The Tempest is a play written by William Shakespeare. Although listed as a comedy in the first Folio, many modern editors have relabelled the play a romance. At the time that it was written it did not attract a significant amount of attention and was to some extent ignored.

Sources
The earliest recorded performance of The Tempest occurred on November 1, 1611 at Whitehall Palace in London. It was one of the eight Shakespearean plays acted at Court during the winter of 1612-13, as part of the festivities surrounding the marriage of Princess Elizabeth with Frederick V, the Elector of the Palatine in the Rhineland. There is no public performance recorded prior to the Restoration; but in his preface to the 1667 Dryden/Davenant version (see below), Sir William Davenant states that The Tempest had been performed at the Blackfriars Theatre.

Performance
Prospero means 'good fortune'
This name is a derivation from the visigothic 'Gundisalvus' or 'Gonzalvus'
The name is suggestive of "Carib(be)an," and – given looser, 17th century spelling – an anagram of "cannibal," both of which come from the same word. Both implications suggest he is representative of the natives of the "new world."
The name is linked to the Italian verb "to drink"; appropriate as he is one of the two drunkards of the play.
"Stephan" means "crown" in Greek.
Her name suggests, literally, a "vision."
The name is certainly suggestive of the "air" element, directly opposing the character to Caliban, who is called "thou earth" by Prospero. In Hebrew the name means "lion of God".
the name includes the Latin for "raven", with which she is frequently linked in the play.
These are the names of Roman Goddesses, apart from Iris who is Greek. Iris was a messenger represented by a rainbow, Ceres was the goddess of growing plants and motherly love and Juno was the Queen of the Heavens.

Alonso, King of Naples
Sebastian, Alonso's brother
Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan and the story's protagonist
Antonio, his brother, the usurping Duke of Milan
Ferdinand, son of the King of Naples (Alonso)
Gonzalo, an honest, optimistic old councilor who gave Prospero food, water, and books.
Adrian and Francisco, lords
Caliban, deformed slave of Prospero and son of Sycorax
Trinculo, a jester
Stephano, a drunken butler (sometimes Stefano)
Miranda, daughter of Prospero, often called "a wonder"
Ariel, an airy spirit
Boatswain
Sycorax, witch and mother of Caliban (but does not appear in the play)
Iris, Ceres and Juno, spirits List of characters
The sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda, have been stranded for twelve years on an island, after Prospero's jealous brother Antonio—helped by Alonso, the King of Naples—deposed him and set him adrift with the three-year-old Miranda. Prospero secretly sought the help of Gonzalo and their small and shoddy boat had secretly been upgraded to be more than sea worthy, it had been supplied with plenty of food and water, it had an excellent library and contained surviving material in case the boat capsized. Possessed of magic powers due to his great learning and prodigious library, Prospero is reluctantly served by a spirit, Ariel whom he had rescued from imprisonment in a tree. Ariel was trapped therein by the African witch Sycorax, who had been exiled to the island years before and died prior to Prospero's arrival; Prospero maintains Ariel's loyalty by repeatedly promising to release the "airy spirit" from servitude, but continually defers that promise to a future date, namely at the end of the play. The witch's son Caliban, a deformed monster and the only non-spiritual inhabitant before the arrival of Prospero, was initially adopted and raised by the Milanese sorcerer. He taught Prospero how to survive on the island, while Prospero and Miranda taught Caliban religion and their own language. Following Caliban's attempted rape of Miranda, he had been compelled by Prospero to serve as the sorcerer's slave, carrying wood and gathering pig nuts. In slavery Caliban has come to view Prospero as an usurper, and grown to resent the magician and his daughter, feeling that they have betrayed his trust. Prospero and Miranda in turn view Caliban with contempt and disgust.
The play opens as Prospero, having divined that his brother, Antonio, is on a ship passing close by the island (having returned from the nuptials of Alonso's daughter Claribel with the King of Tunis), has raised a storm (the tempest of the title) which causes the ship to run aground. Also on the ship are Antonio's friend and fellow conspirator, King Alonso, Alonso's brother Sebastian, Alonso's royal advisor Gonzalo, and Alonso's son, Ferdinand. Prospero, by his spells, contrives to separate the survivors of the wreck into several groups and Alonso and Ferdinand are separated, and believe one another dead.
Three plots then alternate through the play. In one, Caliban falls in love with Stephano and Trinculo, two drunken crew members, whom he believes to have come from the moon, and drunkenly attempts to raise a rebellion against Prospero (which ultimately fails). In another, Prospero works to establish a romantic relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda; the two fall immediately in love, but Prospero worries that "too light winning [may] make the prize light", and so compels Ferdinand to become his servant so that his affection for Miranda will be confirmed. He also decides that after his plan to exact vengeance on his betrayers has come to fruition, he will break and bury his staff, and "drown" his book of magic. In the third subplot, Antonio and Sebastian conspire to kill Alonso and his advisor Gonzalo, so that Sebastian can become King. They are thwarted by Ariel, at Prospero's command. Ariel appears to the three "men of sin" as a harpy, reprimanding them for their betrayal of Prospero. Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio are deeply affected while Gonzalo is unruffled. Prospero manipulates the course of his enemies' path through the island, drawing them closer and closer to him. In the conclusion, all the main characters are brought together before Prospero, who forgives Alonso (as well as his own brother's betrayal, and warns Antonio and Sebastian about further attempts at betrayal) and finally uses his magic to ensure that everyone returns to Italy.
Ariel (as his final task for Prospero) is charged to prepare the proper sailing weather to guide Alonso and his entourage back to the Royal fleet and then to Naples. Ariel is set free to the elements. Prospero pardons Caliban who is sent to prepare Prospero's cell, to which Alonso and his party are invited for a final night before their departure. Prospero indicates he intends to entertain them with the story of his life on the island. In his epilogue, Prospero invites the audience to set him free from the island by their applause.

