MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


DVD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively Crotchet

Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Romantic ballet in two acts (1843)
Titania - Alessandra Ferri
Oberon - Roberto Bolle
Puck - Riccardo Massimi
Hermia - Deborah Gismondi
Helena - Gilda Gelati
Demetrius - Vittorio D’Amato
Lysander - Gianni Ghisleni
Bottom - Camillo Di Pompo
Corp de ballet of Teatro alla Scala
Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala/Nir Kabaretti
rec. La Scala, Milan, February 2007
16:9 format; NTSC; Sound DD5.1/DTS5.1/LPCM; stereo; Region: 0
TDK DVWW-BLMID [104:00]


A Midsummer’s Night Dream, is known for its elegant overture (1826). It is less well known for its incidental music, written much later (in 1843) to accompany a German adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. Mendelssohn never composed a full-length ballet, which here runs to 104 minutes. However, in 1961, George Balanchine, a Russian ballet-dancer from Georgia - who once played Puck in The Dream - realized his own dream by choreographing a full-length production. He added music from other Mendelssohnian works: Athalie, Fair Melusina, Returning home from Abroad, First Walpurgis Night and his Sinfonia for Strings. Balanchine was one of the 20th century's foremost choreographers who was successful in making a transition between classical and modern ballet. In this production the genre is classical and, unusually for a ballet, includes the two vocal numbers.
 
This fine production, staged by Patricia Neary and Sara Leland, has visual identity carefully wedded to movement, to provide an apt and complete interpretation of the story. Balantine’s choreography, whose detail has been handed down over the fifty years since its inception, is impressive and probably has not been bettered. One of the highlights is the imaginative choreography and cutting used for the overture; the storyline of which is easy to follow.
 
The quality of the Italian lead dancers is excellent. A sturdy Oberon and enigmatic and radiant Titania are well matched and received a strong ovation at the close. The ballet’s continuity and interest is often provided by the mischievous and vivacious Puck, whose miming actions are very clear. The mix up in giving the potion to the wrong couples is nicely staged. Rustic backdrops and appropriately realistic costumes by Luisa Spinatelli add to the charm of the piece and blend in ideally with the caviar of Mendelssohn’s music. The fairies have enough flexibility in their wings to make them appear naturally animated as they dance. A lack of on-stage property features does not help the two-dimensional backcloths. Area-prominent lighting helps to provide variety in the scene that gives an extra dimension in visual interest. An opportunity to add gobo effects with splashes of saturated greens and ambers has been missed. Bottom’s comedy scene provides good contrast and amusement but is disappointingly short.
 
The notes do not help in identifying where the additional music has been employed, which, it must be said, is ideally fitting for the presentation. Neither do they offer the reader a full synopsis. Act I contains the whole Shakespearian story apart from the wedding, which is held back for the opening of Act II. Perhaps I expected a more impactful picture for such a large half-empty stage. The rest of the second Part is filled by a series of divertissements. After the Finale, good contrast is provided when we revisit the woodscape setting of the opening with a joyful scene with Oberon, Titania and Puck amid a troupe of young pixies and elves. It is not clear how young the troupe of children really is until they take their finale bow.
 
The quality of musicianship and audio recording puts this DVD in a class above the earlier Opus Arte production. The score is in safe hands with Nir Kabaretti and pace and nuance of control are well displayed by this Israeli-born conductor. With a growing reputation but little experience in working with ballet scores apart from The Nutcracker, the result is outstanding. Kabaretti studied in Vienna and gained experience as chorus-master at the Salzburg Festival, before working under Zubin Mehta at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In connection with ballet, Kabaretti made his début with Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker at Teatro alla Scala di Milano (2004), where he also conducted this televised ballet production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
 
Raymond J Walker
 



 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.