Midsummer Night's Dream, A Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Music
...Midsummer Night's Dream, A . Opera in three acts by Britten to a libretto by the composer and Peter Pears after Shakespeare's play ( 1594–5 ) (Aldeburgh, 1960...
Midsummer Night's Dream, A Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Chaucer
... Night's Dream, A . Shakespeare's play ( 1593–94? ) is indebted to Chaucer in its relation to The Knight's Tale and, to a lesser extent, to three other Chaucerian works: The Merchant's Tale , The Tale of Sir Thopas , and the story of Pyramus and Thisbe as told in The Legend of Good Women . The influence of The Knight's Tale and The Merchant's Tale in A Midsummer Night's Dream lies not so much in specific instances of resemblance but in the principal theme which they all share of the irresponsibility and randomness of romantic love, how...
Midsummer Night's Dream, A Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Dance (2 ed.)
...Midsummer Night's Dream, A Ballet in two acts with choreography by Balanchine , music by Mendelssohn , sets and lighting by David Hays , and costumes by Barbara Karinska . Premiered 17 Jan. 1962 by New York City Ballet at City Center, New York, with Mitchell , Hayden , and Villella . The ballet, Balanchine's first original full-length work, is based on Shakespeare's play and uses Mendelssohn's incidental music. It was filmed in 1967 . It was later taken into the repertoire of Pacific Northwest Ballet ( 1985 ). Other ballets on the same subject include...
Midsummer Night's Dream, A Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Music (6 ed.)
... Night's Dream, A Play ( 1593–4 ) by Shakespeare which has attracted several composers. 1. The Fairy Queen , 1691 , adaptation (by E. Settle?) of Shakespeare for which Purcell wrote incidental music. Shakespeare's text is not quoted. 2. Mendelssohn composed an Ov. in E major, Op.26, in 1826 when he was 17, adding additional items of incidental music, Op.61, for a prod. of the play at Potsdam in Oct. 1843 , these being: Scherzo (entr'acte after Act 1); Melodrama ; Fairy March (Act 2); You spotted snakes (2 sop. and ch) (Act 2); ...
Midsummer Night's Dream, A Quick reference
An A-Z Guide to Shakespeare (2 ed.)
...for the theory that the play was written for a wedding; the title-page of the first quarto says that it had been ‘sundry times publicly acted’. Shakespeare invented the plot, with help from Chaucer's ‘Knight's Tale’, Ovid 's Metamorphoses , and English folklore. The only recorded early performance was at Court in 1604 , as A Play of Robin Goodfellow . A droll , The Merry Conceits of Bottom the Weaver , based on the mechanicals' scenes, was printed in 1661 . In 1662 , Pepys found A Midsummer Night's Dream ‘the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I...
Midsummer Night's Dream, A Reference library
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre (3 ed.)
... Night's Dream, A . Shakespeare 's fantastic comedy was first offered at the Park Theatre in 1826 . Its popularity in the 19th century was abetted by two landmark revivals: William Burton 's sumptuous production in 1854 , with himself as Bottom, and Daly 's 1888 mounting with Ada Rehan , John Drew , Virginia Dreher , and Otis Skinner as the lovers, and James Lewis as Bottom. As with Burton's production, this revival was mounted with Victorian opulence, its elaborate settings the work of Henry Hoyt . Many of the most memorable 20th‐century...
Midsummer Night's Dream, A Quick reference
A Dictionary of Opera Characters (2 ed.)
... Night's Dream, A ( Britten ). Lib. by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears ; 3 acts; f.p. Aldeburgh 1960 , cond. Benjamin Britten . Set mainly in the wood: Oberon , King of the Fairies, has quarrelled with his Queen, Tytania , and plots revenge. He sends Puck to find a magic herb which, if given to Tytania, will make her fall in love with the next creature she sees. Hermia loves Lysander but her father insists she marry Demetrius , who does love her, and does not love Helena who is in love with him. Oberon orders Puck to put the herb in...
Midsummer Night's Dream, A Reference library
The Oxford Companion to English Literature (7 ed.)
... Night's Dream, A A comedy by Shakespeare , written probably c. 1594–5 ; printed in quarto in 1600 and 1619 ; reprinted with changes apparently deriving from performance in the first folio . It is often thought to be associated with a courtly marriage but none has been successfully identified. There is no single source, but Shakespeare drew, among other authors, on Chaucer , Arthur Golding 's translation of Ovid , and Apuleius ' Golden Ass . Hermia refuses her father Egeus' command to marry Demetrius, because she loves Lysander, while...
Midsummer Night's Dream, A Quick reference
The Grove Book of Operas (2 ed.)
... Night's Dream, A Opera in three acts, op.64, by Benjamin Britten to a libretto by him and Peter Pears , after William Shakespeare's play; Aldeburgh, Jubilee Hall, 11 June 1960 . The cast for the première included Alfred Deller as Oberon, Jennifer Vyvyan as Titania, Owen Brannigan as Bottom, April Cantelo as Helena, Marjorie Thomas as Hermia, Thomas Hemsley as Demetrius, George Moran as Lysander and Peter Pears as Flute. A Midsummer Night's Dream was something of a rush job, conceived and created between August 1959 and April...
