- Opera in 3 acts
- Composer: Benjamin Britten
- Libretto: Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, after Shakespeare
- First performed: Aldeburgh Festival, UK, 11th June 1960, conducted by Britten
Characters
| OBERON, King of the Fairies | Countertenor | Alfred Deller |
| TYTANIA, Queen of the Fairies | Coloratura soprano | Jennifer Vyvyan |
| PUCK | Speaking rôle | Leonide Massine II |
| COBWEB | Treble | Kevin Platts |
| MUSTARDSEED | Treble | Robert McCutcheon |
| MOTH | Treble | Barry Ferguson |
| PEASEBLOSSOM | Treble | Michael Bauer |
| LYSANDER | Tenor | George Maran |
| DEMETRIUS | Baritone | Thomas Hemsley |
| HERMIA, in love with Lysander | Mezzo-soprano | Marjorie Thomas |
| HELENA, in love with Demetrius | Soprano | April Cantelo |
| THESEUS, Duke of Athens | Bass | Forbes Robinson |
| HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons | Contralto | Johanna Peters |
| BOTTOM, a weaver (Pyramus) | Bass-baritone | Owen Brannigan |
| QUINCE, a carpenter (Director) | Bass | Norman Lumsden |
| FLUTE, a bellows-mender (Thisbe) | Tenor | Peter Pears |
| SNUG, a joiner (Lion) | Bass | David Kelly |
| SNOUT, a tinker (Wall) | Tenor | Edward Byles |
| STARVELING, a tailor (Moonshine) | Baritone | Joseph Ward |
Setting: A wood near Athens
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the other Benjamin Britten I have seen live (Sydney, 2010, in Baz Luhrmann’s magical Indian production), and it is easily my favourite Britten work. “It is a sweet comedy”, abounding in humorous scenes and some of Britten’s loveliest music. And the libretto’s not bad, either.
Shakespeare’s comedy of errors, in which fairies, young lovers, and rude mechanicals wander through an Athenian wood, needs no introduction. Britten and Pears adapted the play into an opera themselves, cutting Act I. Britten composed the opera in seven months. “This is not up to the speed of Mozart or Verdi,” he reflected, “but these days, when the line of musical language is broken, it is much rarer. It is the fastest of any big opera I have written.”
Britten’s setting of the text is enchanting and ever inventive. He juxtaposes three different musical textures: chromaticism, countertenors, coloratura sopranos, and children’s choirs for the fairies (instrumentation is two harps, harpsichord, celeste, and tuned percussion); more traditional strings and woodwind for the lovers; and low wind instruments (bassoon and trombone) for the rustics.
Britten is happily inspired throughout. The prelude sounds like trees whispering each to other in an enchanted wood. The part of Oberon was written for the countertenor Alfred Deller (the only operatic rôle expressly written for him); his aria “I know a bank” is strange and unearthly. J. F. Waterhouse (The Birmingham Post) wrote: “I cannot at the moment believe that I have ever heard lovelier music, or a happier wedding of voice and verse.” (It is, however, in the English countertenor style, very different from the flamboyant virtuosity of the modern Baroque generation.)
It is amusing to watch the rude mechanicals rehearse – Bottom the weaver thinks he can play every other part better, and direct the play, too – while “the most lamentable comedy” of Pyramus & Thisbe is a delightful parody of bel canto opera, with a dash of Shostakovich thrown in (the lion’s entrance).
The lovers’ quarrel scene in Act II is ingenious and lively, and the reconciliation quartet at the start of Act III (with its rising phrase) a beautiful moment of stillness. “Mr. Britten has never done anything better than his music for the lovers: superb, melodious, dramatic singing-stuff, with all the weight in the voices, and intensely-wrought quartet-passages which stand comparison with anything of their kind in the entire range of opera,” Waterhouse declared.
The fairies’ farewell (“Now until the break of day”) is a moment of pure magic.
Reception was generally positive. Howard Taubman (The New York Times) called the opera “a captivating blend of Shakespeare’s moonlit lyricism and a modern composer’s delicate songfulness… This ‘Dream’ sings. In an age that has produced few operas that are ingratiating for singers, Mr. Britten’s latest effort should be a winner.” Likewise, Waterhouse (Birmingham Post) thought it “an addition to the very small stock of Shakespearian operas which are not unworthy of Shakespeare”. But Peter Heyworth (The Observer) found it unsatisfying as both an opera and as an adaptation of Shakespeare. His “mind teemed with the abundance of enchanting and haunting musical ideas that fill the score” – but, “as an operatic version of Shakespeare’s play it works only in part and by fits and starts”.
Dream does not have the depth of Peter Grimes or Billy Budd. (For those who want a gay subtext: this is an opera about falling in love with Bottom, and in which most of the characters are fairies.) But it is a supremely well-crafted entertainment.
Recordings
Listen to: Alfred Deller (Oberon), Elizabeth Harwood (Tytania), Peter Pears (Lysander), Thomas Hemsley (Demetrius), Josephine Veasey (Hermia), Heather Harper (Helena), Stephen Terry (Puck), John Shirley-Quirk (Theseus), Helen Watts (Hippolyta), Owen Brannigan (Bottom), Norman Lumsden (Quince), Kenneth MacDonald (Flute), David Kelly (Snug), Robert Tear (Snout), and Keith Raggett (Starveling), with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Britten; London, 1966. Decca.
Watch: James Bowman (Oberon), Ileana Cotrubas (Tytania), Curt Appelgren (Bottom), and Felicity Lott (Helena), with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink; Glyndebourne, 1981, directed by Peter Hall. Opus Arte.
Works consulted
- Peter Heyworth, “Recapturing the Dream”, The Observer, 12th June 1960
- J. F. Waterhouse, “Mr. Britten’s New Opera”, The Birmingham Post, 13th June 1960
- “Britten Opera Praise in U.S.”, The Daily Telegraph, 14th June 1960
- John Bridcut, The Faber Pocket Guide to Britten, London: Faber & Faber, 2010
The Opera Scribe 
3 thoughts on “266. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Britten)”