Gustavo Dudamel. Photo credit Vern Evans
On Tuesday July 28, LA Phil Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel ventures into Shakespeare’s forest of mistaken identities and fairy mischief for A Midsummer Night with Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl. Actress Bryce Dallas Howard will narrate, bringing Shakespeare’s words to life in a magical evening featuring soloists soprano Deanna Breiwick and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Holloway, and the women of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Special guest Gil Shaham, one of the foremost violinists of our time, also joins Dudamel and the LA Phil for Mendelssohn’s popular and well-loved Violin Concerto to complete the program.
Mendelssohn composed the music for his score to A Midsummer Night’s Dream at two different points in his life. The overture was written first, when he was only 17 years old, while his incidental music would come some 16 years later, not long before his death. It is a brightly constructed romantic work that paints images of fairies dancing on the breeze and lovers in delirious pursuit with its delicate and sweeping themes. The Mechanicals arrive with their own picturesque entrance and other motifs are introduced as the story unfolds. When Bottom is turned into an ass by Oberon, king of the fairies, the composer captures it in the music in a most delightful way. More
Shakespeare in LA 