CC 1.3 ALTERNATE Snow Day Assignment Sections MW3AF, MW3BF, and W5 Spring 2010 William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, and Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Please do the following: Read William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, paying particular attention to Acts 1 and 2. Listen to and study some of the music Henry Purcell composed for his semi‐opera The Fairy Queen, based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (Can be found at the end of the Rhapsody Listening List.) View the video of the opening and first two acts of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in the English National Opera (ENO) production. In this version the speaking roles were eliminated and the music was used to support a modern ballet interpretation of the Purcell. Answer the following questions (be sure to give specific examples whenever possible): ‐ How did the ENO performance of the Purcell compare to the original Shakespeare play? What was similar and what was different? ‐ What did you think of Purcell’s music and how it related to Shakespeare’s story? ‐ Which music made the strongest impression on you and why? ‐ What did you think about the staging? ‐ Knowing the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was it possible for you to follow the story in this version? ‐ Would you have preferred that the ENO had staged The Fairy Queen as Purcell intended, with actors performing a condensed version of the Shakespeare play before each musical section? Why? ‐ What was the most memorable moment in this production of the Purcell? ‐ Which piece of music from the first two acts of A Fairy Queen made the strongest impression upon you? Why? Page 1 of 2 CC 1.3 ALTERNATE Snow Day Assignment Sections MW3AF, MW3BF, and W5 Spring 2010 Now view Act One of Benjamin Britten’s 1960 opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream, based on the Shakespeare play. ‐ How was Shakespeare’s plot adapted for this first act? (What was different and what was the same?) ‐ Was it easy to tell where you were in Shakespeare’s story? ‐ As this was composed as a true opera, how did it feel to have music play such an important role in the production? ‐ Since Britten’s opera is a work composed more than 250 years after the Purcell, there are noticeable stylistic differences. Keeping that in mind, how do you feel Britten’s music relates to the original Shakespeare play? ‐ At which moment in the first act of the Britten opera did the music most impress you? ‐ Thinking now of all three versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream‐ the Shakespeare play, the Purcell semi‐opera, and the Britten opera ‐ what are the musical advantages and disadvantages when staging the original play? ‐ What are the musical advantages and disadvantages when staging a semi‐opera version (spoken dialogue from the play followed by musical numbers)? ‐ What are the musical advantages and disadvantages when staging an operatic version (everything sung and music throughout)? Page 2 of 2