Felix Mendelssohn Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 4 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early romantic period. Mendelssohn wrote symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his Overture and incidental music for "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the "Italian Symphony", the "Scottish Symphony", the overture "The Hebrides", his mature Violin Concerto, and his String Octet. His "Songs Without Words" are his most famous solo piano compositions. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and antisemitism
A Midsummer Night's Dream compatriots was performed as a droll. Drolls were comical playlets, often adapted from the subplots of Shakespearean and other plays, that could be attached to the acts of acrobats and jugglers and other allowed performances, thus circumventing the ban against drama. When the theatres re-opened in 1660, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was acted in adapted form, like many other Shakespearean plays. Samuel Pepys saw it on 29 September 1662 and thought it ""the most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw ..."" After the Jacobean / Caroline era, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was never performed in its entirety until the