Midsummer Night's Dream, A Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature (4 ed.)
... Night's Dream, A A comedy by Shakespeare , written probably c. 1594–5 ; printed in quarto in 1600 and 1619 ; reprinted with changes. There is no single source, but Shakespeare drew, among other authors, on Chaucer , Arthur Golding 's translation of Ovid , and Apuleius ' Golden Ass . Hermia refuses her father's command to marry Demetrius, because she loves Lysander, while Demetrius has formerly professed love for her friend Helena, and Helena loves Demetrius. Under the law of Athens, Theseus, the duke, gives Hermia four days in which to obey...
Midsummer Night's Dream, A (c.1596) Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Plays (2 ed.)
... Night's Dream, A ( A Midsommer nights dreame ) Author: William Shakespeare Date/place of 1st performance: c. 1596 , London Date of 1st publication: 1600 Genre: Romantic com. in 5 acts; blank verse and prose Setting/time of action: Athens and a nearby wood, in the mythical past Cast: 13m, 8f, extras Theseus, King of Athens, is about to marry Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons. Egeus complains to Theseus that his daughter Hermia refuses to wed Demetrius, since she loves Lysander. Standing under threat of death for disobeying her...
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Reference library
Michael Dobson and Anthony Davies
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (2 ed.)
...nonsense poetry John Taylor ) , A Midsummer Night’s Dream fell from favour after the Restoration, dismissed as a self-indulgent novelty for most of the 18th century: Dr Johnson called it ‘wild and fantastical’, while Francis Gentleman , annotating Bell ’s edition in 1774 , spoke of ‘a puerile plot, an odd mixture of incidents, and a forced connexion of various styles’. The Romantics , however, completely revalued the play’s elements of fancy, and over the course of the 19th century A Midsummer Night’s Dream was taken ever more seriously by...
Midsummer Night's Dream, A, film versions Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales
... Night's Dream, A, film versions . It has been filmed more than 30 times, with a wide range of approaches, often derived from a stage production. The best-known screen adaptation was only the second Shakespeare play to be filmed with sound; other interpretations include speechless, erotic, and postmodern. In 1934 the Austrian stage producer Max Reinhardt ( 1873–1943 ) put on in the Hollywood Bowl a popular and acclaimed Midsummer Night's Dream , which included dancing fairies choreographed to the music Mendelssohn had written for the play in the...
Midsummer Night’s Dream, A ((film versions)) Reference library
Terry Staples
The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (2 ed.)
... Night’s Dream, A (film versions) It has been filmed more than 30 times, with a wide range of approaches, often derived from a stage production. The best-known screen adaptation was only the second Shakespeare play to be filmed with sound; other interpretations include speechless, erotic, and postmodern. In 1934 the Austrian stage producer Max Reinhardt ( 1873–1943 ) put on in the Hollywood Bowl a popular and acclaimed Midsummer Night’s Dream , which included dancing fairies choreographed to the music Mendelssohn had written for the play in the...
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Two Noble Kinsmen Reference library
Michael Dobson
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (2 ed.)
...much darker Palamon and Arcite; or, The Two Noble Kinsmen by Richard Cumberland ( 1779 ), and a musical, Midsummer Night’s Dream -like version by F. G. Waldron , Love and Madness; or, The Two Noble Kinsmen ( 1795 ). The play was not revived professionally again until an Old Vic production in 1928 , designed to suggest a pretty homage to a Chaucerian Merry England. Despite many student productions it then disappeared from the professional stage until a more symbolic, morris-dance-free revival at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park in 1974 ....
Romeo and Juliet Reference library
Michael Dobson, Anthony Davies, and Will Sharpe
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (2 ed.)
...Juliet Shakespeare composed his definitive version of what is often called ‘the greatest love story ever told’ during the lyrical period of his career which also produced Richard II and A Midsummer Night’s Dream , probably in the same year as these two plays, 1595 . The play first appeared in print in 1597 , in an unlicensed quarto edition apparently produced from a reported text assembled by actors who had played Romeo and Paris. The title page proclaims that Romeo and Juliet has ‘been often (with great applause) played publicly, by the Right...
The Merry Wives of Windsor Reference library
Michael Dobson and Anthony Davies
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (2 ed.)
...All, including Sir John, set off for Windsor to laugh about the night’s events. Artistic features: The play uses less verse than any other Shakespeare play, and features more devices familiar from later situation comedies, such as comic stage accents (Welsh and French) and malapropisms (or, less anachronistically, Quicklyisms). Nonetheless its harmonious, magic-haunted conclusion is recognizably akin to the worlds of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It . Critical history: Apart from a long-running argument about whether the Sir John of this play...
