E X T E N S I O N A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM IN MUSIC Steve Hackett The presence of the world of Fairies and the dreamlike1 quality of most of the play suggested the use of music. In 1692 Henry Purcell produced an operatic version and called it The Fairy Queen. In 1826 the play inspired Felix Mendelssohn to write an Ouverture. Various authors later composed music either2 to accompany the play or2 for ballet adaptations like The Dream, by PeruvianBritish Frederick Ashton, the choreographer of the Royal Ballet, to celebrate Shakespeare s 400th birthday (1964). Some composers set the words of many of the songs in A Midsummer Night s Dream (for example Over hill, over dale that a Fairy sings in Act 2, Scene I) to music3. English composer Ralph Waugham Williams used the texts for a cappella choir4 in 1953 and they are still very popular in choral repertoires5. Another British composer, Benjamin Britten, adapted the play to create an opera with music full of atmospheric harmonies (1960). The plot6 of the opera follows that of the play with a number of alterations, but the wood and the fairies are the centre of all the action. John Neumeier, the famous American ballet dancer and choreographer, used Mendelssohn s music for the ballet that he performed7 with the Bayerische Staatsoper in 1977. In 1997, the rock guitarist and song-writer Steve Hackett, a member of the progressive rock group Genesis, produced a classical adaptation of the play. With the accompaniment of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, he showed all his guitar skills8 in executing the music. 1. dreamlike: unreal like in a dream. 2. either or: it signals an alternative choice. 3. set to music: wrote music to go with words. 4. choir: group of singers. 5. repertoire: songs that a group can perform. 6. plot: story. 7. performed: did. 8. skills: ability. 71