Shakespeare’s The Tempest
Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s recent performance of The Tempest at QPAC’s Concert Hall was a spellbinding encounter between music and theatre, a tempestuous storm of sound and story that left the audience enthralled. Featuring the great John Bell—Australia’s Shakespearean patriarch—at the helm of the narrative, and the impassioned Umberto Clerici conducting, this production was nothing short of sublime.
The evening opened with Arthur Honegger’s Prelude to The Tempest, a ferocious musical seascape that plunged us straight into the play’s stormy beginning. The strings attacked their lines with intensity, evoking the chaos of waves crashing against a ship in distress. Piercing brass and swirling woodwinds suggested whistling gales, while the percussion section created a tangible sense of turbulence. Honegger’s composition conjured elemental violence, and under Clerici’s direction, the orchestra summoned it with clarity and force. It perfectly evoked the storm that opens the play’s narrative.
Following this, selections from Jean Sibelius’ The Tempest provided a contrasting emotional palette. Sibelius' music—refined, lyrical, and often haunting—offered moments of stillness, magic, and melancholy. The delicacy of the harp shimmered in passages representing Ariel, while the muted strings painted Caliban’s eerie, music-haunted world. There was a profound tenderness in the winds during Prospero’s more contemplative moments, allowing us to feel the weight of exile and forgiveness. These pieces captured the play’s otherworldly beauty and inner emotional life with astonishing nuance.
Associated with a 17th Century semi-opera adaptation of Shakespeare's play, Henry Purcell’s The Tempest Overture, with its stately rhythms and baroque elegance, added historical depth and textural variety. It was a joy to hear this gem interpreted so crisply and we found ourselves tapping our feet and bopping our heads to its exuberant beats.
The night culminated in Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest (Burya), a sweeping fantasy-overture that encapsulated the entire narrative arc in dramatic, cinematic fashion. Here, the full might of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra was on display. The stormy grandeur of the opening returned with renewed force, before giving way to lush romantic themes that soared and swelled with operatic richness. Romantic cellos and violas brought warmth to the love story of Miranda and Ferdinand, while the brass lent Prospero’s final renunciations a noble gravitas. Clerici drew out both the drama and the lyricism, guiding the musicians through Tchaikovsky’s shifting moods with flair and precision.
Threaded through all this was John Bell’s magisterial narration. Imbuing each word with meaning, he anchored the music to Shakespeare’s text, giving the story emotional clarity and literary depth. His delivery was expressive and deeply felt—each character, each soliloquy, each sudden turn in the tale brought vividly to life through gorgeous vocal tone, rhythm, and gesture. To witness Bell perform Shakespeare was an honour and to hear him do so against the backdrop of a world-class orchestra felt truly momentous.
This unforgettable collaboration was more than the sum of its parts—it was a masterful intertwining of spoken word and symphonic power. As an experience, it deepened our appreciation of both Shakespeare and orchestral music, drawing out connections between language, character, and sound in ways that were moving, revelatory, and thoroughly entertaining. Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Umberto Clerici, and John Bell have together created a version of The Tempest that will linger long in my memory: it was a storm well worth being caught in!
Kitty Goodall
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