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© Caroline Mackintosh
A Midsummer Night´s Dream
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 June 2025 | ||||||
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ballet by Edward Clug after William Shakespeare
Music by Milko Lazar (commissioned work)
The comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the most well-known and beloved works by William Shakespeare, exploring the power of love, the confusions of human emotions, and the magic of fantasy. The plot skilfully weaves together various storylines: lovers fleeing strict laws, fairy kings and queens ruling over the natural realm, and a group of clumsy craftsmen preparing a performance for the royal court. Amidst a dense forest, a setting full of secrets and inexplicable powers, love couples encounter obstacles that test their bonds. The fairy kingdom plays its own game with human love destinies, confusing lovers with a magical love potion that makes them fall in love with the first person they see. Themes such as the irrationality of love, the boundaries between reality and dream, and the dynamics between power and fantasy are skilfully interwoven. Choreographer Edward Clug, Ballet Director of the Slovenian National Theatre Maribor, dedicates himself to this classic, bringing his unique vision to the stage and transporting audiences with his vision into a world full of magic and deep emotions. The choreography highlights both the comic and dramatic aspects of the story. Clug's choreographic interpretation, set to the music specially composed by Milko Lazar for this piece, tells Shakespeare's story through a contemporary lens – a tale that explores the depths of human nature while remaining humorous and enchanting.
The music by Milko Lazar is a commissioned work that is composed in close connection with Clug's creation and will have its world premiere with the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Program and cast
Concept, Libretto, and Choreography: Edward Clug
Music: Milko Lazar
Set Design: Marko Japelj
Costumes: Leo Kulaš
Lighting: Tomaž Premzl
Dramaturgy: Katja Wiegand
Video: Rok Predin
Musical Direction: Victorien Vanoosten
Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin
Deutsche Oper Berlin
The Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, Germany. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house and also home to the Berlin State Ballet.
The company's history goes back to the Deutsches Opernhaus built by the then independent city of Charlottenburg—the "richest town of Prussia"—according to plans designed by Heinrich Seeling from 1911. It opened on November 7, 1912 with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio, conducted by Ignatz Waghalter. After the incorporation of Charlottenburg by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act, the name of the resident building was changed to Städtische Oper (Municipal Opera) in 1925.
Deutsches Opernhaus, 1912
With the Nazi Machtergreifung in 1933, the opera was under control of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Minister Joseph Goebbels had the name changed back to Deutsches Opernhaus, competing with the Berlin State Opera in Mitte controlled by his rival, the Prussian minister-president Hermann Göring. In 1935, the building was remodeled by Paul Baumgarten and the seating reduced from 2300 to 2098. Carl Ebert, the pre-World War II general manager, chose to emigrate from Germany rather than endorse the Nazi view of music, and went on to co-found the Glyndebourne opera festival in England. He was replaced by Max von Schillings, who acceded to enact works of "unalloyed German character". Several artists, like the conductor Fritz Stiedry or the singer Alexander Kipnis followed Ebert into emigration. The opera house was destroyed by a RAF air raid on 23 November 1943. Performances continued at the Admiralspalast in Mitte until 1945. Ebert returned as general manager after the war.
After the war, the company in what was now West Berlin used the nearby building of the Theater des Westens until the opera house was rebuilt. The sober design by Fritz Bornemann was completed on 24 September 1961. The opening production was Mozart's Don Giovanni. The new building opened with the current name.
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