On Sunday, November 22nd at 3pm, the matin&eacu te\;e performance at the Grand Thé\;â\;tre for Benjamin Britten's opera \;"A Midsummer Night's Dream" will take place.
AIC Members and a guest may purchase tic
kets for the Opera at a special reduction of 10% by prese
nting your AIC Member Card at the box office of the Grand Thé\;&acir
c\;tre.
Following the performance at 6pm, the English-speaking cast of the Opera will meet us in the exquisite Foyer of the Grand Thé\;â\;tre for an exclusive "meet &\; gr eet" with champagne and feuilleté\;s. \;
If you love opera and wish to be a part of this exceptional afternoo
n of entertainment, please purchase your tickets. \;We would expect al
l people participating to attend one of the performances.
In collaboration with the Grand Thé \;â\;tre de Genè\;ve. \;
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Britten's music moves on three planes, each with their own sound-worlds: fairies\; mortals (lovers)\; and rustics. The work deal with several states: waking and sleeping\; night and day\; natural and superna tural. All (except the last scene) takes place in the woods, represented b y slow-breathing string textures that rise and fall, used throughout the o pera &ndash\; a timeless place.
To turn a masterpiece in one me dium into a work of similar calibre in another is a vast undertaking, and yet this is what Benjamin Britten succeeded in doing \; \;&n bsp\;Earl of Harewood, The New Kobbé\;'s
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| Role \; \; \; (# or der of appearance) | Vo ice type | Gra nd Thé\;â\;tre, GE, Nov 2015 |
| Oberon, King of the Fairies(3) | countertenor | Christopher Lowrey (b. Johnston, Rhode Island) |
| Tytan ia, Queen of the Fairies (3) | colora tura soprano | Bernarda Bobro (b. Maribor, Slo venia) |
| Puck (2) | speaking role | Anna Thalbach (b. 1973, Berlin) |
| Cobweb, Mustardsee d, Moth, Peaseblossom, fairies (1) | trebles | Young boys |
| Lysander, in love with Hermia (4) | tenor | Shawn Mathey (b. 1969, USA) |
| Demetrius, betrothed to Hermia (5) | baritone | Stephen Genz (b. 1973, Erfurt, Germany) |
| mezzo-soprano | Stephanie Laur icella (American) | |
| Helena, in love with Demetrius(5) | soprano | Mary Feminear (b. Auburn, Alabama) | Theseus, Duke of Athens (7) | bass | Brandon Cedel (b. Char leston, SC) |
| Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus (7) | contralto | Dana Beth Miller (Ameri can, Texas?) |
| Bottom, a weaver (6) | bass baritone | Alexey Tikhomirov * |
| (Pe ter) Quince, a carpenter (6) | bass | Paul Whelan * |
| (Francis) Flute, a bellows-mender (6) | tenor | Sturart Patterson * < /td> |
| Snug, a joiner \; (in terior woodworker)(6) | bass | |
| tenor | Erlend Tvinn ereim (b. 1981, Bergen, Norway) | |
| S tarveling, a tailor (6) | baritone | Michel de Souza (Brazil) |
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| Conductor of OS R: Steven Sloane \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \;&n bsp\; \; \; \; \; \; \; Production/Mise en sc&egra ve\;ne: Katharina Thalbach | ||
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A Midsummer Night's Dream< strong> \; of Britten - Grand Thé\;â\;tre de Genè\;ve \; - \; New production
(French) Les opé\;r as de Britten ouvrent les portes d&rsquo\;univers fort varié\;s, mai s s&rsquo\;il en est un qui sort du lot, c&rsquo\;est certainement A M idsummer Night&rsquo\;s Dream, rencontre providentielle entre la plum e fé\;é\;rique de Shakespeare et la sensibilité\; musica le du compositeur anglais. Dans cette &oelig\;uvre-clé\; du XX&egrav e\;me siè\;cle lyrique, on perç\;oit bien é\;videmment t oute la dimension fantasque et onirique de la comé\;die shakespearie nne qui, au fil des interventions du malicieux Puck, nous montre à\; quel point l&rsquo\;amour est de nature é\;phé\;mè\;re et improbable. Mais Britten fait encore plus fort : empruntant de ci et de là\; diffé\;rents é\;lé\;ments à\; la grand e tradition lyrique, il fait appel à\; un orchestre de chambre capab le de mille mé\;tamorphoses qui dè\;s le dé\;but de l&rs quo\;&oelig\;uvre, symbolise le ré\;veil de la nature, avant de repr oduire à\; merveille l&rsquo\;atmosphè\;re romantique du royau me des fé\;es et celle grotesque des artisans athé\;niens. (GT )
