Marie-Adeline Henry

For the first time at the Paris Opera, Natalie Dessay sings one of the most beautiful roles of Italian romanticism. She embodies the modest and charming Amina, this sleepwalker who, escaping from her bedroom, becomes another person as she wanders through the night. This opera by Bellini is a score seemingly written in a daydream, where melody is apparently suspended in time and the heroine's very soul rises to the surface, and where instruments take on transparent tones. At the same time, Bellini portrays the cruelest of worlds – our own – where it is more than difficult for fragility and gentleness to shine past the darker rashness and unfriendliness of the characters.

When a fairy king quarrels with his queen over a young changeling, he orders his servant, a mischievous sprite, to play a prank on her with hilarious consequences. Adapting Shakespeare’s classic comedy of confused identities, bewildered lovers and a startling metamorphosis, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream comprises the composer’s perhaps most atmospheric score. An entrancing orchestration of instrumental colours breathes life into a magic wood setting the scene for a mysterious dream world.