"Benjamin Britten's own recordings of his operas must be considered authoritative, but any great art can yield insights from a variety of interpretations, and an objective performer may find felicities in a score of which the composer was hardly aware. Additionally, new recording technology can create a truer realization of the sound, and in vocal music, the quality of voices in subsequent productions can surpass the originals, so new recordings are always welcome.
"Virgin's reissue of its 1990 recording of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', conducted by Richard Hickox is notable for how closely it resembles Britten's 1966 version in many aspects. The sound quality is somewhat fuller than Britten's, and orchestral details emerge with more clarity, but the engineers have gone overboard in duplicating the spatial relationships of a stage performance, so there is a distracting variability in the soloists' miking; some are very close and some are so distant as to be nearly inaudible. It may be an accurate replication of the theater experience, but more sonic consistency would have been less annoying. (Some decisions seem random; Lysander almost always sounds distant, and Demetrius, close. The miking is, however, very effective in capturing Puck's fleet leaps from near to far.) The soloists in the two versions are similar in quality, which is very high, as well as in interpretation. Britten's conducting of the diaphanous opening and the fairies' sound world has a magic that Hickox's does not, but Hickox's handling of the comic elements is generally more deft and funnier, except for the play of Pyramus and Thisbe, which Britten handles incomparably. Britten's reading of the score unfolds more organically, while Hickox is less successful in making the sound worlds of the fairies, the mortals, and the mechanicals flow together as an integrated whole. If a choice must be made, Britten's original remains the preferred version, but not by so large a margin as to disqualify Hickox's very reputable effort, which has much to recommend it." (Review by Stephen Eddins. From AllMusic. See here.)
"Virgin's reissue of its 1990 recording of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', conducted by Richard Hickox is notable for how closely it resembles Britten's 1966 version in many aspects. The sound quality is somewhat fuller than Britten's, and orchestral details emerge with more clarity, but the engineers have gone overboard in duplicating the spatial relationships of a stage performance, so there is a distracting variability in the soloists' miking; some are very close and some are so distant as to be nearly inaudible. It may be an accurate replication of the theater experience, but more sonic consistency would have been less annoying. (Some decisions seem random; Lysander almost always sounds distant, and Demetrius, close. The miking is, however, very effective in capturing Puck's fleet leaps from near to far.) The soloists in the two versions are similar in quality, which is very high, as well as in interpretation. Britten's conducting of the diaphanous opening and the fairies' sound world has a magic that Hickox's does not, but Hickox's handling of the comic elements is generally more deft and funnier, except for the play of Pyramus and Thisbe, which Britten handles incomparably. Britten's reading of the score unfolds more organically, while Hickox is less successful in making the sound worlds of the fairies, the mortals, and the mechanicals flow together as an integrated whole. If a choice must be made, Britten's original remains the preferred version, but not by so large a margin as to disqualify Hickox's very reputable effort, which has much to recommend it." (Review by Stephen Eddins. From AllMusic. See here.)
Performers: City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox, James Bowman, Della Jones, Lillian Watson, Henry Herford, John Graham-Hall, Jill Gomez, Donald Maxwell, Dexter Fletcher
1.1. Act I: Introduction. The Wood, Deepening Twilight/'Over Hill, Over Dale'
1.2. Act I: 'Oberon Is Passing Fell And Wrath'
1.3. Act I: 'Well, Go Thy Way'
1.4. Act I: 'How Now My Love?'
1.5. Act I: 'Be It On Lion, Bear, Or Wolf, Or Bull'
1.6. Act I: 'Welcome Wanderer... I Know A Bank'
1.7. Act I: 'Is All Our Company Here?'
1.8. Act I: 'Fair Love, You Faint With Wand'ring In The Wood'
1.9. Act I: 'Through The Forest Have I Gone'
1.10. Act I: 'Stay, Though Thou Kill Me, Sweet Demetrius'
1.11. Act I: 'Come, Now A Roundel And A Fairy Song'
1.12. Act I: 'You Spotted Snakes With Double Tongue'
1.13. Act I: 'What Thou Seest When Thou Dost Wake'
1.14. Act II: Introduction. The Wood
1.15. Act II: 'Are We All Met?'
1.16. Act II: 'I See Their Knavery'
1.17. Act II: 'Be Kind And Courteous To This Gentleman'
1.18. Act II: 'Hail, Mortal, Hail!'
1.19. Act II: 'I Have A Reas'nable Good Ear In Music'
1.20. Act II: 'How Now, Mad Spirit?'
2.1. Act II: 'Flower Of This Purple Dye'
2.2. Act II: 'Puppet? Why, So?'
2.3. Act II: 'This Is Thy Negligence'
2.4. Act II: 'Up And Down, Up And Down'
2.5. Act II: 'On The Ground, Sleep Sound'
2.6. Act III: Introduction. The Wood, Early Next Morning/'My Gentle Robin, Seest Thou This Sweet Sight?'
2.7. Act III: 'Helena! Hermia! Demetrius! Lysander!'
2.8. Act III: 'When My Cue Comes, Call Me'
2.9. Act III: 'Have You Sent To Bottom's House?'
2.10. Act III: 'Now, Fair Hippolyta'
2.11. Act III: 'If We Offend, It Is With Our Good Will'
2.12. Act III: 'Gentles, Perchance You Wonder At This Show'
2.13. Act III: 'In This Same Interlude It Doth Befall'
2.14. Act III: 'O Grim-look'd Night, O Night With Hue So Black'
2.15. Act III: 'O Wall, Full Often Hast Thou Heard My Moans'
2.16. Act III: 'You Ladies, You Whose Gentle Hearts Do Fear'
2.17. Act III: 'This Lanthorn Doth The Hornèd Moon Present'
2.18. Act III: 'Sweet Moon, I Thank Thee For Thy Sunny Beams'
2.19. Act III: 'Asleep, My Love?'
2.20. Act III: 'Come, Your Bergomask'
2.21. Act III: 'Now The Hungry Lion Roars'
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