Themes
The concept of usurping a monarch occurs frequently throughout the play: Antonio usurped Prospero; Caliban accuses Prospero of having usurped him upon the latter's arrival on the island; Sebastian plots to kill and overthrow his brother the King of Naples; Stephano has designs to depose Prospero and set himself up as "king o'the isle." As such, the play is simultaneously concerned with what constitutes virtuous kingship, presenting the audience with various possibilities. In the twentieth century, post-colonial literary critics were extremely interested in this aspect of the play, seeing Caliban as representative of the natives invaded and oppressed by imperialism.
The themes of political legitimacy, source of power, and usurpation arise in the second act as well. While Prospero firmly believed that the only legitimate power was the power that came from one's knowledge and hard work, Antonio believes that the power he usurped from his brother is legitimate, because he deserved it more and had the skill to wrestle it away. "Look how well my garments sit upon me, much feater than before," Antonio brags to Sebastian; Antonio's lack of remorse over his crime, and his arrogant claim that his power is just because he uses it better, foreshadow a confrontation with his brother Prospero, and an eventual fall from this ill-gained power.
Although Caliban asserted his natural authority over the island in Act 1, Prospero's usurpation of Caliban's power is negated by Caliban's portrayal as a savage seeking a new master. Caliban proves Prospero's view of him, as a natural servant, to be true, when Caliban immediately adopts Stephano as his new master upon Stephano's sudden appearance. Caliban, is seen as a "monster," not only by Prospero, but by Trinculo and Stephano also; modern interpretations cast their contempt for dark-skinned Caliban as analogous to Europeans' view of "natives" in the West Indies and other colonies, and Shakespeare's treatment of Caliban has come to provide some interesting social commentary on colonization although it is unlikely that Shakespeare's contemporary audiences viewed the character in this way and debatable as to the author's original intent. Caliban's actions and activities lend credence to the view that the original intent was for more of a thematic monster than an allegorical figure.

Kingships
The Tempest is overtly concerned with its own nature as a play, frequently drawing links between Prospero's Art and theatrical illusion. The shipwreck was a "spectacle" "performed" by Ariel; Antonio and Sebastian are "cast" in a "troop" to "act"; Miranda's eyelids are "fringed curtains". Prospero is even made to refer to the Globe Theatre when claiming the whole world is an illusion: "the great globe... shall dissolve... like this insubstantial pageant". Ariel frequently disguises herself as figures from Classical mythology, for example a nymph, a harpie and Ceres, and acts as these in a masque and anti-masque that Prospero creates.
Early critics saw this constant allusion to the theatre as an indication that Prospero was meant to represent Shakespeare; the character's renunciation of magic thus signalling Shakespeare's farewell to the stage. This theory has fallen into disfavour; but certainly The Tempest is interested in the way that, like Prospero's "Art", the theatre can be both an immoral occupation and yet morally transformative for its audience.

The theatre
Magic is a pivotal theme in the Tempest, as it is the device that holds the plot together. Prospero commands so much power in the play because of his ability to use magic and to control the spirit Ariel, and with magic, he creates the tempest itself, as well as controlling all the happenings on the island, eventually bringing all his old enemies to him to be reconciled. Magic is also used to create a lot of the imagery in the play, with scenes such as the masque, the opening scene, and the enchanting music of Ariel. It is also believed that magic may in fact refer to Shakespeare's writing, hence the "drown[ing]" of the magic book can be interpreted as Shakespeare retiring his play writing.

