A Midsummer Night's Dream (ballet) A Midsummer Night's Dream (ballet) A Midsummer Night's Dream is a two-act ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Felix Mendelssohn's music to Shakespeare's play of the same name. In addition to the incidental music, Balanchine incorporated other Mendelssohn works into the ballet, including the Overtures to "Athalie", "Son and Stranger", and "The Fair Melusine", the "String Symphony No. 9 in C minor" and "The First Walpurgis Night". "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Balanchine's first completely original full-length ballet, premiered at New York City Ballet on 17 January 1962, with Edward Villella in the role of Oberon, Melissa Hayden in the role
A Midsummer Night's Dream pairing. It seems that a desire to lose one's individuality and find identity in the love of another is what quietly moves the events of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". As the primary sense of motivation, this desire is reflected even in the scenery depictions and the story's overall mood. In his essay "Preposterous Pleasures: Queer Theories and "A Midsummer Night's Dream"," Douglas E. Green explores possible interpretations of alternative sexuality that he finds within the text of the play, in juxtaposition to the proscribed social mores of the culture at the time the play was written. He writes that his