A Midsummer Night's Dream

by Benjamin Britten

(libretto by the composer and Peter Pears from Shakespeare's play)

seen at the Silk Street Theatre on 27 February 2019

Dominic Wheeler conducts Martin Lloyd-Evans's production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as a showcase for their Opera Course. Oberon was sung by Collin Shay, Tytania by Zoe Drummond, Helena by Alexandra Lowe, Hermia by Carmen Artaza, Lysander by Felipe Manu, Demetrius by Benson Wilson and Bottom by Christian Valle; Puck (a non-singing part) was taken by Matthew Dixon. Apart from Oberon, the roles were taken by other singers for two of the four performances. The production was designed by Ruari Murchson and lit by Mark Jonathan.

The eerie quality of this piece was well served by the set, a large ellipse of light on the floor, across which clouds often scudded, and a series of ropes connecting this with a smaller ellipse hanging in the sky; many small trap doors in the floor for the use of various fairies; a number of light bulbs suspended from the ceiling but usually not lit. The fairies - particularly Oberon - looked as if they were emulating Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise, but the eccentric raffishness of the bandannas and eye shadow was amusingly appropriate. The humans - both aristocrats and mechanicals - were more conventionally dressed.

The chorus of fairies was sung by young women rather than by boys; this gave an entirely different tone from that which Britten devised but was perhaps understandable given the provenance of the production. The soloists sang well, though Collin Shay's countertenor voice was not entirely secure across all the difficult range demanded by the part. Christian Valle's rich bass for Bottom was most engaging, and the mechanicals successfully brought off the comedy of the opera pastiches featured in the Pyramus and Thisbe play.

The music was a joy to listen to in the comparatively intimate space of the Guildhall's Silk Street theatre, in which the subtleties of the orchestration, with its intriguing gamelan and percussion effects, really shone. There were some delightful scenic effects as well, particularly as Oberon surveyed the scene at the end of Act Two, when the lovers were correctly bestowed near one another in sleep, and expressed his satisfaction by a single expressive breath, upon which all the lights went out as the curtain fell. The final blessing of Oberon and the fairy troupe was nicely managed inside an giant golden picture frame, and Puck, more heartfelt than impish, closed the proceedings with a winning appeal to the audience.