Patrons of the National Theatre on Agiou Konstantinou Street have surely noticed that there is a proper orchestra pit in front of the stage. Indeed, there was a time when theatrical works could be accompanied by a full symphony orchestra. The theatrical stage inspired great composers such as Beethoven, Schubert, and Grieg. For many musicians, so-called “incidental music” was a source of inspiration as significant as opera. Felix Mendelssohn’s theatrical compositions hold a special place in this tradition.
Mendelssohn’s theatrical activity was exclusively due to commissions from King Frederick William IV of Prussia. The theatre-loving monarch commissioned Mendelssohn to write music for a total of four works: Sophocles’ Antigone (Op. 55), Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Op. 61), Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus (Op. 93), and Racine’s Athalie (Op. 74). Of the four, the Dream, which premiered in Potsdam in 1843 (October 14), was and remains the most popular to this day.
Mendelssohn composed the music in two entirely independent phases. He wrote the famous overture (Op. 21) at just 17 years old, in 1826, without a specific performance in mind, creating a new musical genre, the “concert overture.” In 1842, he reused it as an overture for the new incidental music he composed for two sopranos, female choir, and orchestra, Op. 61, which, when played in its entirety, includes 13 new movements. Despite the 16 years separating the youthful overture from the mature music, the style is homogeneous.
The overture is famous for the sensitivity with which it recreates Shakespeare’s enchanted fairy-tale world. The delicacy of the orchestration (rustling strings, chords of woodwinds and horn) creates a succession of musical impressions that go beyond simple description or suggestion. The incidental music contributes to creating the magical atmosphere required by the play, which unfolds “in a forest near (ancient) Athens,” where humans coexist with fairies. The vocal parts can be performed equally well in Shakespeare’s original text or in the German translation – and sometimes in another language. To emphasize the unity of the composition, Mendelssohn concludes the work with the initial chords of the overture.
Act I of the work, after the overture, was played entirely without music. The ethereal scherzo served as a link to Act II, which concludes with the intermezzo. In the nocturne of Act III, the nostalgic horn solo encapsulates the romantic beauty of this enchanted night. The wedding march originally had a satirical character, as it adorned the wedding of the Queen of the Fairies, Titania, to the craftsman Bottom (best left untranslated), transformed into a donkey. However, it was refined and became popular when, in 1858, British Princess Victoria chose it for her wedding to Prince Frederick William of Prussia. The short, ironic funeral march attempts a parodic transformation of the music that we will hear again in Mahler’s 1st Symphony.
A technique Mendelssohn also uses in his incidental music is melodrama, that is, the combination of music with spoken prose, which the music comments on. In concert halls, this is often omitted, but the presence of at least one actor is important to highlight not only the musical quality but also the dramatic dimension of the musical composition, especially when it concerns a theatrical masterpiece.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or perhaps “A Midsummer’s Eve Dream,” is one of Shakespeare’s most popular works and one of those that the Elizabethan dramatist set in ancient Athens. It is a comedy that follows the parallel love stories of four couples, including Theseus, King of Athens, and Hippolyta. It also features a group of amateur actors preparing a theatrical performance for the royal Athenian wedding in a magical forest with fairies who interfere with human affairs.
Many years before the staging of the incidental music, the premiere of the Overture took place on February 20, 1827, in Stettin (present-day Poland), at a concert that also featured Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. The concert of Mendelssohn’s incidental music at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on June 28, 2025, will be preceded by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. The soloist will be Emanuel Ax, a great performer renowned for his sensitivity and balance, as well as for his interpretations of works from the classical and romantic periods, especially by composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn.
PROGRAM
- LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 - FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21
Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61
SOLOISTS:
Emanuel Ax | piano
Myrsini Margariti | soprano
Artemis Bogri | mezzo-soprano
Dimitris Alexandris | narrator
MUSIC DIRECTION: Loukas Karytinos
Featuring the female vocal ensemble Equábili Vocal Ensemble
Teaching-direction: Agathangelos Georgakatos
More about the concert…
