Translation and Transformation in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Abstract

Benjamin Britten’s writings reveal a fascination with the question of how music evokes experiences of spatial and temporal change. Nowhere is this more evident than in his operatic reworking of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1960). This chapter’s argument begins in the forest surrounding Athens, which Britten foregrounds to a much greater extent than Shakespeare does. Both musically and structurally, the opera revolves around the forest, positioning the characters and the audience from its opening measures within a space that facilitates and demands ‘translation’. The forest’s effects are revealed most strikingly through the metamorphosis of Shakespeare’s ‘rude mechanicals’ into Britten’s ‘rustics’, and especially in Britten’s depiction of Francis Flute, who blossoms from nervous bellows-mender to self-assured thespian. The remarkable trajectory of this adolescent character offers a productive case study for considering how Britten’s opera reframes the transformative encounters that lie at the heart of Shakespeare’s celebrated comedy. Drawing on the experience of tenor and co-author Lawrence Wiliford, who has portrayed Flute in recent productions by the Canadian Opera Company and the Aldeburgh Festival, this chapter also illuminates the crucial interpretive role that directors and singers play in bringing Britten’s operatic adaptation to life.