A ballet in one act was first presented by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London April 2, 1964.
Also known as; The Dream, Sir Frederick Ashton arranged his ballet to A Midsummer Night’s Dream in honor of the four- hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. Based on Shakespeare’s play, using Mendelssohn’s music, the ballet tells the magical story of a quarrel between the King and Queen of fairyland , Oberon and Titania.
The scene opens as Oberon and Titania quarrel over the changeling Indian boy, who he should belong to? Oberon sends his Sprite puck through the forest to pluck a strange flower, the juice of which when dropped in the eyes during sleep brings love to the first one seen upon awakening. Oberon plans to use this drug to spite Titania. Meanwhile, into the forest have strayed a happy pair of lovers, Lysander and Hermia, and their unhappy friends Helena and Demetrius. Helena ’s desire for Demetrius is unrequited, for he mistakenly desires Hermia. Oberon has watched these mortals, and when Puck returns with the magic flower he sends him with the potion to charm Demetrius into love with Helena .
Now Oberon drops some of the potion into Queen Titania eyes and causes her to be awakened by a rustic called Bottom on whom the returning Puck , to heighten his masters revenge, has fixed an asses head. On awakening, Tatania at once falls in love with Bottom the ass, but Puck, for all his cleverness, has complicated the affairs of the other, mortal lovers by charming the wrong man, Lysander, into love with Helena . Oberon commands Puck to create a big fog, under cover of which all that is awry is magically put right. Tatania, released from her spell, is reconciled to her master and the mortal lovers are happily paired off. Bottom, restored to human form, but with dreamlike memories of what lately happened to him, goes on his puzzled way.
