| Britten, Benjamin (1913-1976) | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Libretto by Peter Pears after Shakespeare |
| Royal Northern College of Music | |||
| Andrew Greenwood | Conductor | ||
| Garth Bardsley | Director | ||
| Michael Holt | Costume Designer, Set Designer | ||
| RNCM Opera Ensemble | |||
| Jason Taylor | Lighting Designer | ||
| Bethan Rhys William | Choreography | ||
| Harish Shankar | Conductor | ||
| Alexandra Lowe | Soprano | Helena | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Anne-Marie Loveday | Soprano | Helena | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Rosanna Harris | Soprano | Tytania | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Joanna Norman | Soprano | Tytania | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Hollie-Anne Bangham | Mezzo-soprano | Hermia | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Jessica Eccleston | Mezzo-soprano | Hermia | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Chloe Latchmore | Mezzo-soprano | Hippolyta | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Charlotte Badham | Contralto | Hippolyta | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Matthew Palfreyman | Tenor | Flute | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Jeffrey Taylor | Tenor | Flute | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Adam Temple-Smith | Tenor | Lysander | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Alex Banfield | Tenor | Lysander | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Brian McNamee | Tenor | Snout | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Alexander Grainger | Tenor | Snout | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Daniel Hayes | Tenor | Snug | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Peter Edge | Bass | Snug | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Aaron O'Hare | Baritone | Demetrius | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Thomas Cameron | Baritone | Demetrius | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| David Cane | Baritone | Starveling | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Steven Griffin | Baritone | Starveling | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Aidan Edwards | Bass | Bottom | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| James Fisher | Bass | Bottom | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Neil Balfour | Bass | Quince | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Timothy Bagley | Bass | Quince | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Matthew Thistleton | Bass | Theseus | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Eugene Dillon-Hooper | Bass | Theseus | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Rebecca Starling | Soprano | Oberon | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Kieron-Connor Valentine | Countertenor | Oberon | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
| Jonathan Stevens | Spoken word | Puck | 2015 Mar 19, 23, 27 |
| Charlotte Christensen | Spoken word | Puck | 2015 Mar 21, 25, 29 mat |
In August 1959, Benjamin Britten decided to compose an opera to mark the re-opening of the refurbished Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh the following June. As this left no time for the libretto to be written anew, he chose to adapt with Peter Pears Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While the libretto is a drastically reduced version of Shakespeare’s play, it retains the three distinct groups of characters – the fairies, the mechanicals and the Athenian lovers who enter the wood – and gives each group its own distinctive musical characteristics. So in a nutshell, the story remains the same – Oberon, the fairy king, and Tytania, his queen, are locked in a conflict which spills over into the human world…
This opera is completely faithful to the spirit of the original play and is one of the most successful operatic adaptations of a Shakespeare play. It is possibly the most beguiling and enchanting of all Britten’s operas, a work with a spell-binding atmosphere that inhabits a truly unique, dream-like world.
This production will be sung in English.