Years ago, involved in a outdoor summer theatre production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, I tried to imagine what a mind-bending theatrical experience it would be with Mendelssohn's Incidental Music included and properly inserted. The evening air made the play indescribably magical for both the audience and the actors, but Mendelssohn's music would have taken it to another level. The director ended up using orchestrated versions of Erik Satie's Gymnopédies for the incidental music--interesting and very theatrical, but not quite the same.
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra concertgoers can do more than imagine this week. The orchestra presents Shakespeare in Love, a program of three works including Mendelssohn's Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream. That work will feature actors David Alley, Carol Mayo Jenkins, David Kortemeier, Conrad Ricamora, and director John Sipes from the Clarence Brown Theatre in sections of the play interspersed with Mendelssohn's music.
Following the program's theme, the KSO will open with two other Bard-inspired works: Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture after Shakespeare and Hamlet and Ophelia, op. 22, by the American composer, Edward MacDowell. Lucas Richman will conduct. Click here for the calendar spotlight in this week's METRO PULSE that has more information.
KSO concerts are Thursday and Friday, February 25 and 26, 8 p.m. in the Tennessee Theatre.
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