John Neumeier: A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Music Documentary about how to make a ballet film

A classic for the ages: John Neumeier's famous ballet production of A Midsummer Night's Dream – based on William Shakespeare's comedy of the same name – was filmed in spring of 2021, with direction by Myriam Hoyer. This video documents the making of the film, and has the choreographer himself speak about the work.

Neumeier premiered A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Hamburg Ballet in 1977. The production became one of the great successes of ballet history, being performed over 300 times in Hamburg alone. Other renowned companies – such as the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow or the Paris Opera Ballet – also adopted the dance classic for their repertoires.

With the film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a long-cherished dream comes true for John Neumeier. On account of the film being recorded in the empty Hamburg State Opera under studio conditions, a particularly high quality could be achieved. For the first time, the viewer has the opportunity to get up extremely close to the action, so that – as was Neumeier's intention – one can fully immerse oneself in the ballet. With Shakespeare's original in mind, this idea has a special appeal – as Shakespeare's fairy-tale play on the trials and tribulations of love is exceptional in its timelessness, so that it affords even modern viewers a space for self-reflection.

The film is characterized by three worlds, with three different corresponding musical moods and settings. The characters from the nobility dance to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's theatrical music – A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61. In the realm of fairies and elves, music by György Ligeti resounds; and the world of laborers and servants is accompanied by the mechanical music of a barrel organ.

A Midsummer Night's Dream – a documentary video about the filming of a legendary ballet production of a world-famous comedy written by Shakespeare. The course of true love never did run smooth!

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