A Midsummer Night's Dream
An opera in three acts (1960)
Libretto by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare
In English with German surtitles
World premiere in Aldeburgh on 11 June 1960, Jubilee Hall
She loves him and he loves her, she loves her and she loves him, but he loves her. This is how the turmoil of love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream begins. After a lot of back and forth, everyone seems to have found the right partner after all, haven’t they? Well, what happens in the forest stays in the forest …
Benjamin Britten’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream follows Shakespeare’s dramaturgy in a cleverly abridged form, adopting the language of the great master, with the exception of a single sentence added by Britten. Britten centres his focus on the fairy world of the forest, whose enchanting sound is transformed into music, giving space to unusual instrumentation: a countertenor as Oberon, a coloratura soprano as Tytania, and the children’s voices of the fairies.
The musical counterpart is made up with coarser tones by the theatrical craftsmen. The different soundscapes are also reflected in the orchestration, and so each world, that of the elves, the lovers, and the troupe of craftsmen, is embodied by its own specific instruments.
Director Bernd Mottl is no stranger to both the Schauspielhaus and the Oper Graz. Most recently, he and his team presented Nino Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze (The Florentine Hat) at the opera.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bernd Mottl focuses on the numerous varieties of love surrounding Hermia, Helena, Demetrius and Lysander, as well as Oberon and Tytania, and accompanies the lovers’ journey through their trials and tribulations to the final resolution. Not only do different forms of love play a leading role here, but also those of gender far beyond heteronormativity.
Age recommendation: 14+
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