Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809 – 1847) composed the music for William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream at two different times. In 1826, at the age of 16, he wrote a concert overture (Op. 21). Sixteen years later, in 1842, he composed the incidental music (opus 61) for King Frederick William IV of Prussia, in which he incorporated the existing overture.

The overture premiered in Stettin (then in Prussia, now Szczecin, Poland) on February 20, 1827, conducted by Carl Loewe. Mendel...