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This production triumphantly fulfills a complex and difficult assignment. Gossamer fantasy may be the hardest style to put into operatic form, and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is particularly challenging. Some of the challenge lies in its various levels of action and characterization, each demanding a different kind of music: fairies and mortals, nobles and peasants, lovers and buffoons, not to mention its play-within-a-play, its intricate subplots, and its contrasts between earthy and unworldly creatures, mundane and magic environments. Britten took up that challenge with rich imagination and brilliant technique, and the 1982 Glyndebourne production brings his vision to the stage (and the video screen) with remarkable precision.

Perhaps the most remarkable of several outstanding performances is that of countertenor James Bowman, singing lightly, flexibly, and expressively in the challenging role of Oberon. Ileana Cotrubas is equally impressive as his wife and sparring partner Tytania. The supporting cast is excellent, the visuals are atmospherically exotic, and conductor Bernard Haitink's style is exactly right. --Joe McLellan