Abstract
Since its first adaptation to the screen in Percy Stow’s 1908 silent movie,1 The Tempest has been shaped by the power of the cinematic medium by which directors have sought to visually investigate the play’s central issues and its interplay with different theatrical and literary forms. Thanks to its foregrounding of spectacle, which involves the insertion of “strange” and “soft music” (3.3.18, 58), “graceful dance[s]” (4.1.138) and songs, as well as a variety of allegorical personifications and elaborate disguises, this play has challenged the stage conventions of both court and civic royal performances produced at the time. Through the dramatisation of different forms of pageantry and its impressive visual and acoustic display, The Tempest discloses its theatrical potential and sets off magic urging the spectator, both on stage and off, to constantly make assumptions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Works cited
Anderegg, Michael (2004) Cinematic Shakespeare, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Bevington, David (1998) “The Tempest and the Jacobean Court Masque”, in David Bevington and Peter Holbrook (eds), The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 218–43.
Bigliazzi, Silvia (2002) Sull’esecuzione testuale. Dal testo letterario alla performance, Pisa: Edizioni ETS.
Burt, Richard and Boose, Lynda E. (eds) (2003) Shakespeare, the Movie, II: Popularizing the Plays on Film, TV, and DVD, New York and London: Routledge.
Collick, John (1989) Shakespeare, Cinema and Society, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Davies, Anthony and Wells, Stanley (eds) (1994) Shakespeare and the Moving Image: The Plays on Film and Television, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Demaray, John (1998) Shakespeare and the Spectacles of Strangeness: The Tempest and the Transformation of Renaissance Theatrical Forms, Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
Gilman, Ernest (1980) “‘All eyes’: Prospero’s Inverted Masque”, Renaissance Quarterly 33(2): 214–30.
Greenaway, Peter (1991) Prospero’s Books: A Film of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, London: Chatto & Windus.
Holderness, Graham (2002) Visual Shakespeare: Essays in Film and Television, Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press.
Hopkins, Lisa (2008) Screen Adaptations: Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, London: Methuen.
Lindley, David (1984) “Music, Masque and Meaning in The Tempest”, in David Lindley (ed.), The Court Masque, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 47–59.
Lindley, David (ed.) (2002) The Tempest, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lindley, David (2009) “Blackfriars, music and masque: theatrical contexts of the last plays”, in Catherine M.S. Alexander (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s Last Plays, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 29–45.
Jarman, Derek (1984) Dancing Ledge, London, Melbourne, and New York: Quartet Books.
Jorgens, J. Jack (1977) Shakespeare on Film, London and Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Jorgens, J. Jack (1979) “The BBC-TV Shakespeare Series”, Shakespeare Quarterly 30(3): 411–15.
Knowles, James (1999) “Insubstantial Pageants: The Tempest and Masquing Culture”, in Jennifer Richards and James Knowles (eds), Shakespeare’s Late Plays: New Readings, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 108–25.
Major, John M. (1959) “Comus and The Tempest”, Shakespeare Quarterly 10(2): 177–83.
McDonald, Russ (1991) “Reading The Tempest”, Shakespeare Survey 43: 15–28.
Magnusson, Lynne (1986) “Interruption in The Tempest”, Shakespeare Quarterly 37(1): 52–65.
Mason Vaughan, Virginia (2011) The Tempest (Shakespeare in Performance), Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Mullini, Roberta (1989) “‘A Most Majestic Vision’: il masque in The Tempest e The Tempest come masque”, in Mariangela Tempera (ed.), The Tempest. Dal testo alla scena, Bologna: Clueb, 21–41.
Pittman, L. Monique (2011) Authorizing Shakespeare on Film and Television: Gender, Class and Ethnicity, New York: Peter Lang.
Ravelhofer, Barbara (2010) “Dance”, in Julie Sanders (ed.), Ben Jonson in Context, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 171–80.
Rodgers, Marlene (2000) “Prospero’s Books — Word and Spectacle: An Interview with Peter Greenaway”, in Vernon Gras and Marguerite Gras (eds), Peter Greenaway: Interviews, Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 135–46.
Rothwell, Kenneth and Henkin Melzer, Annabelle (eds) (1990) Shakespeare On Screen: An International Filmography and Videography, New York and London: Neal-Schumann.
Vaughan, Alden T. and Mason Vaughan, Virginia (1991) Shakespeare’s Caliban: A Cultural History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wollen, Peter (2002) “The Last New Wave”, in Peter Wollen (ed.), Paris Hollywood: Writings on Film, London and New York: Verso, 164–82.
Willis, Susan (1991) The BBC Shakespeare Plays: Making the Televised Canon, Chapel Hill, NC and London: The University of North Carolina Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Eleonora Oggiano
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Oggiano, E. (2014). “This is a most majestic vision”: Performing Prospero’s Masque on Screen. In: Bigliazzi, S., Calvi, L. (eds) Revisiting The Tempest. Palgrave Shakespeare Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137333148_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137333148_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-46206-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-33314-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)