in Shakespeare’s play Prospero is
the origin of poetry and imagination, in the opera—as with Wagner’s Wotan—
he is a source of darkness and despair.
Gifted the power of Neptune, Prospero influences the music of those
around him. One of Adès’s most inspired creations is the role of Ariel. Sung by
a soprano, the spirit’s stratospheric vocal part often echoes Prospero’s ranting
(albeit a couple of octaves higher), but there is conflict here too. Having been
released from one curse by Prospero, Ariel is now enslaved to him instead. Like
Caliban, who claims the island as his own, Ariel communicates the real sonic
spirit of the island. Ariel is often more sound than word, while Caliban, in one of
the most ravishing passages in the opera, tells us that “the island’s full of noises.”
Their home should be a sonic paradise, of which Caliban would gladly be king.
Prospero’s ire clearly does not belong.
In contrast to the island’s inhabitants—the ferocious Prospero, the magical
Caliban and Ariel—the exiled court is by far more structured. Echoes of the
French baroque, dance rhythms, and canonical structures hint at the hierarchies
Prospero hoped to drown in the storm. Poles away from those ranting
monologues, the king of Naples is a musically muted figure. His sea-drenched
court sings in short, stymied bursts of harmony, while individuals—such as the
bitter, wrangling Antonio and Sebastian or the comic Trinculo and his drunken
mate Stefano—mirror the disparate relationships of Prospero’s exiled assembly.
Only Gonzalo extends a dramatic and musical olive branch, though his optimism
is continually challenged by the desperate situation in which he and his fellow
travelers find themselves.
Bridging the gap between the island and the court is the burgeoning
relationship of Ferdinand and Miranda. Representing the two factions, they
mirror each other beautifully. After Ariel’s vertiginous “Five fathoms deep,”
Ferdinand’s response sounds particularly lyrical, although he has a more heroic
side (recalling Prospero’s music). Miranda, on the other hand, is wonderfully
single-minded. She will not capitulate to her father’s stentorian tones. Indeed,
it is Miranda who appears to calm the storm as the curtain rises; polyphony
gives way to homophony. In Ferdinand, Miranda finds her musical match. The
couple’s ability to connect the opera’s political, dramatic, and musical poles—
what Prospero calls “A stronger power than mine”—spurs its resolution.
But if Miranda and Ferdinand’s Act II love duet shows two characters aligned,
singing in unison at “My lover smiling / Blessed asylum”—the opening scenes

Ins2
of the third act are as violent as the storm with which the opera began. Swinging
between ppp (softest possible) and fff (loudest possible) dynamics, pinpointing
that oppressive halftone or leaping across vast gulfs with ungainly intervals,
the court and Prospero finally duke it out. Caliban’s auditory haven becomes a
distant memory as sliding trombones, cellos, double basses, and wild upsurging
dissonances describe “hell’s fury.” Confronted once more by his daughter’s love
for Ferdinand, however, Prospero is rendered defenseless and sets in motion his
final charm: to resolve the situation and free Ariel.
Liberated, Ariel blesses the couple: “Children born of mortal strife / May
you live a happy life,” the notes of which provide the theme for an ensuing
passacaglia. This 17th-century courtly form, associated with both Spain and Italy,
is a series of variations perched over a fixed bass line pattern. Providing further
significance to Ariel’s benediction, Prospero, the king, Gonzalo, Ferdinand, and
Miranda are “reconciled and healed at last,” journeying from darkness into
light. Aggravated dissonances dissolve and in another change to the original
dramaturgy, Caliban and Ariel (rather than Prospero) reinstate the island’s
whispered musico-magical state, transfigured in an entirely new key.
Stepping away from the shape and language of Shakespeare’s original
play could have been seen as running scared of the Bard’s genius. But Adès
and Oakes’s textural and structural choices move closer to its message than
any of their musical predecessors. Through a network of subtle but instantly
recognizable musical ideas—dissonance and consonance, leaping intervals and
legato lines, polyphony and homophony—drama and music are at one in The
Tempest. The power of the former is reflected brilliantly in the language of the
latter. Tipped headlong into an unstable vortex at the beginning of the opera,
stasis and beauty are slowly restored and Adès hands Caliban and Ariel the keys
to this refashioned musical paradise. —Gavin Plumley

