Visions of pastel-clad fairies playing in an elysian woodland are quickly dispelled in the opening moments of Scottish Opera’s new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Director Dominic Hill, artistic director of Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre, has reimagined Britten’s opera as a dystopian psychodrama. Tom Piper’s set is a mid-20th century interior, all mirrored glass walls, overturned chairs and beds appearing to float high above the stage. Here, night is a time of uncertainty and even fear, presided over by fairies costumed like something out of a Tim Burton gothic fantasy.
It’s an effective visual counterpoint to Britten’s multi-layered score, in which the lush romanticism of the lovers’ music and the deceptively simple writing for the comedy of the rustics is contrasted with the eerie percussion-inflected way he conjures up the fairy realm. Britten’s masterclass in orchestration can sometimes make the opera coolly impressive rather than truly engaging, but the commitment of Hill’s production doesn’t allow this to happen. And although the Freudian undertones add subtle layers of meaning to the production, ultimately the main strengths here are its delightfully slick physicality and superb musical values.