(English) Benjamin Britten&rsquo\;s operas open the doors to many different worlds, but if one of them stands out of the lot, it is certain ly A Midsummer Night&rsquo\;s Dream, the English composer&rsquo\; s felicitous merging of his musical sensitivity with Shakespeare&rsquo\;s pen, when dipped in fairy ink. In this essential work of 20th century oper a, the fanciful and dream-like qualities of Shakespeare&rsquo\;s comedy ar e aptly rendered, thanks to the many interventions of the mischievous Puck , who demonstrates to what extent love is of a transient and bizarre natur e. But Britten brings this to a higher level by employing many different e lements from the history of opera and a multifaceted chamber orchestra tha t begins by depicting Nature&rsquo\;s awakening and then enters into a mar velous evocation of the fairy kingdom&rsquo\;s romantic atmosphere, as wel l as the more grotesque world of the rude mechanicals. (GT)
(From w ikipedia, edited): The plot of the opera follows that of the play (bas ically, mischievous fairies, mixed-up lovers, and bumbling rustics), with several alterations (reduced by half, with some lines redistribut ed). Most of Shakespeare's Act 1 is cut, giving much greater preceden ce to the wood, and to the fairies. This is also indicated by the opening portamenti (i.e., slide or glide from one note to another) string s, and by the ethereal countertenor voice that is Oberon, the male lead, w ho throughout is accompanied by a characteristic texture of harp and celes te, in the same way that Puck's appearance is heralded by the combination of trumpet and snare-drum.
The opera opens with a chorus, "Over hil l, over dale" from Tytania's attendant fairies, played by boy sopranos. Ot her highlights include Oberon's florid &ndash\; the exotic celeste is espe cially notable &ndash\; aria,"I know a bank" (inspired by Purcell's "Sweet er than roses"), Tytania's equally florid "Come now, a roundel", the choru s's energetic "You spotted snakes", the hilarious comedy of "Pyramus and T hisbe", and the final trio for Oberon, Tytania and the chorus.
The original play is an anomaly among Shakespeare's works, in that it is very little concerned with character, and very largely concerned with psycholog y. Britten follows this to a large extent, but subtly alters the psycholog ical focus of the work. The introduction of a chorus of boy-fairies means that the opera becomes greatly concerned with the theme of purity. It is t hese juvenile fairies who eventually quell the libidinous activities of th e quartet of lovers, as they sing: \; "Jack shall have Jill/Naught sha ll go ill/The man shall have his mare again/And all shall be well." Sung b y boys, it represents an idealized vision of a paradise of innocence and p urity.
Britten also pays attention to the play's central motif: the madness of love. Curiously, he took the one relationship in the play that is grotesque (that of Tytania and Bottom) and placed it in the center of his opera (in the middle of Act 2). Women in Britten operas tend to run to extremes, being either predators or vulnerable prey, but Tytania is an am algam\; she dominates Bottom, but is herself completely dominated by Obero n and Puck. Their cruel pranks eventually quell her coloratura, which unti l she is freed from the power of the love-juice is fiendishly difficult to sing.
Britten parodied other opera conventions in less obvious way s than "Pyramus and Thisbe", the play performed by the rustics. Like many operas, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" opens with a chorus, but it is a choru s of unbroken boys' voices, singing in unison. After this comes the entran ce of the prima donna and the male lead, who is as far away as po ssible from Wagner's heldentenors, and as close as it is possible to get to Handel's castrati of the 18th century: "There is an ai r of baroque fantasy in the music." Britten's treatment of Puck also sugge sts parody\; in opera, the hero's assistant is traditionally sung by barit ones, yet here we have an adolescent youth who speaks, rather than sings.< /p>
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- compiled and edited by Robert Race
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