Midsummer Night’s Dream

It’s 1842, and near the end of his life, when Felix Mendelssohn receives a royal commission to complete his score for Shakespeare’s greatest comedy.

Somehow he must improve upon his world famous Overture written during the flights of his youth – a work still accounted by many as his greatest. Delving into a play that he and his sister used to cherish, his house comes alive as Shakespeare’s fairy world convinces him to believe in himself again.

A heavily cut, yet fully staged version of the play in which Mendelssohn plays Puck and Bottom.

“…surprisingly moving.”

– Bachtrack

Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons.
Remounted at Tanglewood, conducted by Hans Graf.
Written and Directed by Bill Barclay.

Press

“Magical…imaginative stage adaptation that reunited the score with selected moments from the play it was meant to illustrate. Barclay fashioned a theatrical frame involving Mendelssohn as both a young boy and as a mature composer at work on his score.”

– The Boston Globe

“The liminal world of Shakespeare’s moonlit forest was brought brilliantly to light by orchestra, singers and actors. A very Puck-ish looking boy remarked to his mother as everyone awoke in the cacophony and chaos of the street outside,“Mom, that was everything!” Yes, it was, and more.”

-Bachtrack