A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Reflections on Benjamin Britten’s Chamber Opera

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-7726.2020.1.33796

Keywords:

Shakespeare, Benjamin Britten, Peter Hall, Adaptação, Intermidialidade.

Abstract

Opera performances, located at the intersection of literature, theater, music and the visual arts, tend to fuse specificities of several art forms. This essay reflects on the libretto and score of the chamber opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1960), by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), based on Shakespeare’s homonymous text (1595-1596), and analyses the 1981 operatic adaptation at Glyndebourne, directed by the renowned theatre director and régisseur Peter Hall (1930-2017). The intermedial dialogues among Shakespeare, Britten and Hall will be investigated in the light of theoretical perspectives by Linda and Michael Hutcheon, Claus Clüver, Jorge Coli, Freda Chapple and others.

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References

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BRITTEN, Benjamin. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1981. Director: Peter Hall. Conductor: Bernard Haitnik. 1 DVD (156 min), color.

BRITTEN, Benjamin. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Overture Opera Guides. Richmond: Overture Publishing, 2011.

BROOKS, Harold F. Introduction: Lyricism, Music and Dance. In: SHAKESPEARE, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Editor: Harold F. Brooks. London: Thomson Learning, 2003. p. cxx-cxxv. (The Arden Shakespeare. Second Series). https://doi.org/10.5040/9781408188095.00000022

CHAPPLE, Freda; KATTENBELT, Chiel (ed). Intermediality in Theatre and Performance. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006. https://doi.org/10.7202/044284ar

CHAPPLE, Freda. Digital Opera: Intermediality, Remediation and Education. In: CHAPPLE, Freda; KATTENBELT, Chiel. (ed). Intermediality in Theatre and Performance. New York: Rodopi, 2006. p. 81-100. https://doi.org/10.7202/044284ar

CLÜVER, Claus. Inter textus/ Inter artes / Inter media. Trad. do alemão de Elcio Loureiro Cornelsen. AletriA: Revista de Estudos de Literatura – Intermidialidade, v.14, p. 11-41, jul./dez. 2006. https://doi.org/10.17851/2317-2096.14.0.10-41

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HUTCHEON, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. London: Routledge, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199331000.013.17

HUTCHEON, Linda; HUTCHEON, Michael. Adaptation and Opera. In: LEITCH, Thomas. (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. p. 305-323.

LEITCH, Thomas. (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

PAVIS, Patrice. Analyzing Performance: Theater, Dance and Film. Trans. David Williams. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2006.

PLANT, Andrew. Night’s Caressing Dream: The Evolution of the Dream. In: BRITTEN, Benjamin. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Overture Opera Guides. Richmond: Overture Publishing, 2011. p. 9-21. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781580819299.01

SANDERS, Julie. Giuseppe Verdi and Benjamin Britten: Case Studies in Shakespearean Opera. In: SANDERS, Julie. Shakespeare and Music: Afterlives and Borrowings. Cambridge UK: Malden USA: Polity Press, 2007. p. 112-134.

SANDERS, Julie. Shakespeare and Music: Afterlives and Borrowings. Cambridge UK: Polity Press, 2007.

SHAKESPEARE, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Editor: Harold F. Brooks. London: Thomson Learning, 2003. (The Arden Shakespeare. Second Series). https://doi.org/10.5040/9781408188095.00000022

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Published

2020-04-28

How to Cite

Camati, A. S. (2020). A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Reflections on Benjamin Britten’s Chamber Opera. Letras De Hoje, 55(1), e33796. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-7726.2020.1.33796

Issue

Vol. 55 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Qual é a amplitude da literatura quando a palavra lit. se espalha pelas artes?

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