No40
a midsummer 
night's dream

SHAKESPEARE/MENDELSSOHN/SEMPER/OJASOO/ELTS

Before whether an artwork was interesting or whether it was engagé became important, the main criteria for judging an artwork was its sublimeness. This hard to pin down something that simultaneously touches your feelings and intelligence and lifts one out of mundane mess into the luminousity of abstraction. In an age where emotions are monetized and atomized, the tide is turning again towards the pursuit of the sublime. And nothing is more sublime than music, which, as Plato said, is soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

"Ein Sommernachtstraum" is the luxurious chef-d'oeuvre of Felix Mendelssohn-Baltholdy, also known as "the Mozart of the 19th century", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a play by Shakespeare about the vertiginous inconsistency of love and desire. But fueled by the pursuit of the sublime, Ene-Liis Semper's and Tiit Ojasoo's production goes bravely beyond the plot. The possibilities of contemporary technology enable man to express the inner world of emotions with hitherto impossible grandiosity. A tear in the corner of the eye, born out of an inner explosion, can have the effect of just as big or even bigger a tsunami than the initial emotion itself. The image is more real than reality itself. Narcissus of the ancient myth looked into the mirror of water, contemporary Narcissus is facing lenses and screens. Add to this Mendelssohn-Bartholody's music performed by Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Ellerhein Girls' Choir, lead by globe-trotting conductor Olari Elts, light art by Pietu Pietiäinen, and the result is an artwork that tries nothing less than to express the human pursuit of the sublime.

Direction - Art Direction Ene-Liis Semper, Tiit Ojasoo
Conductor Olari Elts

Light Artist Petri Tuhkanen
Animation Heta Jäälinoja, Aggie Pak-Yee Lee
Live mix Maarja Pärsim
Animation live mix Alyona Movko
Cameras Jekaterina Abramova, Sanna Maria Rink
Dramaturgy Laur Kaunissaare

On stage Marika Vaarik, Rea Lest, Helena Pruuli, Jörgen Liik, Simeoni Sundja, Ragnar Uustal (Theatre NO99), Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Ellerhein Girs' Choir

Production Teater NO99, ERSO, Eesti Kontsert

Premiere June 1 at 7pm, 2016 at the Estonia Concert Hall