Review: BBC PROMS: PROM 68 – BRITTEN'S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Royal Albert Hall

“What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?” More often than not, when Shakespeare is adapted into different formats, the text is largely lost but the story remains - not so in this case.

Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears opted to go without a librettist, instead taking Shakespeare’s words and shuffling parts of the play about a bit. It certainly makes sense that work from such a lyrical playwright could be directly transformed into song, and by and large it feels like quite a natural transition.

Although there is a great wealth of comic opera out there, A Midsummer Night’s Dream doesn’t necessarily seem like an obvious candidate for the operatic treatment; if the production is approached in the right way, there is still comedy to be found, but if the focus is mostly on the music then it may not be recognisable as the funny play that it is.

Thankfully Garsington Opera’s production does keep humour in mind, employing physical comedy where possible - given that this was a semi-staged version, and the performers were competing with the orchestra, visual laughs were definitely the safest bet. The opera places more focus on ‘fairy land’, as the whole thing begins in the forest with Oberon and Titania, and much of the score has a mystical and magical quality; this is an interesting take, though the relative lack of levity does make parts of the opera feel longer than it is.

Captions were utilised once again, which proved to be incredibly helpful on quite a few instances when the singers were drowned out by the orchestra. It’s possible that the step up to a venue with roughly ten times the capacity proved difficult to bridge, and it by no means spoiled the enjoyment of the evening.

The Garsington Opera Youth Company threatened to steal the show as the troupe of fairies, largely interacting with Jerone Marsh-Reid’s breakdancing Puck (the only member of the company to speak their lines rather than sing them), however Iestyn Davies’ turn as Oberon was incredibly memorable. To juxtapose his angelic voice with the cruelty of the King of the Fairies only made the character more sinister, particularly when he turns his attention to manipulating Tytania.

Huge plaudits should also go to Daniel Vening, who stepped up at the last minute to take on the major role of Bottom. Vening was designated cover during the production’s run this summer, so was able to perform off-book and to great aplomb - his Nick Bottom had just the right balance of pomposity and enthusiasm, making it clear why his fellow Mechanicals relied on his acting insights during the staging of their play. Vening’s efforts were loudly appreciated by the audience and the entire company, and justly so.

The 2024 edition of the Proms has been quite a ‘Dreamy’ one, with Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and excerpts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mendelssohn’s Version) preceding this performance of Britten’s opera - incidentally the first time it has featured at the Proms. This decision cannot have been taken lightly; perhaps it’s wishful thinking on the part of the organisers that we might yet wake up and realise that the past few years have just been a bad dream.

Whatever the reasoning, it’s been fascinating to see yet more ways in which Shakespeare’s work can be interpreted - by composers across the centuries and by present-day producers. A fitting component of the final week of this season.

The BBC Proms run at the Royal Albert Hall until 14 September

Photo credit: BBC/Chris Christodolou

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