Summer’s Twilight is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The piece tells the story of the four lovers, Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, as their romantic troubles lead them out into the forest, where the fairy, Puck, and his king, Oberon, wait ready to meddle.

Part opera, part play, and part music-theatre piece, Summer’s Twilight tells its story with arias and ensembles, as well as spoken dialogue, accompanied speeches, and text translated into wordless music. Puck is played not by an actor, but by a cellist. Oberon is played by a marimbist. They deliver their lines through their instruments without using their voices, and play at other times as instruments accompanying the action.

This first public workshop took place on Saturday December 5th at the Brooklyn Heights Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. It featured the first half of the work, and ran about half an hour, with a talkback afterwards. This post-game blog post has more information about the reading. Video of the workshop performance is posted below.

For their help with the reading I owe thanks to the Brooklyn Heights Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, the Yale School of Music and Robert Van Sice, Harbor Opera, Evident Films, Maxine Rockoff and Wesley Clark.

Right now, I’m revising the piece with input from the creative team from the reading, who are listed below.

Helena – Erin Brittain
Lysander – Jason Buckwalter
Hermia – Elspeth Davis
Demetrius – Robert Maril
Puck/cello – Jody Redhage
Oberon/marimba – Ian Rosenbaum

Director – Rose Ginsberg
Video Recording – Michael Feldman, Alan Jeffries
Audio Recording – Zachary Herchen
Print Design – Victoria Nece

Summer’s Twilight – Workshop Performance,  12.5.2009