The Glyndebourne Festival continues its admirable project of releasing recordings of live performances from its archive with a 2006 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. While there are details in which it may not compete with several of the finest recordings, including Britten's own, it is an entirely engaging account of the opera. Its strengths include the compelling sweep of Ilan Volkov's conducting and the performances of several of the leads. Volkov conveys a confident grasp of the score's momentum. It's an ...
Read More
The Glyndebourne Festival continues its admirable project of releasing recordings of live performances from its archive with a 2006 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. While there are details in which it may not compete with several of the finest recordings, including Britten's own, it is an entirely engaging account of the opera. Its strengths include the compelling sweep of Ilan Volkov's conducting and the performances of several of the leads. Volkov conveys a confident grasp of the score's momentum. It's an impressive accomplishment, since in less assured hands it's easy for the opera to come off as episodic, but Volkov sustains a dramatic urgency that drives the sometime high, sometimes raw, energy of the live performance. The London Philharmonic Orchestra starts off shakily in the delicately filigreed prelude, but quickly pulls together and the playing thereafter is secure and gorgeously colorful. The strings' tone, particularly when Britten's scoring is at its most transparent, is...
Read Less
Add this copy of Midsummer Night's Dream to cart. $44.17, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by Glyndebourne.
