Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Benjamin Britten: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960)

Iestyn Davies Oberon

Sophie Bevan Tytania
Jack Lansbury Puck
Clive Bayley Theseus
Leah-Marian Jones Hippolyta
Nick Pritchard Lysander
George Humphreys Demetrius
Clare Presland Hermia
Eleanor Dennis Helena
Matthew Rose Bottom
Andrew Shore Quince
Lawrence Wiliford Flute
Sion Goronwy Snug
Nicholas Sharratt Snout
Simon Butteriss Starveling
Elliot Harding-Smith Cobweb
Ewan Cacace, Angus Hampson Peaseblossom
Adam Warne Mustardseed
Noah Lucas Moth
Willis Christie, Lorenzo Facchini, Angus Foster, Nicholas Harding-Smith, Kevin Kurian, Charles Maloney-Charlton, Robert Peters, Matthew Wadey chorus of fairies

Aldeburgh Festival Orchestra
Netia Jones direction, design, projection
Ryan Wigglesworth conductor

Snape Maltings Concert Hall, 11 June 2017, Aldeburgh

*****************
Benjamin Britten premiered his A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1960 and it has been consistently popular ever since.  After the re-opening of Snape Maltings in 1967 a new production was presented, and now Aldeburgh Festival was celebrating 50 years since this event.

Technology has moved on since the 60s and video projections are increasingly common in production design.  Netia Jones is making a name for herself, with imagery which are better synchronised with the action.  No drops were placed in a character's eye without a huge image of a substance being dropping into water on the wall to wall screens that were the backdrop to the stage.

Iestyn Davies mesmerising as Oberon

Ms Jones, production set the play in the Victorian age.  The visual style a homage to dreamy early Victorian photography.  The boy fairies were ghostly figures in sunglasses.  Tytania wore full Mrs Haversham cobwebby dresses.  Oberon a still and sinister apparition in powdered silver outfit. 

Netia Jones' approach of projecting imagery onto the screens created bewitching light and perspective effects at times.  But for much of the afternoon the projections from the front made the poor singers look like someone trying to give a talk with the powerpoint slides shining in their face.

Vocally this was an outstanding cast with no weak links.  Iestyn Davies was mesmerising throughout, physically and vocally, Sophie Bevan's soprano delightfully agile, and Matthew Rose's Bottom dominated the stage.  The Rustics were gently humorous and the four lovers made the best they could with roles that as written are quite impossible to make interesting.  Diction was a problem throughout, with the honourable exceptions of Davies and Clare Presland's Hermia.  Jack Lansbury had a tumbling good time as Puck.

Ryan Wigglesworth directed a finely nuanced reading.  The orchestra were magnificent, not least in the bewitching opening to Act 3.  Never has Britten sounded more like Arvo Paert.  A dream indeed.

Snape Maltings at interval