It was first performed in 1610/1611 in Blackfriars Theatre.
Blackfriars was new reclaimed by the Kings men, it was an indoor theatre and they used it as their winter counterpart to the Globe, an outdoor theatre.
Performance Space
Blackfriars and the stage space was half the size of the Globe although set out the same, with a thrust platform, galleries on the three see walls, doors at the rear and musicians gallery above.
One of the privileges for fashionable men - gallants - which made the stage space smaller was the fact they would pay a lot of be able to sit at the sides of stage to be able to show off their fashion/wealth to the rest of the audience.
Shakespeare responded to the smaller stage by writing fewer lines between the characters entering and being in earshot of other characters already on stage, since it would take an actor less time to move from the door to a position of front of stage.
Asides to the audience had to be made more obvious because of the smaller stage, often having the actors moving to the musicians gallery which dramatically altered the structural entity of the play.
Clothing
The audience could arrive and show off their finest clothes since they didn't need to dress practically for an outdoor theatre.
Candles were the primary light source for Blackfriars which meant that choices of clothes were made with this in mind. Francis Bacon in his essay 'Of Masques and Triumphs' informs his readership that 'The colours, that shew best by Candle-light are; White Carnation and a Kindle of Sea-Water-Greene; and Oes, or Sprangs' which shows how the audience would of made conscious decisions on what best to wear based on surroundings.
It can be read that Shakespeare mocks this vanity in Act 4 when Prospero puts out his trap of beautiful clothes for the fools Trinculo and Stephano. They are distracted by the 'glistering apparel' much as many of the audiences clothes would of glistered in the candle light.
Sounds
Obviously and indoor theatre would of sounded very different to a outdoor theatre.
Therefore there was more scope to use music which was more likely to be heard in the indoor theatre of Blackfriars rather than an outdoor theatre. This was also due to changes in light, the early candles were made of beeswax which needed trimming every half hour and a break was required to do so.
Therefore the five-act structure common to Jacobean plays became full established - with four intervals in which music could be played and candles trimmed.
In the indoor theatre an whisper would of been audible even in the galleries therefore their was more range for actors on vocal tone, rather than having to shout all the time.
There was difference in instruments used in an indoor theatre, since much softer and lighter sounding instruments could be used without fear they would be drowned out, like lutes. Louder sounding instruments like trumpets were not likely to be used as they would be too powerful for the acoustical intense space, instead they were replaced with hautboys and cornets.
The musicians were visible by the audience, being in the gallery above the stage, meant they became a integral part of the performance. This is shown in the Tempest for the fact the music doesn't just exclude itself to the intervals instead being intwined with the play. Ariel haunting song to Ferdinand, how Caliban describes the island strange sounds, the music in which many characters are controlled by.
The music is both harmonious and chaotic. The early sounds of thunder in the first scene made by rolling a cannonball down a lead pipe and the dogs and hunters that drive Stephano, Trinculo and Caliban off stage to the 'sweet airs' descried by Caliban and the magical music sung by Ariel.
Stage Trickery
A Blackfriars performance could of been made into a 'sheer spectacle'.
This is especially shown in the Tempest when the banquet vanishes in fromt of the Lords eyes to be replaced with Ariel as a harpy. The stage direction instructs the use of a 'quaint device' which could be imagined to be the 'sudden snuffing of candles and the tables rapid decent into the stage trap.'
The entrance of Juno in the wedding masque for Miranda and Ferdinand might of been a chair descending from the ceiling which would not of been possible in the Globe.
The Tempest is believed to be the first to capitalise on the possibilities of the new indoor theatre of Blackfriars, although it continues to leave space for staging to be explored for each new performance space.
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