A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Album by Benjamin Britten & Sylvia McNair & Brian Asawa & Robert Lloyd & London Symphony Orchestra & Sir Colin Davis

A Midsummer Night's Dream is an opera by English composer Benjamin Britten, first performed in 1960. The score combines lyrical vocal writing, intricate chamber-like orchestration and modern harmonic language to evoke Shakespeare's fairy world, and it is a mid-career work that further developed Britten's approach to operatic drama and vocal writing.
First released: 19th November 1996

Tracklist

  1. 1.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. "Flower of this purple dye" (Oberon, Puck, Lysander, Helena, Detrius, Hermia)
    6:29
  2. 2.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "Over hill, over dale" (Fairies, Puck)
    3:51
  3. 3.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. "Puppet? Why so?" (Hermia, Helena, Lysander, Demetrius)
    3:27
  4. 4.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "Oberon is passing fell and wrath" (Fairies, Oberon, Tytania)
    3:18
  5. 5.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "Well, go thy way" (Oberon, Puck)
    3:38
  6. 6.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. "This is thy negligence" (Oberon, Puck)
    1:50
  7. 7.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. "Up and down, up and down" (Puck, Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, Hermia)
    5:36
  8. 8.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "How now, my love" (Lysanda, Hermia)
    4:26
  9. 9.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. "On the ground, sleep sound" (Fairies)
    3:23
  10. 10.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull" (Oberon, Demetrius, Helena)
    3:39
  11. 11.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "Welcome, wanderer!" (Oberon)
    5:45
  12. 12.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "My gentle Robin, see’st thou this sweet sight?" (Oberon, Puck, Tytania)
    8:04
  13. 13.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "Helena! - Hermia! - Demetrius! - Lysander!" (Demetrius, Lysander, Helena, Hermia)
    6:13
  14. 14.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "Is all our company here?" (Rustics)
    6:35
  15. 15.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "When my cue comes, call me" (Bottom)
    3:37
  16. 16.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "Fair love, you faint with wand’ring in the wood" (Lysander, Hermia)
    3:21
  17. 17.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "Through the forest I have gone" (Puck)
    1:37
  18. 18.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "Have you sent to Bottom’s house?" (Rustics)
    4:50
  19. 19.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "Now, fair Hyppolyta" (Theseus, Hyppolyta, Lysander, Demerius, Helena, Hermia)
    4:48
  20. 20.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius" (Helena, Demetrius, Lysanda, Hermia)
    5:13
  21. 21.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "If we offend, it is with our good will" (Rustics)
    1:24
  22. 22.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song" (Tytania)
    2:11
  23. 23.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "You spotted snakes with double tongue" (Yaogd;)
    2:20
  24. 24.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show" (Quince/Prologue)
    1:26
  25. 25.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act I. "What thou seest when thou dost awake" (Oberon)
    2:35
  26. 26.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "In this same interlude it doth befall" (Snout/Wall)
    1:05
  27. 27.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. Introduction: the Wood
    3:20
  28. 28.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "O grim-look’d night, o night with hue so black" (Bottom/Pyramus)
    1:53
  29. 29.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "O Wall, full often hast thou heard my moans" (Flute/Thisby, Bottom/Pyramus)
    2:26
  30. 30.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. "Are we all met?" (Rustics, Puck)
    6:47
  31. 31.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "You, ladies, you whose gentle hearts do fear" (Snug/Lion)
    0:50
  32. 32.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. "I see their knavery" (Bottom, Tytania, Fairies)
    3:11
  33. 33.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. "Be kind and courteous to this gentleman" (Tytania)
    1:34
  34. 34.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "This lanthorn doth the hornèd Moon present" (Starveling/Moonshine, Flute/Thisby, Snug/Lion)
    1:58
  35. 35.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. "Hail, mortal, hail!" (Fairies, Bottom, Tytania)
    5:08
  36. 36.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams" (Bottom/Pyramus)
    1:51
  37. 37.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. "I have a reas’nable good ear in music" (Bottom, Tytania)
    4:59
  38. 38.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "Asleep, my love?" (Flute/Thisby)
    2:28
  39. 39.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act II. "How now, mad spirit" (Oberon, Puck, Demetrius, Hermia)
    2:49
  40. 40.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "Come, your Bergomask" (Theseus)
    3:04
  41. 41.
    A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 64: Act III. "Now the hungry lion roars" (Fairies, Puck, Oberon, Tytania)
    5:10

Credits