George Balanchine鈥檚 A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream, which returns to New York City Ballet from May 28 to June 2, 2024, is but one of many Shakespearean ballets in the annals of dance. The late, great critic Clive Barnes originally wrote this story in the spring of 2005.
The appeal Shakespeare has for choreographers, past and present, classic and modern, is nothing less than amazing. Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Tempest, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, Richard III鈥� Why, Martha Graham in Eye of Anguish even took on, at least obliquely, King Lear.
Fascinatingly, choreographers tend not to take the text of Shakespeare鈥攈ow could they?鈥攂ut instead to work from Shakespearean themes or stories. And ironically, one of the few absolutely sure things we know about the elusive Bard is that he never made up his own stories: There are non-Shakespearean 鈥渟ources鈥� for all of the plays.
So why pick on Shakespeare? The answer is clear enough. It was Shakespeare who gave these stories their familiarity and, perhaps equally important, their name recognition, the latter always a significant fact in selecting the subject for a ballet scenario.
Apart from the ubiquitous Romeo and Juliet, the most popular Shakespearean theme for dance is A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream, and the most popular music for a Midsummer ballet is Mendelssohn. The music is not an actual ballet score but instead consists of a shimmering Overture, composed right at the dazzling beginning of Mendelssohn鈥檚 career when he was 17, and the incidental music he wrote for the play in 1842, some 17 years later and towards the end of his life.
I believe the first ballet to A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream was Marius Petipa鈥檚 version for the Maryinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg in 1876. It was this that Michel Fokine in 1906 adapted and amended for students of the Imperial School. The cast included Vaslav Nijinsky, and it proved one of the very early works of Fokine to capture the attention of the impresario Serge Diaghilev. Fokine later reworked the score into Les Elfes for his own company at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1924. In 1933 Col. W. de Basil鈥檚 Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo staged David Lichine鈥檚 first ballet, Nocturne, using not Mendelssohn but Rameau music, with Alexandra Danilova as Titania, L茅onide Massine as Oberon, and Lichine himself as Puck.
But the four most interesting versions for me are George Balanchine鈥檚 for New York City Ballet in 1962, Frederick Ashton鈥檚 for Britain鈥檚 Royal Ballet in 1964, John Neumeier鈥檚 for the Hamburg Ballet in 1977, and Christopher Wheeldon鈥檚 for the Colorado Ballet in 2000. All, except for the Ashton, are full-evening ballets. Wheeldon鈥檚 version not unexpectedly owes something to both Ashton and Balanchine. Neumeier鈥檚 version鈥攚hich is by far the most adventurous and original and incorporates modern music by Gy枚rgy Ligeti鈥攈as also been staged by the Paris Opera Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet.
Both the Balanchine and the Ashton have been produced throughout the world. Interestingly, apart from versions of Le Baiser de la F茅e, it is only with the two contrasting, competitive Dreams that these two great choreographers went, as it were, pointed toe to pointed toe. It proves to be pretty much a tie. Ashton鈥檚 is the more Shakespearean and, perhaps naturally, the more English. Like Wheeldon鈥檚, it has at its heart a pas de deux for Titania and Oberon, a device scrupulously eschewed by Balanchine. His version鈥攚hich has a virtually plotless divertissement to various Mendelssohn pieces as its second act鈥攊s the more Germanic, with Oberon as an elf, and thus possibly the more Mendelssohnian.
Surprisingly, both ballets tell the story of the mixed doubles of lovers more succinctly and probably with more clarity than any production of the play I have ever seen. The first performance of the Balanchine was at the City Center of Music and Drama on January 17, 1962, with a cast including Melissa Hayden as Titania, Edward Villella as Oberon, and Arthur Mitchell as Puck; Patricia McBride, Nicholas Magallanes, Jillana, and Bill Carter as the lovers; and Violette Verdy and Conrad Ludlow leading the Act II divertissement. Since its premiere鈥攖he first original full-evening ballet to be staged in the United States鈥攊t has played a key role in the City Ballet repertory, in recent years becoming virtually a warm-weather Nutcracker.
In some ways, the choice of subject matter seems an odd one for Balanchine. He once said, 鈥淚t is really impossible to dance Shakespeare ... he is a poet.鈥� More unexpectedly he often claimed to have found his inspiration for the ballet after he saw the link between Bottom, after his transmogrification back from donkey, saying, 鈥渢he eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen,鈥� and St. Paul鈥檚 famous 鈥渢he eye hath not seen, nor ear heard ... the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.鈥�
How Shakespeare鈥檚 naughty, irreligious twist could inspire this lovely ballet is anyone鈥檚 guess. But, hey, whatever works鈥nd, quite clearly, it works wonderfully.
