Incidental music A Midsummer Night's Dream op. 61 (1842) Arranged for chamber orchestra by Andreas N. Tarkmann
MANFRED TROJAHN (*1949) Four Women from Shakespeare (2015) for soprano and ensemble
Pia Davila, soprano
Daniel Grossmann, conductor
At the age of 17, Felix Mendelssohn read Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream - and was impressed by this work. He then wrote a concert overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was premiered at one of the Mendelssohn family's regular house concerts. The first public performance took place in 1827.
It was not until 15 years later - Felix Mendelssohn was now successful as a conductor and composer and was appointed Prussian General Music Director by the King in the same year - that he supplemented the overture with intermezzo music and melodramas, marches, songs and choruses for incidental music at the request of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The first performance took place in Berlin in 1843 under the direction of the writer Ludwig Tieck; the work remains one of Felix Mendelssohn's most frequently performed compositions to this day.
Titania from A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the Shakespearean female characters portrayed by Manfred Trojahn in his Four Women from Shakespeare . In his work for soprano (Pia Dabila) and orchestra, he also dedicates a movement each to Juliet ( Romeo and Juliet ), Ophelia ( Hamlet ) and Lady Macbeth ( Macbeth ).
A summer concert by JCOM awaits you in the wonderful ambience of the Cuvilliés Theater in Munich!
