A new production of Benjamin Britten’s atmospheric A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Dominic Hill, Artistic Director of Citizens Theatre, opens with three performances at Festival Theatre Edinburgh on 31 March, before transferring to Theatre Royal Glasgow for a further three performances.
Dominic, who last directed Macbeth for Scottish Opera in 2014, returns to the Company to bring his Shakespearean expertise in the telling of this tale of four lovers lost in the woods, fairies, magic and comedy, in an otherworldly mix of imagination and reality.
Scottish Opera Music Director Stuart Stratford conducts a dynamic cast that includes former Scottish Opera Emerging Artist, Jennifer France, widely praised for her performances in the Company’s recent productions of Ariadne auf Naxos, Flight and Anthropocene, and David Shipley (Rigoletto 2018), a recent graduate of the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. They are both making their role debuts alongside countertenor Morten Grove Frandsen, a winner of Denmark’s Reumert Talent prize. Also in the cast is Scottish tenor and broadcaster, Jamie MacDougall (Ariadne auf Naxos 2018); former Scottish Opera Emerging Artist Michel de Souza (The Cunning Little Vixen 2011); William Morgan (The Magic Flute 2019); Dingle Yandell (Tosca 2019); Victoria Simmonds (Flight 2018) and two Emerging Artists, Charlie Drummond (Iris 2019) and Mark Nathan (Opera Highlights 2019). They are joined by a children’s chorus.
Set in a post-war world, designs for the production are by Tom Piper, famed for the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red installation at the Tower of London.
Audiences also have the chance to see a new work from Scottish Opera Composer in Residence, Samuel Bordoli, entitled Hermia’s Nightmare. Conducted by Timothy Burke, it explores Shakespeare’s text from A Midsummer Night’s Dream that Britten did not set. It will be performed in the theatre foyers before each show at 6.30pm.
Director Dominic Hill said:
I am thrilled to be working again with Scottish Opera. Britten’s opera has such a beguiling score and Shakespeare’s text is one of my favourite of his plays.
Scottish Opera Music Director Stuart Stratford added:
From the glistening glissandi of the strings to the pungent aroma of the solo trombone, it is easy to understand why A Midsummer Night’s Dream is viewed as a masterclass in orchestration and economy of gesture.
Those who wish to discover more about how the production was created can attend A Midsummer Night’s Dream Unwrapped, one-hour tasters delving further into the show, as well as Pre-show Talks. Audience members with a visual impairment can enjoy the full opera experience at audio-described performances, which have a live commentary describing the action on stage without compromising the music.