Le Songe

Le Songe ballet, a modern version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream choreographed  and directed by Jean-Christophe Maillot. Uses the famous music by Felix Mendelssohn mixed in with modern scores from Daniel Teruggi and Bertrand Maillot. It's called a "choreographic film" and was recorded in 2008 as performed by Les Ballets De Monte-Carlo at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco. Stars Bernice Coppieters, Jérôme Marchand, Jeroen Verbruggen, Anjara Ballesteros, Sarad Jane Medley, Jens Weber, Cyril Bréant, April Ball, Nathalie Nordquist, Asier Uriagereka, Julien Bancillon, Gioia Masala, Gaétan Morlotti, Oliver Lucea, Chris Roelandt, Ramon  Gomes Reis, Rodolphe Lucas, Maude Sabourin, Sivan Blitzova, Francesca Dolci, Elodie Puna, Lisa Jones, Quinn Pendelton, Carolyn Rose, Jennifer Brie, and Katarzyna Kucharska. Scenography by Ernest Pignon-Ernest; costumes by Philippe Guillotel; lighting by Dominique Drillot; stage production associate was Nicolas Lormeau. Released  2011, disc has 4.1 (that's right) dts-HT Master Audio sound.  Grade: B+

According to the keep case booklet, Maillot's "personal inward quest is the origin of a new language that enables him to approach the great classics and to establish his mark in the world of abstraction." If you are well familiar with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, you will probably find this production exciting and refreshing with it's highly original use of various styles of music, curious costumes, surreal scenery, and hyperactive dance and acting moves. This is an ensemble piece, and all the dancers are great.

If you don't know the complicated plot of the play, this show will likely be extremely confusing. Fortunately, Arthaus has provided both a plot summary and a synopsis (keyed somewhat inaccurately to the chapter numbers on the disc). And Maillot tries hard to  help out by color-coding the main characters (so you know which girl is supposed to wind up with which guy) and putting their names in big letters on their costumes. The "rustic mechanicals" wear costumes that identify their trades. Dancers in this show speak and sing  in French, in English with heavy French accents, and sometimes  in English I can understand. (There are no subtitles, but you really don't need them.) My favorite gimmick is the magic flower mounted on a Segway scooter. The video is extremely pretty and sharp even though the design has a black background and a lot of shadows. The sound is terrific. I think this production deserves an enthusiastic B+ grade, and I especially recommend it to  fans of contemporary ballet with a sense of  humor.

If you're really interested in the plot of MSND, try our outline of the Shakespeare play. We also have a traditional version of this ballet performed by the Pacific Northwest Ballet (in HD DVD and Blu-ray) as well as a full review of that performance. Finally, we have an HDVD recording of the Mendelssohn music to MSND from the Japanese Mito Chamber Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa.