A Midsummer Night's Dream by Britten, From (2021/2021), Directed by Sir Peter Hall, Lynne Hockney, Conductor Wolfgang Wengenroth, Anja Bihlmaier, Malmö Opera, Malmo, Sweden

The opera A Midsummer Night's Dream is based on Shakespeare's famous comedy of the same name. Benjamin Britten and his life partner, the singer Peter Pears, adapted Shakespeare's play and wrote the opera for the re-opening of the Aldeburgh Opera House in 1960. The first performance took place on 11 June, with Britten himself as conductor. Within a year it was performed all over Europe and became one of Britten's most popular operas. In Sweden, it was performed for the first time at the Royal Opera in Stockholm in 1962. Britten arranged the characters and the instruments according to a careful sound plan. All humans in the opera have traditional voice boxes, while the supernatural beings move in higher registers: the fairies are gossopranos, the fairy queen Tytania coloratura soprano, and the fairy king Oberon countertenor (male alto). Puck does not sing, but speaks rhythmically, and is usually played by a boy with acrobatic talent. A curiosity is that Britten got the idea for how Puck would be portrayed during a visit to Sweden, when he saw some child actors who were very clever and skilled mimes.