Visit metopera.org Ins3

Visit metopera.org for full casting information and ticket availability.
The Cast and Creative Team

Thomas Adès
composer /conductor (london, england)

this season Composer and conductor of The Tempest for his Met Opera debut.
career highlights London’s Almeida Opera gave the world premiere of his first opera,
Powder Her Face, in 1995, and in 2004 his second opera, The Tempest, had its world
premiere at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden (with later performances in Copenhagen,
Frankfurt, Lübeck, Strasbourg, Santa Fe, and last summer in Quebec). He has conducted
the London and Boston symphony orchestras, the L.A. Philharmonic, and the Royal
Concertgebouw. He has given solo piano recitals at Carnegie Hall and London’s Barbican
Centre, including his new Concert Paraphrase on “Powder her Face.” His Mazurkas were
given their world premiere at Carnegie Hall by Emanuel Ax in 2010. Other recent works
include In Seven Days, a concerto for piano and moving image; Polaris, performed last
season by the New York Philharmonic; and The Four Quarters, premiered by the Emerson
String Quartet at Carnegie Hall in 2011.

Meredith Oakes
librettist (sydney, australia )

this season Librettist for The Tempest at the Met.

career highlights She has written plays, adaptations, translations, opera texts, and poems
and has worked as a music critic in Australia and London. Her plays include The Neighbour,
The Editing Process, Faith, Her Mother and Bartók, Man for Hire, Shadowmouth, and
Scenes from the Back of Beyond. She is published by Oberon Books, for whom she has
also recently written a monograph, Mr Modernsky (How Stravinsky Survived Schoenberg).
She wrote the libretto for Gerald Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit and is currently
working on a libretto for Opera Australia with composer Jonathan Mills. She has also
written radio plays and translated new and classic German and French plays, including
Goethe’s Iphigenie auf Tauris, Thomas Bernhard’s Heldenplatz, Werner Schwab’s Die
Präsidentinnen, and Fatima Gallaire’s Princesses.

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 The Cast and Creative Team CONTINUED

Robert Lepage
director (quebec , canada )

this season The Tempest and Wagner’s Ring cycle at the Met.
met production La Damnation de Faust (debut, 2008).
career highlights He is a director, scenic artist, playwright, actor, and film director. In 1984
his play Circulations toured Canada, which was followed by The Dragon’s Trilogy, Vinci,
Polygraph, and Tectonic Plates. He founded his production company, Ex Machina, in 1994,
and his produced plays include The Seven Streams of the River Ota and A Midsummer
Night’s Dream. He wrote and directed his first feature film, Le Confessional, in 1994 and
went on to direct films that include The Polygraph, Nô, Possible Worlds, and an adaptation
of his play The Far Side of the Moon. In 1997 he opened La Caserne, a multidisciplinary
production center in Quebec City where he and his team have since created and produced
opera productions, film projects, and theatrical and visual works, including The Andersen
Project (2005), Lipsynch (2007), The Blue Dragon (2008), Eonnagata (2009), and The Image
Mill (the largest architectural projection ever achieved). He is the creator and director of
Cirque du Soleil’s KÀ (a permanent show in residence in Las Vegas) and TOTEM, and
directed Peter Gabriel’s Secret World tour (1993) and Growing Up tour (2002). Operatic
directorial projects include The Rake’s Progress at La Monnaie (2007), Lorin Maazel’s 1984
for Covent Garden (2005), Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung for the Canadian Opera
Company (1992), La Damnation de Faust (which was seen in Japan in 1999 and in Paris in
2001, 2004, and 2006), and The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, seen in Toronto, Aix-
en-Provence, Lyon, New York, and Quebec.

