The ballet evening »Ein Sommernachtstraum« brings together two classic works, namely William Shakespeare’s »A Midsummer Night’s Dream« and Antonio Vivaldi’s »The Four Seasons«. Frederick Ashton’s adaptation of »A Midsummer Night’s Dream« from 1964, featuring a highly virtuosic physical vocabulary and humorous narrative, has become a milestone in balletic interpretations of Shakespeare. It provides a somewhat intimidating opportunity for any ballet company to prove its technical expertise. While Ashton’s work is very specifically located in a busy forest during the Biedermeier era, the British choreographer David Dawson was inspired by Max Richter’s reinterpretation of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” (2012) to create an abstract piece about the cycle of life. A neoclassical ballet develops within the spare, beguilingly beautiful stage space of Eno Henze. The focus is on man, on stillness as well as the movement of continual change, exposed to the most diverse moments of perception and energy, alternating between life and death. »The Four Seasons« premiered at the Semperoper in 2018.