Britten: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

How do you turn Shakespeare into opera? It was all right for the likes of Verdi, who used translations; Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears used scissors, trimming the play into a singable form, adding one important line and generally insinuating the familiar Britten tropes of guilt and innocence. Here it’s performed in a co-production with Scottish Opera and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, conducted by Timothy Dean and directed by Olivia Fuchs.

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Scottish Opera celebrate the 100th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s birth with a revival of Olivia Fuchs’ 2005 production for the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio. Adapted from the Shakespeare play in collaboration withPeter Pears, Britten’s version is centred on the ethereal world of the fairies rather than the human action at the heart of the original.