Jasmine Catudal
set designer (montreal , canada )

this seasonSet design for The Tempest for her debut at the Met.
career highlights Since graduating in 2003 from the costume and set design program at
the École Nationale de Théâtre du Canada, she has designed sets and props for more than
50 productions in Quebec. Her work has been seen at Espace Libre, ESPACE GO, Théâtre
d’Aujourd’hui, and La Licorne, and she has worked with directors including Michel Monty,
Claude Poissant, Brigitte Poupart, Brigitte Haentjens, Alexis Martin, Benoit Vermeulen, and
Marie-Thérèse Fortin. She has collaborated on two Cirque du Soleil productions, creating
props for Robert Lepage’s KÀ and set and prop designs for David Shiner’s Banana Shpeel.

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She is also one of the founding members of Festival OFF.T.A, an urban and artistic event
whose programming promotes the intersection between stage, dance, and performance.
She recently became co-artistic director of Usine C, a multidisciplinary performing arts
center in Montreal.

Kym Barrett
costume designer (los angeles , california )

this season Costume design for The Tempest for her debut at the Met.
career highlights Her costume designs for her first film, Romeo + Juliet (1996, directed
by Baz Luhrmann), brought her to the United States, where she created the costumes for
the film Zero Effect, followed by the internationally acclaimed Matrix trilogy. Other film
work includes Red Planet and Eragon for 20th Century Fox; Monster In Law, Rumor Has It,
The Amazing Spiderman, and Green Hornet for Sony Pictures; and Gothica, Three Kings,
Speed Racer, and Cloud Atlas for Warner Brothers. She is currently in preproduction for
Warner Brothers’ upcoming film Jupiter Ascending. She previously collaborated with
director Robert Lepage on Cirque du Soleil’s TOTEM.

Michel Beaulieu
lighting designer (montreal , canada )

this seasonLighting design for The Tempest for his debut at the Met.
career highlights For over 41 years he has won numerous prizes and distinctions for his
lighting designs for television, museums, exhibits, concerts, dance, stage, and opera
productions. He has worked with director Robert Lepage on productions of Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Brecht’s Galilei for Montreal’s Théâtre du Nouveau
Monde and the world premiere of Lorin Maazel’s opera 1984 for London’s Royal Opera
House and Milan’s La Scala.

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 The Cast and Creative Team CONTINUED

David Leclerc
video image artist (quebec , canada )

this seasonVideo imagery for The Tempest for his debut at the Met.
career highlights He is a freelance graphic designer working in web design and video
production. His work with Ex Machina and director Robert Lepage includes productions
of The Busker’s Opera, The Andersen Project, Lipsynch, The Blue Dragon, Playing Cards 1:
SPADES, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. His works and photos have been used in
numerous theatrical and corporate productions.

Crystal Pite
choreographer (vancouver , canada )

this season Choreography for The Tempest for her debut at the Met.
career highlights She has created works for Cullberg Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater 1,
Ballett Frankfurt, National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (resident
choreographer, 2001–04), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Ballet British Columbia,
Alberta Ballet, and Ballet Jorgen. A former member of Ballet British Columbia and Ballett
Frankfurt, she formed her own company, Kidd Pivot, in 2002. The company received
the Alcan Performing Arts Award in 2006 and tours internationally with productions that
include The Tempest Replica (2011), The You Show (2010), Dark Matters (2009), and Lost
Action (2006). She is also the associate choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater, an
associate dance artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre, and the recipient of the 2008
Canada’s Governor General’s Mentorship Award and the 2011 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award.

