Thomas Adès, The Tempest (2004)

Had to see this, for sure. Amazingly enough, according to the backstage Met discussion, it's had no less than eight different productions--a staggering number for a contemporary opera, and given that that was 2012, there may well have been more by now. This seems to be a very popular opera. There have been a number of Tempest-operas over the years, but none of the others have really caught on, so this has probably become the definitive operatic Tempest.

The Tempest. You know what it's about, I know what it's about, all the Gods of Heaven and Earth know what it's about. The plot here is just about identical to the play, give or take. The music is recognizably by the Exterminating Angel guy, albeit with more conventional orchestration. The libretto is...well, obviously it would be a pretty heavy lift to try to cram the Shakespearean dialogue in here (though come to think of it, this appears to be the first Shakespeare opera I've seen, not counting The Enchanted Island, so I don't know how the others handle it), so things are kind of pared down. It's mostly okay--at least it doesn't have the issue of bathetically prosaic dialogue being sung--though there are quite a few rhyming couplets that come across as a bit silly. Eg: "Try to understand/This is Ferdinand" or "We were sunk/I was drunk." It is what it is.

It's a gaudy Met production by Robert Lepage, which works fine. It supposedly takes place in La Scala in the nineteenth century, but that's a kind of vague, obscure thing that doesn't come across particularly well. Everyone's in very eye-catching costumes, notably Prospero (Simon Keenlyside, who created the role), who is covered with all kinds of fancy tattoos--did he get them when he was duke? Seems like it would be hard to get them after, but I don't know; maybe he just used magic. You've also got Isabel Leonard as a predictably radiant Miranda and Kevin Burdette and Iestyn Davies amusing as the scheming Stefano and Trinculo respectively.

One must make special note of, again, Audrey Luna as Ariel. If she sometimes had to hit those inhumanly high notes in The Exterminating Angel,she has to spend most of her time there here--which I suppose is appropriate for a literally inhuman character. It sort of drove me crazy at first, but I don't know: it may not be the most pleasing to the ears, but I feel like it works as spectacle: given the shrieking combined with her costume and make up, she comes across as extremely deranged, which is certainly a valid conception of the character. I did not have a problem with it.

Thing is, though, I have to admit, in spite of the high praise that this has received all around, I found it a little bit boring. Maybe it's just over-familiarity with the source material, but honestly, I'm really not much of a fan of the original story (in a world where The Enchanted Island exists, I'm not sure I ever need to revisit the original version).  It fails to excite, and I feel that this lacked the memorable moments that we'd see in Adès' subsequent opera. And although I accept that you have to do something to make the dialogue manageable, I'm not at all certain what's been done here is as effective as you'd hope.