A Midsummer Night's Dream is a two-act ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Felix Mendelssohn's music to Shakespeare's play of the same name.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a two-act ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Felix Mendelssohn's music to Shakespeare's play of the same name.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Balanchine's first completely original full-length ballet, premiered at New York City Ballet on 17 January 1962, [1] [2] with Edward Villella in the role of Oberon, Melissa Hayden in the role of Titania, and Arthur Mitchell in the role of Puck. They were joined by Francisco Moncion in the role of Theseus- Duke of Athens. [3]
In addition to the incidental music, Balanchine incorporated other Mendelssohn works into the ballet, including the Overtures to Athalie, Son and Stranger , and The Fair Melusine, the "String Symphony No. 9 in C minor" and The First Walpurgis Night . [1]
The ballet employs a large children's corps de ballet. [4] Act I tells Shakespeare's familiar story of lovers and fairies while Act II presents a strictly classical dance wedding celebration. The ballet dispenses with Shakespeare's play-within-a-play finale. A Midsummer Night's Dream opened The New York City Ballet's first season at the New York State Theater in April, 1964. [1]
A 1966 performance was filmed and released the following year. It featured Suzanne Farrell, Edward Villella, Arthur Mitchell and Gloria Govrin. [5]
A performance in 1986 was filmed as a part of Live from Lincoln Center . The Lincoln Center released the video online in light of the impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on the performing arts. [6]
In 1999, a Pacific Northwest Ballet performance at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London was filmed and released as a DVD. [7]
The Paris Opera Ballet also released a recording of a performance during the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic , which featured Eleonora Abbagnato, Laëtitia Pujol, Alice Renavand, Stéphane Bullion, Hugo Marchand and Karl Paquette. [8]
When the coronavirus pandemic cut short the San Francisco Ballet 2020 performance to just its opening night on March 6, it was subsequently recorded in an empty War Memorial Opera House shortly after its opening and released as part of the all-digital 2021 season. [9] [10]
| Roles | World premiere (1962) [11] | 1966 filmed version [5] | 1986 filmed version [6] | Paris Opera Ballet premiere (2017) [12] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titania | Melissa Hayden | Suzanne Farrell | Maria Calegari | Eleonora Abbagnato |
| Oberon | Edward Villella | Ib Andersen | Paul Marque | |
| Puck | Arthur Mitchell | Jean-Pierre Frohlich | Hugo Vigliotti | |
| Hippolyta | Gloria Govrin | Victoria Hall | Alice Renavand | |
| Theseus - Duke of Athens | Francisco Moncion | Cornel Crabtree | Florian Magnenet | |
| Titania's cavalier | Conrad Ludlow | Jock Soto | Stéphane Bullion | |
| Helena | Jillana | Stephanie Saland | Fanny Gorse | |
| Demetrius | Bill Carter | Peter Frame | Audric Bezard | |
| Hermia | Patricia McBride | Judith Fugate | Laëtitia Pujol | |
| Lysander - Beloved of Hermia | Nicholas Magallanes | Kypling Houston | Alessio Carbone | |
| Butterfly | Suki Schorer | Katrina Killian | Muriel Zusperreguy | |
| divertissement | Violette Verdy Conrad Ludlow | Merrill Ashley Adam Lüders | Sae Eun Park Karl Paquette | |
[ further explanation needed ][ citation needed ]
The mechanicals are six characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream who perform the play-within-a-play Pyramus and Thisbe. They are a group of amateur and mostly incompetent actors from around Athens, looking to make names for themselves by having their production chosen among several acts as the courtly entertainment for the royal wedding party of Theseus and Hippolyta. The servant-spirit Puck describes them as "rude mechanicals" in Act III, Scene 2 of the play, in reference to their occupations as skilled manual laborers.
George Balanchine was a Georgian American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th-century. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its artistic director for more than 35 years. His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical music.
New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's first music director. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.
The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The school trains students from the age of six, with professional vocational ballet training for students aged 11–18. Graduates of the school achieve employment with leading ballet companies worldwide, and in the United States with New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Houston Ballet.
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