Premieres Revisited – Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Potsdam

Synopsis

This episode marks the start of a captivating series: compositions at their world premiere venues. Mendelssohn composed his famous Sommernachtstraum (Midsummer Night’s Dream) as a teenager, but was not able to incorporate it into the accompaniment to Shakespeare’s fantastic comedy until 16 years later. The incidental music was commissioned by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia and is performed in this special performance at the Theater des Neuen Palais in Potsdam, exactly where the premiere took place in October 1843. Alongside the Kammerakademie Potsdam and its chief conductor Antonello Manacorda, soloists Jeanine De Bique and Christiane Karg, who also appear in Berlioz’s exquisite Les nuits d’été, a work created just two years before Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Additional Info

• No: 8962
• Composer: F. Mendelssohn
• Conductor: Antonello Manacorda
• Orchestra: Kammerakademie Potsdam
• Artists: Christiane Karg, Jeanine De Bique
• Production year: 2024
• Run time: 01:25:00
• Producers: Heliodor, ZDF, ARTE
• Format: 4K