Available online
George Balanchine’s take on Shakespearean comedy may be more geometric than romantic, but the most delicate moments of this performance are truly enchanting
Now that all arts consumption is online, geography is no barrier, and there are chances to see shows that rarely land on UK shores. San Francisco Ballet opens its 2021 digital season with one such work, George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, from 1962. In Britain we have our own classic take on the Shakespeare comedy, Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, made two years later in 1964. But while both are based on the same Mendelssohn music (originally composed for a production of the play), they’re notably different.
Ashton’s version is shorter, more focused on drama and comedy, and built around a swooningly romantic duet for Oberon and Titania. Balanchine doesn’t even have the fairy king and queen dance together, which perhaps says something about his stance on true romance – or his interpretation of Shakespeare’s, at least.
