A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream ballet. Choreography by George Balanchine. Music by Felix Mendelssohn. Based on the play by William Shakespeare. Directed 1999 by Kent Stowell and Francia Russell at the Pacific Northwest Ballet and recorded at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, London. Stars Patricia Barker, Paul Gibson, Seth Belliston, Julie Tobiason, Ross Yearsley, Lisa Apple, Jeffrey Stanton, Ariana Lallone, Batkhurel Bold, Kaori Nakamura, Charles Newton, Timothy Lynch, Louise Nadeau, and Oliver Wevers. Stewart Kershaw directs the BBC Concert Orchestra (Leader Cynthia Fleming).  Solo singers: Libby Crabtree, soprano, and Judith Harris, mezzo-soprano. Set and costume design by Martin Pakledinaz, lighting by Randall G. Chiarelli; directed for TV by Ross MacGibbon. This is the Blu-ray version of the A Midsummer Night's Dream that Opus Arte published earlier in HD DVD. Released  2008, disc has 5.1 PCM audio. Grade: A

This was the first fine-art Blu-ray product ever published. This luminous show, with a lot of parts for children and teenagers, is artistically altogether admirable and enjoyable for all ages. It further proves that, through the magic of HDVD, regional ballet companies (of which there are many around the world) can compete with the big houses for attention in the world market. For more information, try our review of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which discusses both the HD DVD and the Blu-ray versions in detail. The L'OperaDou jury gave this the grade of "B," but I call it an "A."