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 Isabel Leonard
mezzo - soprano (new york , new york )

this season Miranda in The Tempest, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, and Blanche in
Dialogues des Carmélites at the Met, Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito with the Canadian
Opera Company, and the title role of L’Enfant et Les Sortilèges and Concepcion in L’Heure
Espagnole for a Ravel double bill at Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival.
met appearances Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Stéphano in Roméo
et Juliette (debut, 2007), and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro.
career highlights Recent performances include Rosina with the Vienna State Opera,
Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina in Bordeaux, and Cherubino at the Glyndebourne Festival.
She has also sung Sesto in Giulio Cesare and Cherubino at the Paris Opera, Costanza
in Vivaldi’s Griselda at the Santa Fe Opera, the title role of Offenbach’s La Périchole in
Bordeaux, Angelina in La Cenerentola with Fort Worth Opera, Cherubino with Munich’s
Bavarian State Opera, and Dorabella at the Salzburg Festival. She was the 2011 recipient
of the Met’s Beverly Sills Artist Award.

Audrey Luna
soprano (salem, oregon)

this season Ariel in The Tempest at the Met and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos for her
debut with Fort Worth Opera.
met appearances Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos and the Queen of the Night in The Magic
Flute (debut, 2010).
career highlights Recent performances include Ariel with the Quebec Opera and in concert
with Rome’s Santa Cecilia Orchestra, the Queen of the Night with Lyric Opera of Chicago,
Madame Mao in Adams’s Nixon in China with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and her Carnegie
Hall debut in George Crumb’s Star Child with the American Symphony Orchestra. She has
also sung the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Naples, Venus in Ligeti’s Le
Grand Macabre in concert with the New York Philharmonic, Gilda in Rigoletto with San
Antonio Opera, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Memphis, and the Queen of the
Night with the Rome Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Pittsburgh Opera.

47
 The Cast and Creative Team CONTINUED

William Burden
tenor (rahway, new jersey)

this season King of Naples in The Tempest at the Met, Nikolaus Sprink in Kevin Puts’s
Silent Night with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with
Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, and two world premieres: Peter in Mark Adamo’s The
Gospel of Mary Magdalene at the San Francisco Opera and Frank Harris in Theodore
Morrison’s Oscar at Santa Fe Opera.
met appearances Gilbert Griffiths in the world premiere of Picker’s An American Tragedy,
Pelléas in Pelléas et Mélisande, Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette, and Janek in The Makropulos
Case (debut, 1996).
career highlights He appeared in the U.S. premiere of Henze’s Phaedra at the Opera
Company of Philadelphia and the world premieres of Christopher Theofanidis’s Heart of
a Soldier at the San Francisco Opera and Daron Hagen’s Amelia at the Seattle Opera. He
has also performed with the Paris Opera, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Houston Grand
Opera, and at La Scala.

Iestyn Davies
countertenor (york , england)

this season Trinculo in The Tempest at the Met; Daniel in Handel’s Belshazzar with Les
Arts Florissants in Madrid, London, and Paris; recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall; a concert
appearance with the New York Philharmonic; Didymus in Handel’s Theodora in Quebec;
and Britten’s The Canticles at the Aldeburgh Festival.
met appearances Unulfo in Rodelinda (debut, 2011).
career highlights Operatic engagements include Eustazio in Rinaldo at Lyric Opera of
Chicago, Ottone in L’Incoronazione di Poppea in Zurich and with the Glyndebourne
Festival Opera, Arsace in Partenope for New York City Opera, Oberon in A Midsummer
Night’s Dream with Houston Grand Opera and English National Opera, Apollo in Death
in Venice with English National Opera and at La Scala, Hamor in Handel’s Jephtha with
Welsh National Opera, and Creonte in Agostino Steffani’s Niobe, Regina di Tebe at Covent
Garden. He is a regular recitalist at London’s Wigmore Hall and has appeared in concert
with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Britten Sinfonia,
Concerto Köln, Concerto Copenhagen, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and
Academy of Ancient Music.

