A Midsummer Night’s Dream // Nevill Holt Opera 2019
by Benjamin Britten
conductor: Nicholas Chalmers
director: Anna Morrissey
lighting designer: D.M. Wodd
photographer: Ali Wright
★★★★ "Working with designer Simon Kenny, Morrissey conveys in silvery, moonstruck visuals the individuality of the three diverse worlds that collide in the Athenian forest, binding them all together in a staging that encompasses the humour, emotional complexity and occasionally sheer darkness of the piece, while somehow maintaining a crucial air of magic; the balancing of these elements is nigh-on perfect. An enchanted evening indeed." The Stage
★★★★ "A Dream that finds all its characters transported to the magical forest still in their pyjamas, day clothes roughly thrown over the top. A brass bedstead hangs suspended from the ceiling above Simon Kenny’s two-level set, and the cast begin and end curled up in sleep. A show full of ideas and invention with a dream of a final theatrical gesture – opening up the back of the stage to reveal Nevill Holt’s exquisite, real-life garden paradise outside." The Arts Desk
★★★★ The Telegraph
“A lively modern-dress staging, with atmospheric, ingenious sets by Simon Kenny. A terrific ensemble achievement." Sunday Times
★★★★ "The production delightfully generates a sense of wonder in nature. Simon Kenny’s set sees the stage framed on three sides by silver stringed curtains so that the fairies almost magically appear as they come through them. An upper tier carries foliage and a huge moon while the fairies often appear among the various levels of the auditorium as well. However, it only takes a double door to open in the centre of what until then looked like an entirely flimsy wall of silver to create a very different feeling space for Theseus’ palace in Athens." MusicOHM