music director-ship

as the music director for the u.n.d.e.r.g.r.o.u.n.d s.h.a.k.e.s.p.e.a.r.e company's mid-september outdoor production of a midsummer night's dream, i've had a lot of headaches recently wrt music. the musicians will be a string quartet, with yours truly on the cello, and a celtic harpist. my main task for this production has been to find music for all the moments in the play when the director wants it. finding music that (a) fits the mood the director wants, (b) is playable by a quartet, and (c) isn't too hard (we're very limited on rehearsal time) is quite a task. what i've come up with:

[warning: you are probably going to find this extrodinarily boring. tough shit: this diary is a record of *my* life, and right now, this is what i'm thinking about]

• for the pre-show piece, and during the interval: the overtures from henry purcell's the indian queen and abdelazer.
• opening to I.i: handel's music for royal fireworks, for theseus and hyppolyta's entrance.
• opening to II.i: the overture britten's dream opera, for the unsettled forest scene. the only problem with this is that it's written for a symphony orchestra, with divided parts for all the string instruments, including a bass part that is significantly different from the cello part, and important. i'm not sure how this is going to work with just a quartet...
• celtic harp tunes to accompany the fairies singing.
• wind chimes to accompany the love potions, and the drugged lovers waking up.
• end of III.i: mendelssohn's wedding march for the wedding.
• opening of V.i: handel again.
• thisbe's death in V.i: the melody from the vesti la guibba aria from i pagliacci, played very weepily on a solo violin.
• oberon's song in V.i: accompanied by harp
• end of play: handel again, cast will enter the audience and shake hands in lieu of a curtain call (this is our director's goofy interpretation (actually, i think he stole it from another prodution of this play) of puck's last two lines: "give me your hands, if we be friends / and Robin shall restore amends." the cast wants the audience to *literally* give their hands.