A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Movie Reviews of A Midsummer Night's Dream
Movie Review: Bravo!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am both a music major and a huge Mendelssohn fan, so recieving this was a real treat. The music is brilliant, the choreography is great, and overall it was a great performance. I love watching it.Movie Review: Patricia Barker Is Perfect! Perfect Form, Grace, Beauty!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a lovely production and Patricia Barker is beautiful, a worder to behold. I only wish she had recorded more works.Movie Review: Great DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed this production ... the costumes where nice too, as well as the scenery. Definitely a good buy.Movie Review: Enchanting!
Summary: 4 Stars
George Balanchine is remembered most for his one-act, abstract, storyless ballets and is thought to have shunned the full-evening ballets that tell a story. Yet his version of "The Nutcracker" is an annual Christmas money-maker for the ballet company Balanchine helped found (the New York City Ballet) and that company's summer season often closes with his other great story ballet, "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Indeed, the two ballets in many ways seem to be stamped from the same cookie cutter. Both dispose of their drama in the first act and use the second act to dazzle the audience with some splendid divertissements; both ignore the sacred roots of the Christian "feast days" they were created around (the Nativity of our Lord for "The Nutcracker" and the Nativity of St. John the Baptist for "A Midsummer Night's Dream"); and both are littered with ample roles for the School of American Ballet's many child dancers (in "Nutcracker" they are cast as greedy, mutually teasing, parent-manipulated brats romping around the Christmas tree; in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" they are charming, almost camp, butterflies and fairies...though one page does get caught in a custody battle between Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies.)If Balanchine resented choreographing these two story ballets, he hid his resentment well. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is for me the better ballet. The children are well-integrated into what is certainly an adult storyline of sexual jealousy and comical mishaps. And the Pacific Northwest Ballet under the artistic direction of Francia Russell have done Mr. B. proud. Martin Pakledinaz's costumes rival those of Karinska (would it be sacrilege to admit I actually prefer his over hers?) and his set design, with it's oversized frogs and flower blossoms, playfully dwarfs the dancers, reminding us that most of the characters on stage are actually miniature fairyland creatures. The dancers all perform beautifully, with Seth Belliston's Puck stealing the show. My favorite part of the ballet has always been the subplot of the four young lovers: Helena, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. They are virtually interchangeable; this is signaled by their costumes--one pair wears blue on red, the other red on blue. Due to Puck's inept intervention, the lovers' interests switch with lightning speed. It is truly amusing to watch this amorous tempest in a teapot play out. (My reason for giving this wonderful ballet video 4 stars instead of 5 is that I felt the filming of this pas de quatre spoiled the energy of this scene. When all four dancers are on stage, you really need to see what each one is doing to appreciate all the subtleties of the dance. The emphasis on close-ups and medium close-ups seemed to defuse the dramatic and comic tension that Balanchine so artfully created. But this is not the fault of the dancers--Lisa Apple, Julie Tobiason, Ross Yearsley, and Jeffrey Stanton give it everything they've got.) Children will enjoy seeing Titania fall in love with Bottom who has been given a donkey's head and who finds himself unable to completely return her love because of his new found love of sweet grasses.
The second act dancing is beautiful, but courtly and staid. The music draws from a number of works by Felix Mendelssohn, not just from the title work. The vocal pieces sung by Libby Crabtree and Judith Harris were especially nice. the DVD has no extras, but the 12-page color booklet is crammed with interesting information.
Movie Review: Unkindest Cut of All
Summary: 2 Stars
This would have been an exquisite DVD if it hadn't been edited on rusty Cuisinart. The editing of this video is a crime; everyone involved in this project should be enraged.
Balanchine instructed the editors of film versions of his ballets to "edit on the breaths" or words to that effect. Whoever did this edit cuts mechanically from one POV to the next completely without regard for the action on stage, the rhythm of the music or the dance, or any sense of his own timing. The result is nauseating.
I'm not writing this to dissuade you from buying the dvd; it is a lovely performance of a great ballet. I am hoping that somehow word gets back to the hack who edited this thing that he or she should be ashamed.