Opera Australia is rolling back into town and bringing with it one of my favourite 20th century operas, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Benjamin Britten. This is Baz Luhrman’s wildly exotic production set in India during the final years of the British Raj, and is considered one of the OA’s finest productions.

You can listen to Britten conduct the work himself on this classic Decca recording, on the original vinyl records!

 Or for a more recent take on this masterpiece, the great Colin Davis conducts this beautiful live performance from London, with a dream cast (pardon the pun!).

For a decidely different take from Baz Luhrman’s setting for OA, you can watch Peter Hall’s equally wonderful Glyndebourne production, set during the Elizabethan era and with a cast that includes Ileana Cotrubas as Titania, and James Bowman as Oberon. This is seriously lovely.

Then again you can see the extraordinary American countertenor David Walker in this clip from YouTube singing Oberon’s Welcome Wanderer: (warning: if a topless countertenor is likely to offend, proceed with caution.) It is however, a ravishingly beautiful performance! Just click the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNm9SZwgfvc