Product Details

• Actors: Ileana Cotrubas, James Bowman, Ryland Davies, Dale Duesing, Cynthia Buchan
• Directors: Dave Heather
• Writers: Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, William Shakespeare
• Producers: Herbert Chappell
• Format: Classical, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Kultur Video
• VHS Release Date: May 9, 1995
• Run Time: 156 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303445586
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #286,043 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This production triumphantly fulfills a complex and difficult assignment. Gossamer fantasy may be the hardest style to put into operatic form, and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is particularly challenging. Some of the challenge lies in its various levels of action and characterization, each demanding a different kind of music: fairies and mortals, nobles and peasants, lovers and buffoons, not to mention its play-within-a-play, its intricate subplots, and its contrasts between earthy and unworldly creatures, mundane and magic environments. Britten took up that challenge with rich imagination and brilliant technique, and the 1982 Glyndebourne production brings his vision to the stage (and the video screen) with remarkable precision.

Perhaps the most remarkable of several outstanding performances is that of countertenor James Bowman, singing lightly, flexibly, and expressively in the challenging role of Oberon. Ileana Cotrubas is equally impressive as his wife and sparring partner Tytania. The supporting cast is excellent, the visuals are atmospherically exotic, and conductor Bernard Haitink's style is exactly right. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely music and production, February 21, 2005

By 

D. Smith "verdiFan" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Britten - A Midsummer Night's Dream / Bowman, Cotrubas, Lott, Buchanan, Davies, Duesing, Haitink, Glyndebourne Opera (DVD)

I think Britten handled Shakespeare very well here, and I only wish he had set other Shakespeare plays into opera. The mechanicals were very funny and I thought the lovers quite convincing, though not teenagers. Britten seemed to trust children in his operas as his career went on; here the fairies are all children (except Oberon and Titania) and Puck is especially tricky as a little boy. I thought Cotrubas was a very effective Titania and wished that a recent production of the play I saw (not the opera) had such an imperious fairy queen. I was not crazy about the Oberon, but it was Britten's choice to have a high male voice for the part, for good dramatic reason, to stress his difference from humans; but I found the voice to lack power. Others have said they did not like the woods, but I found them quite magical and for me, they worked very well, giving a rustling magical forest feeling. The mechanicals are funny and their opera within an opera is silly and touching.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dream come true, September 12, 2004

By 

Richard (Minneapolis, Mongolia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Britten - A Midsummer Night's Dream / Bowman, Cotrubas, Lott, Buchanan, Davies, Duesing, Haitink, Glyndebourne Opera (DVD)

I've been waiting for this to arrive on DVD having fallen in love with it on LaserDisk. And it has been worth the wait. Britten is up to the task of turning Shakespeare into opera. He devises a different sound for each of the three forces - the fairies, the mortals and the rustics. The casting is ideal with a young Cotrubas as Titania outstanding. Bernard Haitink keeps everything moving. And Peter Hall gives it a magical production with an eerie forest where the trees seem to have a life of their own. All comes to a head in the Pyramus and Thysbe drama played as a hilarious spoof of bel canto. Let yourself be translated to fairyland.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Music, January 22, 2005

By 

John L. Archer (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Britten - A Midsummer Night's Dream / Bowman, Cotrubas, Lott, Buchanan, Davies, Duesing, Haitink, Glyndebourne Opera (DVD)

The London Philharmonic, the truly spectacular boy's voices, and some great opera singing show off the extraordinary brilliance of Britten's composition and make this recording a necessary part of a serious opera collection. But don't expect the same from the production. The sets and costumes leave much to be desired. None of the lovers look convincing, and the "moving branches" that constitute the forest make one think of Macbeth's Birnam Woods a bit too often! A "low budget" production can often work very well for live opera performances, but with zoom lenses on the cameras and a relatively large screen home theater, the flaws distract. I enjoyed some of the scenes more by turning away from the screen and just listening.