June 21st, fittingly, is also the longest day of the year, and the celebrations for the Summer Solstice (Winter Solstice in the Southern hemisphere) or Litha, or Midsummer Night, or
The lighting of bonfires is still part of the festivities in many countries, such as
St. John's Eve (Britain), Jonines (
According to Wikipedia, where I got most of this information, in Finland, Estonia and Sweden, Midsummer's Eve/Midsummer's Day (Swed.: Midsommarafton/Midsommardagen), is considered the greatest festival of the year, comparable only to Walpurgis Night, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve.
Gogol wrote a short story called St. John's Eve (1831), which inspired Modest Mussorgsky to create his Night on
The Fairy-Queen (1692) by Henry Purcell is a set of baroque masques, or semi-operas, metaphorically related to the play.
Felix Mendelsohn composed the incidental music for a German stage production, which includes his famous Wedding March (1842/3).
Carl Orff wrote another piece for the play, Ein Sommernachtstraum (performed in 1939; re-worked '52 & 62), after Mendelssohn's music had been banned by the Nazis.
Ibsen wrote a drama, also called St. John's Eve (1852/3), influenced by the earlier play and the fairy-tale comedies by the German Romantics.
The choreographers Marius Petipa, Frederick Ashton and George Balanchine all created ballet versions. In fact, Ashton's The Dream is being shown this month at the Birmingham Hippodrome as part of a Triple Bill called Love & Loss.
Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears turned it into an opera in 1960,
and progressive Rock guitarist Steve Hackett, best known with his work with Genesis, made a classical adaptation of the play in 1997.
Then there are the FILM versions... One of them, directed by Peter Hall, in 1968, features a nearly naked Judi Dench as Titania opposite Ian Richardson as Oberon, with Ian Holm as Puck - all of them painted green.
This list is of course not at all exhaustive. For even more information, see here.
If you've managed to bear with me so far, you might be in need of a drink by now, and what could be better than Pimm's on a First of June, which has been flaming indeed.
You have seen it before, I'm sure, but just as a reminder, this is how you make your own version of the alcohol content of the Pimm's:
1 part gin
1 part red vermouth
1/2 part Bols Orange Curacao/Cointreau/Grand Marnier
Then use 1 part of it to at least 3 parts of lemonade, plus apples, strawberries, cucumber and mint, and start enjoying the longer evenings! Cheers!
6 comments:
Oh, hurrah for Pimm's season! It has been so warm here lately... I swear that if I sat outside all day I could literally watch my tomato plants get taller. Yay for June!
If I sat outside, I'd soon be as red as those tomatoes!!
Yay for June and Pimm's indeed!
Awesome paintaing...
What a gorgeous painting at the top of your post. I adore Pimms - I had no idea you could mix your own.
Great content. Thanks for the post and the effort writing it. This is a remarkable article that I have enjoyed.
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