Premieres Revisited: Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Shakespeare's magical A Midsummer Night's Dream inspired the 17-year-old Felix Mendelssohn to compose one of his first undisputed masterpieces: an overture on the subject that captured all its sense of enchantment and mischief. It wasn't until much later, in August 1843, that the King of Prussia commissioned Mendelssohn to write incidental music for the play. Building on the overture, Mendelssohn's music – including, in the Wedding March, one of his most famous works – was premiered in the New Palais in Potsdam in October the same year. And that's where the music returns to in this fascinating film – recreating the circumstances of its first performance, and recapturing the spell it still casts on listeners over 160 years later.