48
 Simon Keenlyside
baritone (london, england)

this season Prospero in The Tempest at the Met, Rodrigo in Don Carlo at the Vienna
State Opera, the title role in a concert performance of Wozzeck at Lincoln Center with the
Philharmonia Orchestra, the title role of Eugene Onegin and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte
at Covent Garden, Wozzeck with the Vienna State Opera and in Madrid, and Germont in
La Traviata with Munich’s Bavarian State Opera.
met appearances The title role of Hamlet, Rodrigo, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro,
Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore (debut, 1996), Olivier in Capriccio, Marcello in La Bohème, and
Papageno.
career highlights The title role of Billy Budd, Prospero (world premiere) and Hamlet at
Covent Garden, Rodrigo and Don Giovanni at the Vienna State Opera, Count Almaviva
at La Scala, Wozzeck in Paris, Papageno at the Salzburg Festival, and Pelléas in Pelléas et
Mélisande in Geneva, Paris, Salzburg, Berlin, and London.

Alan Oke
tenor (surrey, england)

this season Caliban in The Tempest at the Met, Hiereus/the Translator in Birtwistle’s The
Minotaur at Covent Garden, and Prince/Manservant/Marquis in Lulu and the Schoolteacher
in The Cunning Little Vixen for Welsh National Opera.
met appearances The Four Servants in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Gandhi in Satyagraha
(debut, 2008), Vitek in The Makropulos Case, Tchekalinsky in The Queen of Spades, and
Monostatos in The Magic Flute.
career highlights Recent performances include Aschenbach in Death in Venice at the
Lyon Opera and the Aldeburgh and Bregenz festivals; Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro
at the Glyndebourne Festival; Tinca in Il Tabarro, Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi, and the
Dancing Master in Ariadne auf Naxos at Covent Garden; Bob Boles in Peter Grimes for
Opera North; and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Following
a career as a baritone, he made his debut as a tenor as Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos with
Garsington Opera.

49
 The Cast and Creative Team CONTINUED

Alek Shrader
tenor (cleveland, ohio)

this season Ferdinand in The Tempest for his debut and Count Almaviva in The Barber of
Seville at the Met, Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola in Hamburg, Ernesto in Don Pasquale at
the Glyndebourne Festival, and a recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.
career highlights Recent performances include Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress in
Lille, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with Lyric Opera of Chicago, the title role of Britten’s
Albert Herring with the Los Angeles Opera and Santa Fe Opera, Oronte in Handel’s
Alcina in Bordeaux, Tamino at the San Francisco Opera, and Gonzalve in Ravel’s L’Heure
Espagnole at the Glyndebourne Festival. He has also sung the title role of Bernstein’s
Candide in concert with the Los Angeles Orchestra, Egeo in Giovanni Simon Mayr’s
Medea in Corinto with Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, and Ferrando in Così fan tutte at
the Salzburg Festival. He was a 2007 winner of the Met’s Grand Finals Concert.

Toby Spence
tenor (hertford, england)

this season Antonio in The Tempest at the Met, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at the Vienna
State Opera, and Essex in Britten’s Gloriana at Covent Garden.
met appearances Laërte in Hamlet (debut, 2010).
career highlights At Covent Garden he has sung Ferdinand in The Tempest, David in
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Ramiro in La
Cenerentola, and Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress. With English National Opera
he has sung Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, the title role of Bernstein’s Candide, Paris in
Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène, and Lenski in Eugene Onegin. He has also sung at the Paris
Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Hamburg State Opera,
San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. He was the 2012
winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Singer of the Year Award.

WORKSHOP PERFORMERS Geneviève Bérubé, Nicolas Bouchard Bellemare,

Katherine Cowie, François Isabelle, Marco Morin, Katrine Patry,
Jacinthe Pauzé-Boisvert, Francis Roberge, Wellesley Robertson, Eric Robidoux,
Lila-Mae G. Talbot, Martin Vaillancourt

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