The Italian Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company(La Scala), one of the earliest and most famous ballet companies in Europe, is rolling into Shanghai with "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Among the cast will be local young ballerinas aged from 10-12. The performance is said to be a highlight event of the Sino-Italian Year and, by having Italian and Chinese dancers share the same stage, is a good way to promote cultural exchange.

La Scala launched the new production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by George Balanchine to mark the 20th anniversary of his death in 2003.

Jeffrey Mo, a ballet critic and fan of the maestro Balanchine, said: "The production is exclusively presented in Europe only by the ballet of La Scala."

He added that the only other international company to have the rights to perform the piece is the New York City Ballet.

"The production was a surprising choice for Balanchine,a choreographer known for de-emphasizing plots in his ballets," Mo said.

It is widely known that the work was born from a personal necessity.

At just 8 years of age, Balanchine landed himself the role of one of the elves in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. From then on, he continued finding joy in reading the Bard's verses, some of which he even learnt by heart in his Russian mother tongue.

Mo said: "The music composed by Felix Mendelssohn is so important that it in turn became the vital condition for the existence of his choreographic work."

Mendelssohn composed the overture and other incidental music for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1843.

"However, the music was not long enough for the choreographer to work with, therefore he studied Mendelssohn's work intensively for 20 years before selecting the remaining music for the ballet he was to create," Mo said.

Balanchine used other works by Mendelssohn including "Overture to Athalie, Son and Stranger," and "Overture to The Fair Melusine," "Symphony No.9 for Strings" and "The First Walpurgis Night."

Mo noted that Balanchine did away with Shakespeare's idea of a play within a play and he just designed the first act to be a theatrical tour de force, and the second is a glittering wedding celebration, in which classical ballet takes centre stage.

"Balanchine disposed of the drama in the first act and used the second act to dazzle," he said.

Other critics say it will be a ballet attractive both to children and adults.

They believe children will enjoy seeing Titania fall in love with Bottom, who has been given a donkey's head and who finds himself unable to completely return her love because of his new-found love of sweet grasses.

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Time: November 16-18
Place: Shanghai Grand Theatre, No.300 Renmin Dadao
Ticket hotline: 021-62173055