RSC's Maureen Beattie & Jimmy Yuill Appear in EIF's MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Concert Tonight, Aug 13

Two of the country's leading actors will appear in the orchestral performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Usher Hall tonight, 13 August as part of Edinburgh International Festival 2012.

Maureen Beattie makes her Festival debut this year. Jimmy Yuill returns to the Festival following his critically acclaimed performance in The Testament of Cresseid in 2009. Both actors have appeared widely on stage and screen, including working extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Sir Roger Norrington leads the Scottish Chamber Orchestra together with the NYCoS National Girls Choir led by Christopher Bell in the performance of Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Sophie Bevan, recent winner of the South Bank Show Breakthrough Award, and Mary Bevan also illuminate the stage.

The programme for the night is completed by Berlioz's Les nuits d'été (Summer Nights) with celebrated Austrian mezzo soprano Angelika Kirchschlager.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Jimmy Yuill and Maureen Beattie bring the words of Shakespeare to the stage, the spoken word interweaving with the sung and the orchestral music, with many familiar tunes including the world famous Wedding March.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is just one of twenty-three concerts taking place at the Usher Hall every evening throughout Edinburgh International Festival 2012 with world leading orchestras, conductors and soloists including the Cleveland Orchestra led by Franz Welser-Möst, Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra, Deborah Voigt, Nicola Benedetti, and the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées conducted by Philippe Herreweghe.

Over 3000 artists from 47 nations will gather in the Scottish capital this year for Edinburgh International Festival 2012 (Thursday 9 August to Sunday 2 September) to share the live experience of theatre, dance, opera and music with audiences from approximately a third of the world's nations.

A Midsummer Night's Dream plays tonight, 13 August at 8.00pm in the Usher Hall. Tickets are £12-32 from eif.co.uk/sco1. The performance is 1 hour and 50 minutes approximately.

Photo credit: Nikolaus Karlonsky