✦ Origins and Historical Context ✦
The ballet adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" premiered in 1962 at New York City Ballet, choreographed by George Balanchine. This was a landmark moment in ballet history, as it was one of the first full-length ballets Balanchine created specifically for American audiences. While other choreographers had previously attempted to adapt Shakespeare's magical comedy, Balanchine's version would become the definitive ballet interpretation.
Balanchine's decision to adapt this particular play was influenced by his deep appreciation of both Shakespeare and Felix Mendelssohn's music. The choreographer had been familiar with the score since his youth in Russia, where he performed in a production of the play at the Imperial Theater School. This personal connection would later inform his choreographic choices and musical interpretation.
♫ The Music ♫
The ballet's score primarily consists of Mendelssohn's music from 1826-1842, including the famous Overture in E major written when he was just seventeen, and the incidental music composed in 1842 for a production of the play. Balanchine supplemented these pieces with selections from Mendelssohn's other works, including the Symphony No. 9 for Strings and "The First Walpurgis Night," creating a cohesive musical narrative.
The score's orchestration captures the mystical and whimsical nature of Shakespeare's story, with light, sprightly themes for the fairies, majestic passages for the court scenes, and romantic melodies for the lovers. The famous Wedding March serves as a triumphant finale to the ballet.
📖 The Story 📖
Act I - The Enchanted Forest
The ballet opens in a mysterious moonlit forest, where butterfly-like fairies flutter through the trees. We first meet Puck, the impish sprite who serves as Oberon's jester and messenger. The fairy children who accompany the scenes create an atmosphere of magical mischief and wonder.
The Royal Quarrel: Oberon, King of the Fairies, enters into a heated argument with his queen Titania over a changeling boy in her care. This quarrel sets the entire plot in motion. Titania refuses to give up the child, leading Oberon to plot his revenge. He commands Puck to gather a magical flower called "love-in-idleness," whose juice, when applied to sleeping eyes, causes the person to fall desperately in love with the first living creature they see upon waking.
The Mortal Lovers: The story interweaves with the arrival of four young Athenians - Hermia, who is in love with Lysander but has been ordered to marry Demetrius; Lysander, who plans to elope with Hermia; Helena, who desperately loves Demetrius despite his rejection; and Demetrius, who pursues Hermia while spurning Helena's affections.
The Enchantments Begin: Through a series of mishaps and magical interventions, the lovers become entangled in a web of misdirected affections. Puck's mistaken application of the love potion creates chaos among the lovers, leading to increasingly frenzied dance sequences. Meanwhile, Titania is enchanted to fall in love with Bottom, a craftsman transformed into a donkey, creating one of ballet's great comedic sequences. By the close of the act, order is restored: Oberon releases Titania from her enchantment, Bottom returns to human form, and the lovers awaken properly paired.
Act II - The Wedding Celebration
Unlike Shakespeare's play, Balanchine devotes this second act entirely to an elaborate wedding celebration of pure dance artistry.
The celebration includes a grand pas de deux for the principal couple, variations for the other couples, ensemble dances for the corps de ballet, and solos for Oberon and Titania. Special sequences for the fairy children add enchantment throughout. The ballet concludes with a magnificent processional using Mendelssohn's famous Wedding March, culminating in Puck's famous closing solo, after which he disappears in a shower of sparkles.
✨ The Choreography ✨
Balanchine's choreography represents a masterful fusion of classical ballet technique with innovative movement vocabulary. The ballet is notable for its distinct characterization through movement: the fairy realm is represented through quick, ethereal footwork and floating port de bras; the mortal lovers perform more grounded, dramatic movements; Puck's role is marked by playful, acrobatic sequences; and the corps de ballet of fairies creates constantly shifting patterns that evoke the mysterious forest setting.
👑 Character Development 👑
Oberon
The King of the Fairies transitions from vengeful schemer to benevolent ruler. His role features complex beats and turns, demanding exceptional technical mastery and regal presence throughout.
Titania
The Fairy Queen moves from defiant independence through enchanted confusion to reconciliation. Her variations expand the possibilities for female classical technique with ethereal qualities.
Puck
The mischievous sprite serves as both narrator and instigator. His playful, acrobatic sequences and famous closing solo make this one of ballet's most memorable character roles.
⭐ Impact and Legacy ⭐
Balanchine premiered A Midsummer Night's Dream with New York City Ballet on January 17, 1962 - his first completely original full-length story ballet, after two decades of mostly plotless, abstract work. Edward Villella danced Oberon, Melissa Hayden danced Titania, Arthur Mitchell danced Puck, and Francisco Moncion danced Theseus in that first cast.
The score reaches well beyond the incidental music most productions of the play use. Balanchine built it from Mendelssohn's 1826 concert overture and 1842 incidental music together with several of the composer's other works woven in: the overtures to Athalie, Son and Stranger, and The Fair Melusine, the String Symphony No. 9 in C minor, and music from The First Walpurgis Night.
In April 1964, A Midsummer Night's Dream opened New York City Ballet's first season at its new home, the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center - giving the company's move into a purpose-built theater its own full-length premiere. Balanchine also directed a filmed version in 1966, with Suzanne Farrell by then dancing Titania opposite Villella's Oberon and Mitchell's Puck, preserving one of the few complete Balanchine narrative ballets on film.
Balanchine kept his original two-act structure - Act I telling Shakespeare's story of the lovers and fairies, Act II a plotless classical wedding divertissement - and its swarm of child "bugs," drawn from students at the School of American Ballet, as a fixture of the production. The ballet remains in active repertory today at companies including New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and the Paris Opera Ballet, which performs it under its French title, Le Songe d'une nuit d'été.