Magic
In Shakespeare's day, most of the world was still being "discovered", and stories were coming back from far off Islands, with myths about the Cannibals of the Caribbean, faraway Edens, and distant Tropical Utopias. With the character Caliban (whose name is roughly anagrammatic to Cannibal), Shakespeare may be offering an in-depth discussion into the morality of colonialism. Different views are discussed, with examples including Gonzalo's Utopia, Prospero's enslavement of Caliban and Caliban's resentment of this. Caliban is also shown as one of the most natural characters in the play, being very much in touch with the natural world (and modern audiences have come to view him as far nobler than his two Old World friends Stephano and Trinculo, although the original intent of the author may have been different). There is evidence that Shakespeare drew on Montaigne's essay Of the Cannibals, which discusses the values of societies insulated from European influences, while writing The Tempest.

Colonialism
See also Shakespeare on screen (The Tempest).
Sir William Davenant and John Dryden adapted a deeply cut version of The Tempest, "corrected" for Restoration audiences and adorned with music set by Matthew Locke, Giovanni Draghi, Pelham Humfrey, Pietro Reggio, James Hart and John Banister. Dryden's remarks, in the Preface to his opera Albion and Albanius give an indication of the struggle later 17th century critics had with the elusive masque-like character of a play that fit no preconceptions. Albion and Albinius was first conceived as a prologue to the adapted Shakespeare (in 1680), then extended into an entertainment on its own. In Dryden's view, The Tempest
"...is a tragedy mixed with opera, or a drama, written in blank verse, adorned with scenes, machines, songs, and dances, so that the fable of it is all spoken and acted by the best of the comedians... It cannot properly be called a play, because the action of it is supposed to be conducted sometimes by supernatural means, or magic; nor an opera, because the story of it is not sung." (Dryden, Preface to Albion and Albinius).
The Tempest has inspired numerous later works, including short poems such as "Caliban Upon Setebos" by Robert Browning, and the long poem The Sea and the Mirror by W. H. Auden. John Dryden and William D'Avenant adapted it for the Restoration stage, adding characters and plotlines and removing much of the play's "mythic resonance". The title of the novel Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley is also taken explicitly from Miranda's dialogue in this play:
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in't! (V.i.181-4)

Adaptations

The 1956 science-fiction film Forbidden Planet was inspired by the play, especially with regards to the motives (but not names) of several of the characters, but the story replaces Ariel with Robby the Robot and Caliban with a "monster from the id".
"Full Fathom Five," the title of the first regular episode of the famous police television series Hawaii Five-O, came from a song by Ariel in Act I, Scene 2. In the teaser of the episode, the villain recites an altered version of Ariel's song, beginning with "Full fathom five thy father lies..." except changed to "Full fathom five the widow lies..."
The 1969 Star Trek episode entitled "Requiem for Methuselah" was also inspired by the play.
A Midsummer Tempest, by Poul Anderson, taking place in a fantasy alternate history recounts a quest to recover Prospero's books for use in the English civil war.
This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart takes place on a Greek island, where one character hypothesizes the original inspiration for The Tempest came, and the novel is punctuated by many allusions to the play.
In 1979 British filmmaker Derek Jarman delivered a visually lush screen version of the play which plays upon horror and goth film traditions.
Also in 1979 animator George Dunning attempted a feature length animated version of The Tempest, but died before he could complete it.
Paul Mazursky's 1982 film Tempest and was an overt and admitted adaptation of the play with modern setting and characters. The film features John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Raul Julia, Susan Sarandon and Molly Ringwald.
In 1991, Peter Greenaway directed Prospero's Books, a film adaptation in which Prospero speaks all the lines.
A stage musical adaptation entitled Return to the Forbidden Planet ran in London in 1990, merging the plot of the film with more Shakespearean characters and dialogue.
In the early 1980s an Australian surf rock adaptation, Beach Blanket Tempest, was written by Dennis Watkins and Chris Harriott. It has been produced a number of times, mostly in Australia.
In the early 1980's, Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont introduced a character named Caliban, a deformed but kind-hearted mutant who fell hopelessly in love with the character Kitty Pryde, who had been known as Ariel.
The 1994 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Emergence", features Lieutenant Commander Data again working on his acting, portraying Prospero on the holodeck. Interestingly Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in The Next Generation, has performed as Prospero on stage.
In 1994 Garen Ewing wrote and illustrated a black-and-white comic strip adaptation of the story.
Also in 1994, Tad Williams published the novel Caliban's Hour in which Caliban tracks a now-grown Miranda to her home in Italy and insists on recounting his own version of events and exacting revenge. Notable for its sympathetic presentation of Caliban and its representation of Ariel as a fallen angel.
Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comic book series adapted The Tempest slightly in a 1996 epilogue, closing out the lead character's bargain with Shakespeare.
In the 1998 version of Fantasy Island, Mr. Roarke (Malcolm McDowell), was assisted by a number of residents of the island, including a shape-shifter named Ariel and another named Cal.
The Collector, by John Fowles, is a another novel written with inspiration from The Tempest. The major characters call themselves Caliban and Miranda, due to their relationship of oppression.
Joss Whedon's movie Serenity (2005) picked up many of the themes, and some of the names, of both Forbidden Planet and The Tempest, especially the exploration of the appropriate scope of control of other people.
Dan Simmons wrote a pair of novels, Ilium and Olympos, which, among other works of fiction, are heavily based on The Tempest. Prospero, Ariel, Miranda (Moira in the novels), Caliban, Setebos, and Sycorax all play important roles in the novels.
The Tempest has also been the frame for multiple social commentary plays including Aime Cesaire's Une Tempete and Philip Osment's This Island's Mine.
The video game Manhunt 2, to be released in the summer of 2007, is said to have many allusions to "The Tempest". The line "What seest thou else/In the dark backward and abysm of time?" can be heard spoken in the first teaser trailer. Popular culture adaptations
The longest Broadway run of the play is Margaret Webster's 1945 production starring Arnold Moss as Prospero and Canada Lee as Caliban. It ran for 100 performances.

