2013 Salzburg Fest­iv­al:

Com­edy by Wil­li­am Shakespeare (1564–1616)
In­cid­ent­al mu­sic by Fe­lix Mendels­sohn Bartholdy (1809–1847)
Trans­la­tion and edi­tion by Henry Ma­son

Theseus has de­feated the Amazon queen Hip­polyta in battle; now their wed­ding is im­min­ent. In the flurry of activ­ity of the last pre­par­a­tions for the feast, a fath­er turns up whose daugh­ter loves the wrong man. Hence Theseus is sup­posed to sen­tence the un­ruly young wo­man – her name is Her­mia – to death. But she es­capes to find her lov­er, Lysander, at night in the woods where he is furi­ously pur­sued both by his jilted rival and that young man’s erstwhile lov­er.

Mean­while a group of ar­tis­ans are re­hears­ing a play that they want to per­form on the oc­ca­sion of their Duke’s wed­ding. Ad­ded to which, Ober­on and Ti­tania, the fairy King and Queen, are quar­rel­ling and wily Puck haunts the place with his an­arch­ic mis­chief...

In A Mid­sum­mer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare mas­ter­fully ties to­geth­er these com­plex lay­ers of ac­tion to form an or­gan­ic whole. But even if the com­edy at first seems simple and plaus­ible enough – on closer scru­tiny it dis­plays the com­plex­ity and am­bi­gu­ity in­her­ent only in dreams.

Mi­chael Rotschopf, Theseus / Ober­on
Ka­roline Eich­horn, Hip­polyta / Ti­tania
Chris­ti­an Hi­ger, Egeus / Old Fairy
Tanja Raunig, Her­mia
Daniel Jeroma, Lysander
Claudi­us von Stolzmann, De­met­ri­us
Eva Maria Som­mers­berg, Helena
Markus Mey­er, Puck
Raphael Clamer, Quince
Paul Her­wig, Bot­tom (Pyra­mus)
Bar­bara Spitz, Snouz (Wall) / Mus­tard­seed
Chris­ti­an Graf, Flute (Thisbe) / Cob­web
Math­i­as Schlung, Snug (Li­on) / Peaseblos­som
Re­in­hold G. Mor­itz, Starveling (Moon)/Moth
Luke Gi­ac­om­in, Joaquín Fernández, Dan­cer
Chiara Sker­ath, Soph­ie Ren­nert, Fair­ies / Ladies in Wait­ing

Henry Ma­son, dir­ect­or
Jan Mei­er, dets and cos­tumes
Mario Ils­anker, light­ing
Francesc Abós, cho­reo­graphy
Matt McK­en­zie for Auto­graph, sound

Moz­ar­teum Or­ches­tra Salzburg
Ivor Bolton, con­duct­or