After finishing Company and Follies, Sondheim decided he wanted to write something that was not a book musical but something new in which the words and music were merged into a unified whole and, in particular, songs which were an extension of the dialog rather than stand alone show pieces. Although their stories of their first meeting differ, Sondheim and Hal Prince had previously worked on shows for which Prince was the producer and Sondheim the lyricist. Now Prince was also beginning a new career as a director, and they decided to work together on the piece which was to become A Little Night Music. A new collaboration was born.

They wanted something that had roots in tradition but was completely new. Prince suggested something on the order of a "masque" that takes place in a country house with "mismatched lovers who end up with the right people", "lots of foolish crises", and the atmosphere of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Sondheim wanted a "perfumed atmosphere with the smell of musk". They saw Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night. This fit the bill and became A Little Night Music. Set at the turn of the century, it has the flavor of tradition Viennese operetta, but it is thoroughly modern. All the time signatures are variations of 3/4 time but the waltzes are more like those of Ravel than of Johann Strauss.

They decided the whole thing should be set in a forest and although some scenes are indoors, the original sets reflected this. The songs were composed for the available voices, many of which were not of the type usually heard in musicals of the time. For example, Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady had started the trend of sort of talking to the music and this was used for Hermione Gingold who could sell a song but who had a "rusty hinge" for a voice. Desirée was originally a non-singing role, but Sondheim liked the sound of the rather small voice of Glynis Johns and gave the song Send in the Clowns to her rather than to Fredrik.

The complicated scene changes where accomplished with movable sets which were installed on metal tracks. These proved to be so noisy that the tracks were replaced by wooden ones. Finally was in order, and it opened to rave reviews. Clive Barnes in The New York Times said:"It is a mixture of Cole Porter, Gustav Maher ... and just a little Ingmar Bergman ... an adult musical!". It ran for over 700 performances altogether and was soon given in England, again with Gingold. Another English production in 1995 featured Dame Judy Dench as Madame Armfeldt. With its original title Smile of a Summer Night, it continues to be the most popular operetta given given today in Europe.

ORIGINAL CAST
Madame Armfeldt ....... Hermione Gingold
Desirée Armfeldy ........ Glynis Johns
Fredrik Egerman ......... Leo Cariou
Anne Egerman ............ Victoria Mallory
Henrik Egerman .......... Mark Lambert
Petra ........................... D. Jamin-Bartlett
Carl-Magnus Malcolm ... Laurence Guittard
Charlotte Malcolm ........ Patricia Elliott

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Revised December 2009
Please credit Lyric Opera San Diego when using this material.