MUSIC

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) continues its 54th season with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, British composer Benjamin Britten’s masterful setting of William Shakespeare’s play of the same name.

Following HGO’s acclaimed production of Billy Budd last season, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the second opera in a multi-year series of works by Britten.

“Benjamin Britten’s operas continue the great line of central operatic creations from Monteverdi in the 17th century through Mozart, Handel, Verdi, Wagner, Strauss and Janáček,” explained HGO General Director Anthony Freud.

“In embarking on a Britten series, we are working to introduce our audiences, on a long-term and ongoing basis, to a group of works that deserves to be at the very heart of the operatic repertoire.”

HGO will present a series of Britten operas through the 2012–13 season, which marks the centennial of the composer’s birth.

“Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream seems to do the impossible; it weds 20th-century music to a 16th-century play, cuts the text in half, and creates an enjoyable and wholly different work,” said HGO Music Director Patrick Summers, who will conduct A Midsummer Night’s Dream. “It is a story of metamorphosis and transcendence, which deals with the dueling perceptions of reality and fantasy.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was last performed at HGO in 1993, returns to the Wortham Theater Center in a new production by Australian director Neil Armfield, who also directed HGO’s Billy Budd.

Welsh countertenor Iestyn Davies will make his company debut as Oberon, king of the fairies, and his queen, Tytania will be sung by Houston favorite soprano Laura Claycomb (pictured) (Marie in HGO’s Daughter of the Regiment, 2007).

Studio alumni Norman Reinhardt (Benedict in HGO’s Beatrice and Benedict, 2008) will sing the role of Lysander, Liam Bonner (Claudio in HGO’s Beatrice and Benedict, 2008) will sing Demetrius and Marie Lenormand (Siebel in HGO’s Faust, 2007) will sing Hermia.

Making their company debuts, Soprano Katie van Kooten sing the role of Helena and British bass-baritone Matthew Rose will sing his much acclaimed role of Bottom.

HGO Music Director and Conductor Patrick Summers leads the cast with the the HGO Orchestra and Chorus. (Richard Bado, HGO Chorus Master).

Sets and costumes are designed by Australian Dale Ferguson and lighting design is by Australian Damien Cooper.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a co-production with the Canadian Opera Company.

About the opera:
The king and queen of the fairies are feuding, two mortal couples break up and make up thanks (or no thanks!) to the juice of a magic flower, and the Duke of Athens is getting ready to wed the Queen of the Amazons—there’s a whole lot going on in the forest just outside Athens!

The libretto, based on William Shakespeare’s play of the same name, was adapted by the composer and Peter Pears. The opera closely follows the plot and language of the original play with the exception of the opening scene, which takes place in the forest and not in the city of Athens.

It had a successful premiere at the Aldeburgh Festival on June 11, 1960 and was quickly programmed by other companies. In 1961 the opera was seen at Covent Garden, Hamburg, Berlin, Milan, San Francisco, Zűrich, and Tokyo.

Sung in English with English supertitles, A Midsummer Night’s Dream opens on Friday, January 23, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in the Brown Theater at the Wortham Theater Center.