Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream) Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream) Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is a character in William Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream", based on the ancient figure of Puck found in English mythology. Puck is a clever, mischievous fairy, sprite, or jester. He is the first of the main fairy characters to appear, and creates the drama of the human lovers' story by splitting up a young couple lost in an enchanted forest. As a "shrewd and knavish sprite", he is an impish trickster and delights in pranks and practical jokes, like replacing Bottom's head with that of an ass.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn) several roles from the play, performed live. The Overture is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, ophicleide, timpani and strings. The ophicleide part was originally written for English bass horn ("corno inglese di basso"), which was also used at the first performance; the composer subsequently replaced this instrument with the ophicleide in the first published edition. The incidental music adds a third trumpet, three trombones, triangle and cymbals to this scoring. Parts of the score are used, re-orchestrated by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, in Max Reinhardt's 1935 movie "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Sections