Hints and tips:
...Balanchine appeared in Dream as a child at the Imperial Ballet School in St Petersburg and learnt there to love the play....
...His own story ballets pay homage to these beginnings not only in their many child parts but also in their childlike spirit: the constant action, the economy of means, and, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for...
...Their approach is not to stage a straightforward production of a play but to respond to it: pare it down, open it up, peer inside – rather like a child entranced by the workings of a watch....
...And I was unconvinced by the playroom concept for the production, with each of the characters played by a figure from the toy box (Lysander and Demetrius as clockwork soldiers; Hermia and Helena as dolls...
...All four lovers are in fine voice, with Miriam Gordon-Stewart’s crystal- clear Helena and Nmon Ford’s warmly confident Demetrius giving especial pleasure....
International Edition