A Midsummer Night's Dream [HD DVD]
![A Midsummer Night's Dream [HD DVD]](/images/A-Midsummer-Night-Dream-HD-DVD-B000W2FIJ4-L.jpg)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: BBC Concert Orchestra, George Balanchine, Kershaw, Mendelssohn, Pacific Northwest BalletDVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown)
Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-11-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC / Opus Arte
Movie Reviews of A Midsummer Night's Dream [HD DVD]
Movie Review: A common man's point of view.
Summary: 5 Stars
I noticed some reviewer has stated that the DVD disc he/she received from amazon was defective because it would not play on his/her DVD player. I thought so too, and I purchased the product knowing it was an HD-DVD thinking it would play on my player since it had an HDMI output and was connected to a HD television set. But, guess what? It WON'T play on a non-HD player. I contacted the dealer from whom I bought the HD-DVD and they said they would gladly give me credit for the DVD even though it was opened and MY fault. I decided to keep the HD disc and get myself an HD-player. This disc plays perfectly on the new player, and I am certainly glad I went that route because the picture quality is superb. I now have two players hooked up to my set because the new HD player won't play PAL format discs, whereas, the the non-HD player will.
This ballet has some of the best music your ears will ever have the pleasure to hear. I've always loved Mendelssohn's Incidental Music to A Midsummer Nights Dream, and like someone else said the solo horn passage is one of the best ever written. I just know in my heart that the young Mendelssohn at 17 years of age was having a ball writing this music with the twinkling of fairies and the braying of donkeys, not to mention the antics of love struck adults as only Shakespeare could describe them.
We might as well say something here about Ashton's The Dream because in my mind it is as good as the Balanchine version. The only difference that my unsophisticated untrained eye could see was that The Dream did not have the Duke and Hippolyta nor the palace court divertissements nor, in fact, did it even have a second act, but told the whole story taking place in the Forrest glade. Both stage settings were absolutely magnificent.
Balanchin's use of children for little fairies and bugs of all kinds is a wonderful addition to his version of the ballet and adds to the length as well. The children of the Pacific Northwest Ballet (done at the newly restored Sadler's Wells Theater in London) are students of PNB School' and must have traveled to London with the entire troupe. Don't you just know those little ones were thrilled to get to go to London with everyone else? They are the best trained children's group I have ever seen, though I have only seen children in The Nutcracker, so I am no expert on children in ballet. These children were GOOD to say the least, and the young lady playing "Butterfly" is as good as many "ballerinas". Her performance was delightful to watch, and one day she will be starring in a grand ballet.
I was so delighted with "The Dream", that I got out my volume of the complete works of Shakespeare and read A Midsummer Night's Dream, it being at least 60 years since I had read it (I'm a 77 year old male).And because I have the ballet Romeo and Juliet, I went on to read that story too. If I wasn't too old for antics I would kick myself for waiting this long to become interested in this so beautiful art form.
Notice this version SAYS it is an HD-DVD so anyone buying it must be aware that it will NOT play on a non-HD player. The Dream is not HD but looks FANTASTIC played on the HD player.
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