Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 - 4 November 1847)

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, generally known in English-speaking countries as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.  Mendelssohn's work includes symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano and chamber music. He also had an important role in the revival of interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and antisemitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality is now being recognized and re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era.

The Original Ballet

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a two-act ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music for Shakespeare's play of the same name. In addition to the incidental music, Balanchine incorporated other Mendelssohn works into the ballet including Overtures to Athalie, Son and Stranger, and The Fair Melusine, Symphony No. 9 for Strings and The First Walpurgis Night.  A Midsummer Night's Dream is Balanchine's first completely original full-length ballet, and premiered at New York City Ballet Wednesday, January 17th, 1962 with Edward Villella in the role of Oberon, Melissa Hayden in the role of Titiana, and Arthur Mitchell in the role of Puck. The ballet employs a large children's corps de ballet. 

Shakespeare's Story: A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written around 1594 to 1596. The play portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers, a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke of Athens, Theseus, the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, and with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.

The play features three interlocking plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazonian queen, Hippolyta, and set simultaneously in the woodland, and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon.