Mendelssohn, Felix

Mendelssohn, Felix (1809–47),
German romantic composer. As children, the four young Mendelssohns staged their own outdoor performances of Shakespeare's plays. A Midsummer Night's Dream was their favourite, and at 17 Felix Mendelssohn wrote an Overture for it which ensured his fame. In 1843 he was requested by King Frederick William IV of Prussia to provide complete incidental music for a production of the play, and used themes from his overture to create interludes, entr'actes, dances, a nocturne, and a wedding march. Incidental Music to ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’ remains one of the finest musical realizations of a literary fairy tale. Mendelssohn's Märchen von der Schönen Melusina (Fair Melusina Overture, 1834) was inspired by the French legend of the mermaid who married a nobleman. Its opening theme, suggestive of flowing water, was borrowed by [The entire page is 167 words long]

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