The Fairy Queen

Fairy Queen(2009)@Neal Libbert

premiere

June 21, 2009, Premiere of Glyndebourne Festival Opera production

further performances

July 29, to August 8, 2009

Opéra Comique, Paris January 6, 2010 followed by further performances

Opera House, Caen January 31, 2010

Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York March 19, 2010 and 3 subsequent

performances

Creative Team

Producers

Glyndebourne Festival Opera/Opéra Comique, Paris

Director

Jonathan Kent

Choreographer

Kim Brandstrup

Designs

Paul Brown

Lighting

Mark Henderson

Conductor

William Christie/Laurence Cummings

Orchestra

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Glyndebourne)

Dancers

Tommy Franzen

Laura Caldow

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The Fairy Queen

Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 21 June 2009

Review Extracts

“Kim Brandstrup's choreography is both discreet and exquisite.”

Edward Seckerson, The Independent June 21, 2009

"There’s a deliciously filthy dance for copulating bunnies, energetically whizzing through a kind of Kama Sutra for rabbits. That’s the highlight of Kim Brandstrup’s playful choreography."

Richard Morrison, The Times, June 22, 2009

"But this fairy land is also unconventional, a dark and frightening place and, at its most serious, rather like Goya's black paintings. Marvellous dancers tread the air or fly, like human kites, on long red leashes (seductive choreography by Kim Brandstrup). You wouldn't want to mess with this lot."

Kate Kellaway, The Observer,

With playing of this vivacity, intimacy and character, sinuous choreography (Kim Brandstrup) and often charming singing and acting, it seems churlish to complain.

Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday

"The theatrical and dance components of the production are beyond my purview, but the portrayals of Oberon (Finbar Lynch), Titania (Amanda Harris), Lysander (Nicholas Shaw), Helena (Joanna Herbert) and Bottom (Desmond Barrit) contributed importantly to the liveliness of the production, as did Kim Brandstrup’s imaginative, fluid choreography."

Allan Kozinn, New York Times

Programme Note

Kim Brandstrup worked with director Jonathan Kent on Glyndebourne Festival Opera’s new production of The Fairy Queen - Purcell’s joyous response to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which incorporates much of Shakespeare’s text into a fascinating carnival of music, theatre and dance. In addition to Shakespeare’s characters, Purcell also conjures up a wild array of gods and goddesses, nymphs and sprites, fairies and shepherds, dancing swans and figures of dream.

In addition to an international lineup of specialist Baroque soloists, the cast included a group of eight dancers with whom Brandstrup worked to create a series of fantastical masques which punctuate the action.