''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.

History

''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', Balanchine's first completely original full-length ballet, premiered at

New York City Ballet 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' ...

on 17 January 1962, with

Edward Villella Edward Villella (born October 1, 1936) is an American ballet dancer and choreographer. He is frequently cited as America's most celebrated male dancer of ballet at the time. He has won numerous awards, including the Daytime Emmy Award for Out ...

in the role of

Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairi ...

, 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.

Description

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''. The ballet employs a large children's corps de ballet. 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 The David H. Koch Theater is a theater for ballet, modern and other forms of dance, part of the Lincoln Center, at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Originally ...

in April, 1964.''A Midsummer Night's Dream''.
Retrieved 14 October 2008.

Videography

A 1966 performance was filmed and released the following year. It featured

Suzanne Farrell Suzanne Farrell (born August 16, 1945) is an American ballerina and the founder of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Farrell began her ballet training at the age of eight. In 1960, she received a scholarship ...

, Arthur Mitchell and Gloria Govrin. A performance in 1986 was filmed as a part of ''

Live from Lincoln Center ''Live from Lincoln Center'' is a seventeen-time Emmy Award-winning series that has broadcast notable performances from the Lincoln Center in New York City on PBS since 1976. The program airs between six and nine times per season. Episodes of '' ...

''. The Lincoln Center released the video online in light of the impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on the performing arts. In 1999, a

Pacific Northwest Ballet Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) is a ballet company based in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. It is said to have the highest per capita attendance in the United States, with 11,000 subscribers in 2004. The company consists of 49 dan ...

performance at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London was filmed and released as a DVD. The

Paris Opera Ballet The Paris Opera Ballet () is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera. It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it. It is still regarded a ...

also released a recording of a performance during the 2019-20

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

, which featured

Eleonora Abbagnato Eleonora Abbagnato (; born 30 June 1978) is an Italian ballet dancer, model, and actress. Between 2013 and 2021 she was Étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet. Early life and education Born in Palermo, Abbagnato started dancing at 4 years old ...

, Laëtitia Pujol, Alice Renavand, Stéphane Bullion, Hugo Marchand and Karl Paquette. When the coronavirus pandemic cut short the

San Francisco Ballet San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Fra ...

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.

Casts

Other versions

* Frederick Ashton ('' The Dream'') * Christopher Wheeldon * Bruce Wells on the Boston Ballet * Ib Andersen on Ballet Arizona * David Nixon on BalletMet Columbus *

John Neumeier John Neumeier (born February 24, 1939) is an American ballet dancer, choreographer, and director. He has been the director and chief choreographer of Hamburg Ballet since 1973. Five years later he founded the Hamburg Ballet School, which also in ...

on the Hamburg Ballet * François Klaus on the Queensland Ballet *

Heinz Spoerli Heinz Spoerli (born 8 July 1940) is a Swiss dance maker, internationally known. After a long career as a ballet dancer and company director, he is now widely considered to be one of the foremost European choreographers of his time. Early life and ...

on Basel Ballet, Rhine Opera Ballet, and Zurich Ballet *

Lourdes Lopez Lourdes Lopez (born 1958) is a Cuban-American ballet company artistic director of Miami City Ballet and former principal dancer of New York City Ballet. She is also a member of the board of trustees of the Ford Foundation. Miami City Ballet is th ...

Miami City Ballet Miami City Ballet is an American ballet company based in Miami Beach, Florida, led by artistic director Lourdes Lopez. MCB was founded in 1985 by Toby Lerner Ansin, a Miami philanthropist. Ansin and the founding board hired Edward Villella, ...

* John Clifford on (The Portland Ballet) *Liam Scarlett on The Royal New Zealand Ballet

References

External links

A Midsummer Night's Dream
on the website of the Balanchine Trust
Excerpts performed by San Francisco BalletExcerpts performed by Pacific Northwest BalletTiler Peck on ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Midsummer Night's Dream ballet Ballets by George Balanchine Ballets to the music of Felix Mendelssohn Ballets based on A Midsummer Night's Dream New York City Ballet repertory 1964 ballet premieres