A Midsummer Night's Dream at Grand Théâtre de Genève

Benjamin Britten’s operas open the doors to many different worlds, but if one of them stands out of the lot, it is certainly A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the English composer’s felicitous merging of his musical sensitivity with Shakespeare’s pen, when dipped in fairy ink. In this essential work of 20th century opera, the fanciful and dream-like qualities of Shakespeare’s comedy are aptly rendered, thanks to the many interventions of the mischievous Puck, who demonstrates to what extent love is of a transient and bizarre nature. But Britten brings this to a higher level by employing many different elements from the history of opera and a multifaceted chamber orchestra that begins by depicting Nature’s awakening and then enters into a marvellous evocation of the fairy kingdom’s romantic atmosphere, as well as the more grotesque world of the rude mechanicals.