BRITTEN : MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 19th of January 2014 at  6.03 - 9.30 pm
Sunday 13th of September 2009 at 3 - 5.40 pm

PRELUDE (Wiki)
REVIEW (NYT)
REVIEW
REVIEW
SYNOPSIS
LIBRETTO

BRITTEN: A Midsummer Night's Dream, opera in 3 acts
With a libretto of Shakespeare's magical romance adapted by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, we hear music as sensitive and unsettling as any of Britten's scores. The opera omits much of Shakespeare's first act and concentrates on the activities in the wood and the play's central motif, the madness of love.
Oberon.............................. Iestyn Davies
Tytania.............................. Kathleen Kim
Puck.................................. Riley Costello
Cobweb............................ Seth Ewing-Crystal
Mustardseed..................... Benjamin P Wenzelberg
Moth................................. Thatcher Pitkoff
Peaseblossom.................... Kiki Porter
Lysander........................... Joseph Kaiser
Demetrius......................... Michael Todd Simpson
Hermia.............................. Elizabeth DeShong
Helena.............................. Erin Wall
Theseus............................. Ryan McKinney
Hippolyta.......................... Tamara Mumford
Bottom............................. Matthew Rose
Quince.............................. Patrick Carfizzi
Flute................................. Barry Banks
Snug................................. Paul Corona
Snout................................ Scott Scully
Starveling......................... Evan Hughes
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/James Conlon (EBU)

Benjamin Britten most often built his operas around the tenor Peter Pears (his life-long partner), but not this time: they both worked on reducing Shakespeare's play to a manageable opera libretto, and PP got the role of the bellows-mender Flute/ Thisbe. In the recording they made (produced by John Culshaw, the man who created the Decca Ring of the Nibelung) Peter moved to the role of Lysander, one of the lovers. Tytania, Queen of the Fairies, is sung by Elizabeth Harwood (I saw her as Lucia in Melbourne, when her virus-invaded voice cracked a few times, but she is generally sweet to the ear). Richard Hickox (now departed, sadly) made a recommended recording, with James Bowman.

BRITTEN: A Midsummer Night's Dream, opera in 3 acts
Oberon......................... David Daniels
Tytania.......................... Rosemary Joshua
Puck............................. Emil Wolk
Theseus......................... Daniel Okulitch
Hippolyta...................... Natasha Petrinsky
Lysander....................... Gordon Gietz
Demetrius...................... David Adam Moore
Hermia.......................... Deanne Meek
Helena.......................... Erin Wall
Bottom.......................... Matthew Rose
Quince.......................... Andrew Shore
Flute............................. Christopher Gillett
Snug............................. Graeme Danby
Snout............................ Adrian Thompson
Starveling...................... Simon Butteriss
La Scala Chorus & Orch/Andrew Davis
(recorded in La Scala, Milan)

REVIEW (with pictures)
REVIEW (raunchy)
Be warned: this production emphasizes eroticism (beds everywhere, a large appendage to Bottom the Ass), but that should not concern us, listening to the radio without pictures.

Looking at the cast, we see at the top the omnipresent squeak-tenor (or under-the-counter tenor) David Daniels (apparently he had trouble projecting his voice to the furthest recesses of La Scala; he was said to lack charisma, but he had vertigo on stage, restricing his movements; the original man for the part of Oberon was Alfred Deller, not strong on high notes, so Britten did not require him to sing any loud top notes).

At the bottom (not playing Bottom but Starveling/ Moonshine, a tailor) is baritone Simon Butteriss (we have seen him on television in his 2006 documentary on Grossmith, the patter-song virtuoso for Gilbert and Sullivan, and SB himself presents and performs); the director has made him Jewish.

Rosemary Joshua is critically acclaimed for her efforts as a new coloratura star portraying Tytania.

The cheery chappy who conducts this performance receives well-merited praise; Andrew Davis was a favourite at the London Proms, and a few days ago I listened to his recording of Richard Strauss's Four Last Sings, accompanying Kiri Te Kanawa's dulcet tones.