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 Lysander, Demetrius and Helenus (a male Helena), the play was carried to a more gender fluid era. The last performance was broadcast live all around the world through internet. W. Stanley Moss adopted the quotation, "Ill met by moonlight, (proud Titania)", from A Midsummer Night's Dream as the title of his best-selling book "Ill Met by Moonlight" published in 1950 describing the Kidnap of General Kreipe. The book was adapted into a film of the same name, directed and produced by Michael Powell and released in 1957. It featured Dirk Bogarde as Patrick Leigh Fermor and David Oxley as Moss.