The Dream/Song of the Earth

An Ashton/MacMillan double bill from the Royal Ballet. 'The Dream', is a one-act version of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' – a little on the twee side, if you ask us. Kenneth MacMillan's 'Song of the Earth', by contrast, is a weighty work set to Mahler's 'Das Lied von der Erde', a piece that reflects on beauty and mortality. Stark, sombre and quite wonderful.