Edward Benjamin Britten is an iconic figure of 20th-century British classical music. His works range from orchestral and chamber compositions, to full operas and other vocal music. Some scholars view Britten’s operatic works as masterpieces, and applaud him for his sincere ability and interpretation of theme, characterization, and melodic contour. An opera that is taken from an already whimsical Shakespearean play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is of valuable evidence that Britten embodied a rare type of ingenuity when composing for the stage.
Benjamin Britten: A Brief Biological Sketch
Edward Benjamin Britten is an iconic figure of 20th-century British classical music. His works range from orchestral and chamber compositions, to full operas and other vocal music. Born November 22, 1913 in Suffolk, England, Britten displayed his musical gift at an early age. He was born on the feast day of Saint Cecilia, who, ironically, is the patron saint of music. He was born to Robert Victor Britten, who was a dentist, and his wife Edith Rhoda, her was a secretary and an amateur musician. Music inevitably helped the Britten family maintain their social status, as well as bring them closer together as a family. Edith Britten would often invite the community to the house for mini concerts.
By the time Britten was able to understand, Edith gave him piano and theory lessons. As musically inclined as he was, Britten attempted his first composition by the age of five. Many of Britten’s siblings were disinterested in music, including his father, who did not allow any type of radio in the household. Because of this, Britten is one of the only composers of the 20th and 21st centuries to learn music solely through live performance.
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... London: Faber and Faber, 2009. 97-99. Print.
JF52opera. "Britten - A Midsummer Night's Dream (complete - ST Eng-fr-de-it-esp)." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
"Operas." Britten-Pears Foundation -. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
Riley, Matthew. British Music and Modernism, 1895-1960. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2010. Print.
White, Michael. "Classical Music: Sweet Dream, Sour Looks." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 22 May 1994. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
White, Michael. "ENO's Shocking New Paedophile Midsummer Night's Dream Is Brilliant, and I Hated It." Culture ENOs Shocking New Paedophile Midsummer Nights Dream Is Brilliant and I Hated It Comments. The Telegraph, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
Woolfe, Zachary. "A World of Childhood Innocence Intersects With a Grown-Up Reality." The New York Times. N.p., 13 Oct. 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
In Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream he entices the reader using character development, imagery, and symbolism. These tools help make it a wonderful play for teens, teaching them what a well-written comedy looks like. As well as taking them into a story they won’t soon forget.
Fairies, mortals, magic, love, and hate all intertwine to make A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare a very enchanting tale, that takes the reader on a truly dream-like adventure. The action takes place in Athens, Greece in ancient times, but has the atmosphere of a land of fantasy and illusion which could be anywhere. The mischievousness and the emotions exhibited by characters in the play, along with their attempts to double-cross destiny, not only make the tale entertaining, but also help solidify one of the play’s major themes; that true love and it’s cleverly disguised counterparts can drive beings to do seemingly irrational things.
Beethoven acquired his first post in music when he was just eleven years old. At this age he work as the assistant to the organist in a local court. Later on at the age of thirteen he played keyboard during opera rehearsals. His first real performance came when he was eighteen; Beethoven played the viola in a local theatre orchestra. He played with this orchestra until the age of twenty-two.
This is the second volume of Richard Taruskin's historical work, and it highlights composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He examines the progression of different styles and eras of music.
Shakespeare, William. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The Pelican Shakespeare. New York: Penguin Books Inc. 2000.
Georg Friederich Handel (he later anglicized his name) was born at Halle, Saxony, Germany on February 23, 1685. He was the son of a barber-surgeon that opposed a career in music for a great deal of his life. But at age 8, Handel was allowed to study music with the local organist, Zachau. In January 1702, Handel entered Halle University as a law student, but was soon appointed organist of the Domkirche at Halle. In the year following, he abandoned his native town and settled in Hamburg where he studied the violin, then the harpsichord at the only opera house in all of Germany.
Marita Bonner starts her short essay by describing the joys and innocence of youth. She depicts the carefree fancies of a cheerful and intelligent child. She compares the feelings of such abandonment and gaiety to that of a kitten in a field of catnip. Where the future is opened to endless opportunities and filled with all the dream and promises that only a youth can know. There are so many things in the world to see, learn, and experience that your mind in split into many directions of interest. This is a memorable time in life filled with bliss and lack of hardships.
At the age of five years his father began instruct him violin playing, and at eight the musical director, Pfeifer, undertook his training on the piano while the court organist Van den Eden and his successor Christian Gottlab Neefe instructed him in organ playing harmony and composition. As a pianist he made such rapid progress that in a few years he was able to interpret Bach's well-tempered Clavichord and his improvise in a masterly fashion. At thirteen years of age he gave forth his first compositions a set six sonatas. These and some other productions of his early youth later repudiated and destroyed. When he was fifteen Elector Maximilian whose assistant court organist he had in the meantime become unable young Beethoven to visit Vienna.
On the 18th of March, 2016, Miami City Ballet performed Shakespeare’s sublime play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This casting took place at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami Beach, Florida. A Midsummer Night’s Dream followed the romantic adventures and misadventures, quarrels and reconciliations, of two pairs of mortal lovers, as well as the King and Queen of all the fairies. Throughout the course of this paper, an analysis of the choreography, demonstrated principles of dance and the effectiveness of the message conveyed during A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s will be discussed in detail.
Schanzer, Ernest. "_A Midsummer-Night's Dream." 26-31 in Kenneth Muir, ed. Shakespeare: The Comedies: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1965.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square Press, 2004.
Shakespeare, William, and Russ McDonald. A Midsummer Night's Dream. New York, NY: Penguin, 2000. Print.
Holt, J. (2013). Escape from childhood. In J. Noll (Ed.), Taking Sides: clashing views on
Considered to be the greatest playwright to ever have lived, William Shakespeare’s works continue to fascinate and entrance audiences around the world. Imbued with imagery, his comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream is perhaps one of his more fantastic but none the less intricate plays. Presiding over the proceedings, the moon is the uniting feature of the play. With its multi-layered symbolism it is the thread that connects the different characters and weaves the tale together.
Burke, Kenneth. “Why A Midsummer Night's Dream?”. Shakespeare Quarterly 57. 3 (2006): 297-308. Web. 25 Apr 2014.