The Tempest

By: William Shakespeare

Narrated by: Barry Morse, Sonja Lanzener, Paul Sparer, Ira Burton, John Glover, Brian Murray, Nicholas Kepros, Susan Osborn Mott, Pat Terry

In The Tempest, long considered one of Shakespeare’s most lyrical plays, Prospero, a sorcerer, and his daughter, Miranda, have been stranded on an enchanted island for 12 years. When a shipwreck—caused by the eponymous tempest—brings enemies to the island, the stage is set for comedy, romance, and reconciliation.

The Tempest embodies both seemingly timeless romance and the historically specific moment in which Europe began to explore and conquer the New World. Its poetic beauty, complexity of thought, range of characters—from the spirit Ariel and the monster Caliban to the beautiful Miranda and her prince Ferdinand—and exploration of difficult questions that still haunt us today make this play wonderfully compelling.

Public Domain (P)2002 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

A Wonderful Play

Short sweet, one of Shakespeare's straight forward plays. A wizard creates a tempest, trapping Italy royals that did him wrong prior. The story unfolds where instead of vengeance the wizards finds a new life with the audience left to applaud and decide his last fate. If this interests you or you are new to Shakespeare's give this a try as it is short and sweet.

Good performance but...it's Shakespeare

Ok. this is only my second contact with Shakespeare - apart from Romeo & Juliet that is - and it sounds a fairly lot like nonsense, probably mostly because of the old Englush, most plays have that characteristic when they are classics. I was curious because it was mentioned in Ready Player One.

The recording and narration is very good, though it is also not new, very well acted, that I cannot fault.

As for the plot....it is quite confusing, but I got the gist, and it was fun to listen to. The conclusion sort of reveals what happens, that was the easiest to get.

The monologues and songs can be quite beautiful. And I guess there is a lesson here somewhere but I'd have to listen to this a few times and even then who knows if I could fully grasp it.

Enjoyable listen

This was a fun one and makes you feel like you are there if you have imagination.

A strange, audio, off tune

Some of the characters were performed extremely well yet others were not performed as well. Further, the voices of one of the characters spoke with her sound filtered in a way that did not sound good.
Sometimes some of the music was good but most times it was not

Not for me.

I found certain voice actors nearly impossible to understand having not read The Tempest before. To each their own.