Ballet

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Frederick Ashton / David Dawson

The best of both worlds – Two highlights oft he repertoire are brought to stage: the one-act »The Dream«, danced with graceful ease, humorous and at times reminiscent of the romantic ballet tradition, and its counterpart »The Four Seasons«, a contemporary reading of neoclassical ballet, touching and rich with connotations.

Both choreographers – Frederick Ashton in his adaptation of Shakespeare’s »A Midsummer Night’s Dream« and David Dawson with his interpretation of Vivaldi’s »Four Seasons« – have created timeless dance pieces. The Staatskapelle Dresden and the Semperoper Ballett work together congenially, bringing Oberon, Titania and Puck to the stage with great humor and then transforming Max Richter’s new composition of Vivaldi’s »Four Seasons« (2012) into flowing movement.

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.

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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.
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