Ballet evening in two parts
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare / Music by Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, newly composed by Max Richter
Premiere
10. March 2018,
No further performances in the current season.
Premiere cast
- Conductor Martin Yates, Benjamin Pope
- Choir Jonathan Becker
- Dramaturgy Juliane Schunke
- Choreography Sir Frederick Ashton
- Music Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
- Set and Costume Design David Walker
- Lighting Design John B. Read
- Production and staging Patricia Tierney
- Erste Elfe Sofia Savenko, Ofeliya Pogosyan
- Zweite Elfe Fernanda Allande
- Titania Alina Cojocaru, Ilaria Ghironi, Chiara Scarrone, Kanako Fujimoto
- Oberon Václav Lamparter, Denis Veginy, Lamin Pereira, Skyler Maxey-Wert
- Puck Francisco Sebastião, Jón Vallejo, Alejandro Azorín, Marco Giombelli
- Bottom Vincenzo Mola, Joseph Gray, Lorenzo Alberti
- Helena Rebecca Haw, Susanna Santoro
- Demetrius Casey Ouzounis, Kristóf Kovács
- Hermia Madison Whiteley, Lilliana Hagerman
- Lysander Richard House, Moisés Carrada Palmeros
- Choreography, Concept, Libretto and Staging David Dawson
- Music Max Richter
- Solovioline Simos Papanas, Matthias Wollong
- Set Design Eno Henze
- Costume Design Yumiko Takeshima
- Lighting Design Bert Dalhuysen
- Staged by Raphaël Coumes-Marquet, Rebecca Gladstone
- Solopartien Julian Amir Lacey, Courtney Richardson, Zarina Stahnke, Jón Vallejo, Alejandro Azorín, Kanako Fujimoto, Svetlana Gileva, Johannes Goldbach, Richard House, Duosi Zhu
Sinfoniechor Dresden – Extrachor der Semperoper Dresden
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
Generously supported by the Semperoper Foundation
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Stücktrailer
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The ballet evening Ein Sommernachtstraum brings together two classic works, namely William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Frederick Ashton’s adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from 1964, featuring a highly virtuosic physical vocabulary and humorous narrative, has become a milestone in balletic interpretations of Shakespeare. It provides a somewhat intimidating opportunity for any ballet company to prove its technical expertise. While Ashton’s work is very specifically located in a busy forest during the Biedermeier era, the British choreographer David Dawson was inspired by Max Richter’s reinterpretation of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” (2012) to create an abstract piece about the cycle of life. A neoclassical ballet develops within the spare, beguilingly beautiful stage space of Eno Henze. The focus is on man, on stillness as well as the movement of continual change, exposed to the most diverse moments of perception and energy, alternating between life and death. The Four Seasons premiered at the Semperoper in 2018.
Making-of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Making-of (3)
Making-of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Making-of (2)
Principal Anna Merkulova rehearsing in the ballet studio.
Making-of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Making-of (1)
Julian Amir Lacey and Alice Mariani rehearsing The Four Seasons in the ballet studio.
Gallery