The Tempest or, The Enchanted Island. By John Dryden and William Davenant. 1670
The Mock Tempest or the Enchanted Castle. By Thomase Duffet. 1675
The Tempest; An Opera. David Garrick. 1756
The Shipwreck. Anonymous. 1780
The Virgin Queen. Francis Godolphin Waldron. 1797
The Enchanted Isle. William and Robert Brough. 1848
Caliban. Ernest Renan. 1877
L'Eau de Jouvence. Ernest Renan. 1879
Une Tempête. Aimé Césaire. 1969
Tempest. Paul Mazursky. 1982.
This Island's Mine. Philip Osment. 1988
Return to the Forbidden Planet. Bob Carlton. Mid 1980s. A Rock musical. Originally billed as "Shakespeare's forgotten rock and roll masterpiece".
The Tempest. 5-Boyer, Timberlea. 2000
The Tempest.Peter Evans. 2006 Theatrical adaptations

In the year he died (1791), Mozart was considering writing an opera based on the play.
In 1821 Frederic Reynolds staged an operatic adaptation of The Tempest at Covent Garden, with music by Sir Henry Bishop.
Tchaikovsky wrote a fantasy overture inspired by The Tempest.
"Prospero's Speech", the final soliloquy by Prospero in The Tempest, is sung by Loreena McKennitt in her 1994 album, The Mask and Mirror.
Arthur Sullivan wrote incidental music for a production of the play in 1861. See The Tempest.
Jean Sibelius, as one of his last compositions, wrote incidental music for a production of the play. Two suites were published.
Swiss composer Frank Martin wrote an opera based on Schlegel's German translation of the play between 1952 and 1955.
In Sir Michael Tippett's opera The Knot Garden the characters enact a charade based on The Tempest.
Paul Chihara wrote the ballet "The Tempest", which was premiered by the San Francisco Ballet in 1980. The ballet is notable for being the first full-length American ballet.
Thomas Adès's opera, The Tempest, was written for the Royal Opera House in London and premiered in 2004. With a libretto by Meredith Oakes, the density of the original text was reduced to paired couplets. The opera was given its American premiere by the Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2006 and will be revived by the ROH in 2007.
Ronaldo Miranda's opera "A Tempestade", with a libretto by the composer himself, in Portuguese language, premiered on September 22, 2006 at the Theatro São Pedro in São Paulo.
Laurie Anderson's song Blue Lagoon, from the Mister Heartbreak album, quotes Ariel's Act I song "Full fathom five" almost in its entirety in telling the story of a woman shipwrecked on a deserted island.
Track 2 of The Decemberists' album The Crane Wife "The Island" appears to be a retelling of the story of The Tempest, with references to Sycorax's exile to the island, and the rape of a "Landlord's Daughter." [3]
The former band October Project recorded a song called "Ariel," which is a song in first person in the point of view of Ariel. Musical adaptations

John Gielgud called Prospero his favorite role, and played it in stage productions in 1931, 1940, 1957 and 1974 as well as the film Prospero's Books. He said that when he played it on stage, the only thing that he did consistently in all four theatre productions was never to look directly at Ariel. Notes

The Magic Flute - As The Tempest (c. 1611) dealt with virtuous kingship, more than a century & a half later Mozart & librettist Schikaneder were dealing with enlightened absolutism in The Magic Flute (1791).