The Midsummer Night's Dream ballet by the Boston Ballet

[xiphias]

The first ballet I ever saw was Nutcracker, when I was three or four years old. As my parents tell me, I sat in rapt attention through the whole first half, and then, when the curtain came down and the lights came up for intermission, I clapped long and hard, then got my coat and said, "That was fun," and got ready to leave. My grandmother and mother looked at each other, and thought about whether to tell me that there was a second half, and they said, "Well, he's done, and he had a good time. That's good enough."

And I'm pretty darned sure that they made the right choice. After all, all the plot happens in the first act -- Act II is a bunch of pretty neat dances, but nothing happens.

I still like Act I better than Act II.

I like ballet okay, but I'm not the ballet fan in the family. That'd be my sister, sproutntad, and, for that matter, her fiance', too. I like the music, I like the athleticism and artistry of the dance, but my mind starts wandering if I lose track of the plot -- or in parts of ballets that don't have plots. And Lis is even more so.

Which is why we're home right now, even though the second act is probably only now just finishing up. We skipped out at intermission of the Boston Ballet's production of Midsummer Night's Dream. Because all the plot happens in Act I, and Act II is the celebration of the triple wedding.

Oh, also because we're tired and we're not at Boskone. We'll go tomorrow morning.

One of Lis's co-workers had two tickets to the ballet tonight, but his wife was unexpectedly called out of town on a business trip. So he gave her the tickets, figuring, correctly, that as she is a Shakespeare geek, she'd enjoy seeing a Shakespeare ballet. Well, technically, it's a ballet based on a piece of music based on Shakespeare, but close enough.

George Balanchine wrote the ballet in 1962, around Felix Mendelssohn's music written to the play.

So, this was as much an experiment for us as anything else -- we wanted to see if watching a ballet in which Lis was completely familiar with the story would be easier and more enjoyable for her than it usually is. And it was a pretty solid success for us.

We were helped by the facts that it's a darned good ballet, with a lot of humor and fun, and that it's a darned good company, who can play the humor and fun.

I don't know enough about ballet to be able to write a review, especially since we skipped out after the first half. But I know that we loved Puck, and Bottom, and Titania, and Hippolyta, and all four lovers, and Oberon. And the twenty-five kids from the Boston Ballet School who played the bugs and little fairies -- the ballet has a couple dozen roles written for children.

So I guess I'm just writing this to say thanks to Lis's co-worker, and to mention that the ballet was really fun. I could talk about the performances and the costumes and the sets, but I really couldn't say anything intelligent or useful about them, only that "I like them." Which isn't terribly helpful. I could mention that the role of Puck was danced with a lot of humor, mischievousness, the certain amount of menace which is appropriate to Puck, and vast athleticism, that Hippolyta's dancing was explosive and warrior-queen-like, that the children from the Boston Ballet school were adorable and skilled, Helena chasing after Demetrius, Demetrius chasing after Hermia, and, later, Hermia chasing after Lysander while Lysander chases after Helena were all done well and in character, the scene where Puck leads Demetrius and Lysander through the forest as they attempt to find each other and duel was creepy, funny, and effective, and that the Bottom and Titania dance had the entire audience laughing out loud, repeatedly, that the costumes were effective and helped define the characters, and the sets were gorgeous and mysterious. But I can't say anything really insightful. So I'll just say "thanks" to Lis's co-worker and his wife, and leave it at that.

Comments

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

I left the following comment, which I also want to share with you, on [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]'s blog. We had fun when you were young, didn't we. Let's play!

So glad you enjoyed MND ballet. I remember loving it myself, oh so many years ago. I miss going to the ballet. David doesn't enjoy it, either - maybe you are on to something with the nuances of kinesthetic language and expression. I remember a wonderful weekend when Leila was around five and Ian about ten. MND was being performed both as the ballet at Boston Ballet and as a version of the play at the Huntington Theatre. We got tickets for both, read the Lamb version of Shakespeare ahead of time so the children would have an idea of the story, and saw both performances - one on Saturday and one on Sunday. It was so much fun. I like to think that weekends like this planted the seeds for Ian's love of Shakespeare and Leila's love of dance.

We often created these "theme" entertainment weekends. Once we saw "Animal Crackers" - made famous by the Marx Brothers on film - recreated as a play, also at the Huntington Theater. We knew there was a Marx Brothers film festival playing at a local theater. To give the children a sense of who Groucho, Chico, and Harpo were, we decided to see some Marx Brothers films, even if we couldn't see "Animal Crackers", before going to the theater. We were in luck - a sign was posted: "Our copy of 'Duck Soup' cannot be shown. We will be showing 'Animal Crackers' instead. Sorry for any inconvenience." We were thrilled - got to see the movie before seeing the play, so we could compare performances.

Another time, we did a Don Quixote weekend. We read the book, saw the play, and saw the musical "Man of La Mancha" based on the same book. David remembers watching a movie with Don Quixote, too, but I don't remember that. Any memories, Ian?

I really miss my ballet tickets - had the best seats in the house, first balcony, center. We also had season tickets to the Huntington Theater. I love concerts and art galleries. I guess I am just an art geek. No one to go with anymore, though - so I haven't even been to a movie in a long time. I'll have to remedy that in the springtime.

Glad you enjoyed the first half of the ballet!

[(Anonymous)]

I have seen some performances of the Boston Ballet and I didn't like them that much. I mean I have seen better groups of ballet in the country and this one is not as good as everyone says. If I'm wrong then I need an alcohol detox (http://www.drugrehabsunsetmalibu.com/detox/alcoholism-detox/).