In the second act, a wedding march leads to an eighteenth-century-style diversion (the youthful Symphony No. 9 for strings) with a tender pas de deux. Its subject is the fulfilled dream of love foretold in the first act, and it ends with the most ravishing protracted dying fall in all ballet. --Arlene Croce on Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, The New Yorker (5/16/77)
I don't have a great deal to say about A Midsummer Night's Dream that I haven't said in three previous posts (5/28/16, 5/28/17, 6/01/19) but it was wonderful to see this beautiful ballet again, as artistic directors Jonathan Stafford and Wendy Whelan have been doing a superb job of keeping Balanchine's ballets in good shape since they have taken over from Peter Martins. Not only are the ballets in good shape so is the music under music director Andrew Litton, who conducted Saturday's performance, in which Indiana Woodward and Andrew Veyette were exquisite in the second act divertissement.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is somewhat unusual among Balanchine's ballets in that casting can sometimes make a difference and Saturday afternoon the casting was close to perfect, including Unity Phelan as Titania, Chun Wai Chan as her cavalier. Daniel Ulbricht as Oberon and Taylor Stanley as Puck (who hammed it up at an acceptable level). The children from the school as butterflies and fairies were delightful, rehearsed and supervised by Dena Abergel and Arch Higgins, and the corps was terrific in its speed and attack.
No matter how many times I have seen a Balanchine ballet I always see something new each time. This time I particularly noticed the details of the first act, where the Shakespeare story seems to dominate but actually takes much less time than the lovely dancing of Titania, her cavalier, her retinue, as well as Hippolyta (an impressive Emily Kikta) and her hounds.
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