A Midsummer-Night’s Dream

Open-Air Show-Event-Concert by the Bielefeld Philharmonic Orchestra.

The appeal of open air concerts greatly depends on the natural setting in which they take place. In this respect, the show event that will close the 2008/2009 concert season of the Bielefeld Philharmonic Orchestra on Saturday 27 June 2009 (entry from 7pm), is certainly first-class: it will be held in the Bürgerpark next to the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle, one of the city’s most beautiful green oases that will turn into a suggestive stage for the event. With its slightly hilly topography that resembles a natural theatre, it offers ideal conditions for an atmospheric combination of art and nature. And the staging of this Midsummer-Night’s Dream, too, goes far beyond the offers usually made by open air concerts.  Together with the FLASH ART® - Show Production Company Plc, the Bielefeld Philharmonic Orchestra will create a genuine piece of art in this magical natural setting. Synchronized with the orchestra’s live music, a dance of the elements – light, water and fire – will enchant the viewers.  FLASH ART will use special technologies for this live spectacle that allow the operation of each individual effect synchronised with music – a crucial technology in this interplay of music and show elements. The focal point of the show will be the pond in the centre of the park. The stage will be put up right by the shore, opposite the area of the park that goes uphill, and on the sides there will be seating accommodations and standing room for 5,000 spectators. The floating construction in the middle of the pond will be the highlight of the first part of the concert: a water show will be generated here whose interplay of light and water will throw amazing visual effects in the air. The floating device will even create a veritable ‘screen of water’ on which video projections will appear. Illuminations around the lakeshore, light and laser installations will round off this part. In the second part – after nightfall – the elements of fire and light will dominate: Bengal fireworks, comets, silver suns and fire pots will be ignited in a carefully planned staging in synchronization with music. As an ‘appetizer’, the highly acclaimed vocal ensemble that has been performing the music of the ‘Comedian Harmonists’ at Bielefeld Theatre for a few years will start the programme by singing songs of this legendary ‘boy group’. The actual Midsummer Night’s Dream is constructed, from a musical point of view, around three pieces that could not be missing in this ‘dance of the elements’: Mendelssohn‘s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Overture, Smetana’s ‘Moldau’ and Handels ‘Music for the Royal Fireworks’. In between, music director Peter Kuhn and his Bielefeld Philharmonic Orchestra will perform exquisite, entertaining and atmospheric orchestral pieces by Berlioz, Delius, Gershwin and Khatchaturian – and thus they will take you into another great world of illusions. Tickets for standing room are available for the price of 15 € (discounted 7.50 €) from the theatre box office on Niederwall, the evening box office, the ticket agency at the Neue Westfälische newspaper, and by calling 0521/51 54 54. From outside Bielefeld, call the Besucherring at 0521/329 83 89. Family Tickets (only from ticket agencies): when you purchase one adult ticket and one student ticket, you receive a free ticket for every additional child up to the age of 16. The entrance to the event is on Stapenhorststraße, near Rudolf-Oetker-Halle underground station. The concert is sponsored by the Hanns-Bisegger Foundation, the Theatre- und Concert Friends Bielefeld and the Sparkasse Bielefeld, among others.

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