Weed enough to wrap a fairy in

[randy_byers]

Anybody have feelings pro or con about Benjamin Britten's opera, A Midsummer Night's Dream? Recommended recordings?

Comments

[kproche.livejournal.com]

If I recall correctly, I got to see it at a schoolday matinee in SF in either the 5th or 6th grade.
Probably the 6th, because I think that was the year I got to sit in one of the boxes (they were short two seats in the balcony for our group, and gave the box seats to the two students who were leading in the current sell-magazines-to-the-neighbors fundraiser).

I liked it (and I'd taken the time to read the My Book House prose retelling of the play beforehand so I could understand it), but we had to deal with a box full of rich brats who were so rude the usher came in to shush them. (and then very pointedly told Donna and I that they were not talking to us, that we were being the very model of appropriate audience behavior ;-).

Now you've got my curiosity piqued. Hmm... I might know somebody who could make a recommendation.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Dude, somehow I imagine you attending the opera these days in full Oberon gear. Something like your user icon, in fact.

[kproche.livejournal.com]

I'm far more likely to attend in full Imperial Panoply:

http://www.twistedimage.com/tigallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2079

Although technically it should include the Shiny Hat:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bovil/3389378478/in/set-72157615960883206/

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

The Shiny Hat is awesome, although it might piss off the person sitting behind you at the opera.

[kproche.livejournal.com]

Well, since I'd obviously be viewing from an Imperial box that wouldn't be an issue, right? ;-)

Besides, it can be opened up and laid flat for storage/travel.

(It's also too heavy to wear through an entire opera).

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Sorry, neither B. nor I know that one. I like Britten, mostly, but I'm very skimpy on his operas, some of which (Turn of the Screw, Death in Venice) I don't like.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

One of the intriguing things I'm reading about it is that he wrote the music after being introduced to gamelan and Japanese noh music, and that this had an influence on the different kinds of music used to represent the three groupings of characters: the fairies, the aristocrats, and the mechanicals. It's also supposedly one of the first uses of countertenor in modern opera, singing to role of Oberon. And of course the libretto is adapted from Shakespeare, so good poetry. I'll probably take the plunge on this one just out of sheer curiosity.