Rewriting Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century: Musicality in The Tempest

My first reaction in hearing about The Tempest as an opera is similar to my reaction to hearing about Spiderman the musical: something close to confusion. Isn’t Shakespeare

Considered a straight play? What would prompt someone to suggest including music in Shakespeare?

But in The Music of Shadwell’s “Tempest” by William Barclay Squire, he points out that many of the songs, like Full Fathom Five, Come unto these yellow sands, and The master, the swabber, the gunner and I, come directly form Shakespeare’s work. Most of the words even come from lines intended to be songs

Come unto these yellow sands,

And then take hands.

Curtsied when you have and kissed, the wild waves whist,

Foot it featly here and there;

And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.

Hark, Hark!

(1.2.375-382)

So why were “musicals” or operas being created, if Shakespeare had already included some songs?

At least some of the fascination with the operatic version would have come from Charles II. Coming to England after spending years in France where operas were more popular, Charles II may have also brought his preferences from some parts of French culture. Dryden even mentions in his prologue “We have machines to some perfection brought, And above 30 Warblying voycs gott,” referring a men’s chorus gathered and used due to Charles II’s influence.

Also, Thomas Shadwell was able to work with composers who wrote down their music. In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, there is not a known tune for Ariel’s songs or Stephano’s sea chantys, so we don’t really know how “musical-like” the songs were. There may not have been actually tunes much beyond the lyrical qualities of the poems or there could have been well-known tunes to go with them. Shadwell’s songs, though, are able to be reproduced because the sheet music of the composers he worked with, like Pelham Humphrey, still exist today. It seems like songs are less noticeable when each new production of the play incorporates different tunes and focuses more on the words and action. When the tunes are able to be reproduced, like Shadwell’s, a play is more easily categorized as an opera.