The isle is full of noises : Symphony #2

A shoddy and distracted duke, Prospero should not have been altogether shocked when his throne was usurped by one more interested in ruling. But as it happens Prospero was enraged—and has become only moreso in the dozen years since. Deposed, deported, deprived of his wealth, power, and home, he has survived on a diet of vengeful scheming. As those designs spiral into the tempest for which Shakespeare’s play is named, we begin.

I. The enchanter's plot
From the island of his exile, Prospero summons all his magic. Decades of single-minded study have yielded enormous and devastating power: he weaves weather, loss, betrayal, and the tide into a brutal braid, a storm that shipwrecks the men who conspired in his downfall.

II. Suffer a sea change
The atmosphere is calmed, but interior tempests surge. With the instruments of his exile at his mercy at last, Prospero toys with his captives. He channels each one’s worst fears and fatal weaknesses into torrents of torment and temptation. The sorcerer’s manipulations transform them all, not least Prospero himself, as vengeance scars the avenger.

III. Rough magic
His return secured and his rule regained, Prospero relinquishes his magic in a final flourish—only to find that the fruits of his plot are not enough. A hunger remains: He pleads for, then demands, our adoration as well. As the depth of this need is revealed, his desperation grows. In the end, the things we feed may swallow us.

"The isle is full of noises" was commissioned and premiered on January 24, 2026 by Blasorchester Stadtmusik Luzern, conducted by Hervé Grélat