Glyndebourne Starlit Dream

Peter Hall's staging still diffuses magic after 42 Years

Hail, mortal, hail: Bottom (Brandon Cedel) surrounded by Tytania (Liv Redpath)and her fairy entourage Picture by Tristram Kenton

Surely, after 42 years, even a classic production such as Peter Hall’s Glyndebourne staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream must lose a sprinkling of its original fairy dust? Having attended the 1981 first night and most subsequent revivals, I was astonished last weekend to see how much of the Glyndebourne magic still clings to this beloved staging.

In its original incarnation it was a perfect fit for the festival’s more intimate 850-seat ‘old house’. The mirrored-perspective frames were made for the proscenium’s unusual shape, though John Bury’s constantly shifting forest set shimmered no less ravishingly when the production was first seen in the more expansive new theatre in 2001.

In this latest revival (directed by Lynne Hockney, the production’s original choreographer), the experienced Paul Pyant recreates Bury’s luminous wizardry: you can’t help being enchanted anew by Hall and Bury’s conception of the piece as a Jacobean Masque, with Oberon and Tytania as extravagantly costumed and bewigged fairy royals presiding over a late Shakespearean court.