Even if you can\u2019t understand Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream has a lot to offer (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cThis piece is mainly light,\u201d he says. \u201cThe play is not a tragedy, not a very serious or philosophically deep piece. It\u2019s light. And, as music, this is perfect. It\u2019s not a coincidence that Mendelssohn chose this piece.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mendelssohn was the first composer to condense an entire work of literature into a standalone piece of music. The Overture<\/i> is full of innovative musical special effects, such as violins playing in a minor key to represent the sound of fairies scampering through the forest.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until near the end of his career that Mendelssohn returned to A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/i> and composed music meant to be played alongside a full theatrical production.<\/p>\n
But the 17-year-old Mendelssohn had to battle his way through a raging blizzard to attend the first performance of his Overture.<\/i> Fortunately, Victoria residents won\u2019t have heavy German weather to contend with when the symphony performs the piece January 19.<\/p>\n
Shakespeare\u2019s use of language has always been famous for its lyrical rhythm. This feature can be appreciated even if the language itself is archaic. This, says Gueller, is why understanding, or even liking, Shakespeare is not a requirement for enjoying this music.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis typical Shakespearean English, even I don\u2019t understand it very much,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there is still the musicality of this text. When I hear this, it touches me, although I maybe only understand half of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A major motif in Shakespeare\u2019s play is transformation. Human characters are transformed into animals, and mismatched lovers are transformed out of love, and into love again. When a character appears onstage, we\u2019re never sure what form they will be in. Gueller says that musical performances operate the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach time a work is performed, it\u2019s a little bit different,\u201d he explains. \u201cThis comes from very deep in the soul or psyche, and goes very deep into the listener. It excites you like no other art actually can do. It expresses feelings which can\u2019t be described in words.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even without a snowstorm to battle through to get to the performance, what Mendelssohn envisioned at the age of 17 can touch us, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic is the greatest art of all the arts we know,\u201d says Gueller. \u201cEach time you play it, you create it at the moment. Music is always living.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream
\n<\/i>8 pm Monday, January 19
\n$30, Royal Theatre
\nvictoriasymphony.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German composer Felix Mendelssohn was only 17 years old when he read Shakespeare\u2019s play A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream for the first time. Mendelssohn was enchanted by the tale of fairy-crossed lovers and mischievous tricksters in the woods. That evening, after hearing a breeze blow through some leaves in the family\u2019s garden, he sat down and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-january-7-2015"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10072,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10070\/revisions\/10072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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