In the seven years since the first performance at Aldeburgh of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream it has already seen three British productions and several abroad, and at a time when our early enthusiasm for the work has ripened into a certainty of its profound qualities, Decca have issued a superb recording of it under the composer's direction (SET 338–40). Most of the roles have by now been taken by more than one interpreter, and the Lysander on this issue, Peter Pears, has previously been Flute, while Josephine Veasey, who took the part of Oberon at Covent Garden, is here an excellent Hermia.