A Midsummer Night's Dream by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of William Shakespeare's funniest and most sophisticated plays dedicated to exploring the nature of feelings. It is a comedy of mistakes based on antique motifs, kept in the atmosphere of a poetic fairy tale. William Shakespeare wrote this play at the end of the 16th century. His writing prowess is manifested in skillfully connecting worlds, in mixing realism with poetics and magic, in playing with convention. In 1826, at the age of 17, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, inspired by the work, composed the concert overture Ein Sommernachtstraum (Op. 21; MWV P 3), and in the following years he composed further parts. The nineteenth-century music expert, the creator of the encyclopedia of music — George Grove — unjustifiably called Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream “the greatest phenomenon of early maturity that has ever occurred in music—and probably in art in general.” The score impresses with the singing of melodies, sophisticated themes, a unique romantic mood and original harmonic and color solutions. It is worth adding that the famous Wedding March from this composition has become one of the most recognizable musical works.

The current staging is its own original adaptation of Shakespeare's drama Anna Hop. It is worth noting that the choreographer has also created her own musical concept of the performance, which, in addition to the program music for Sleep (Op. 61), consists of other works by Felix Mendelssohn, as well as one contemporary composition and orchestral arrangement by Paweł Stuczyński.