Konzert: Ein Sommernachtstraum

There were times when a full orchestra would sit in the pit for an entire evening, just to occasionally play some interlude music for a stage play. Those days are gone. In the 19th century, numerous composers wrote music especially for theatrical productions. Only a few of these compositions are still performed today—and even then, mostly in concert form. Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Georges Bizet’s L’Arlésienne (though where has the play it was written for gone?), and of course Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

At the age of 17, Mendelssohn read Shakespeare’s play in the German translation by Schlegel and immediately composed his famous concert overture. More than 15 years later, he expanded it into a full piece of incidental music, with instrumental interludes, songs, and choral sections.

The play intertwines four storylines: a framing story about a wedding in Athens; a group of craftsmen preparing a play for that wedding; two young couples who are—of course—in love with the wrong people; and finally, a fairy couple whose marital quarrel draws everyone else into the forest.

Don’t even try to understand it all. The only thing that matters is this: it’s a feverish midsummer night’s dream of love.

We perform Mendelssohn’s marvelous music, interwoven with fragments of Schlegel’s translation.