Reviewers who've heard Elvis Costello's Il sogno live in concert have diverged as to its merits, although a certain look-how-surprisingly-well-he-did quality is detectable in the positive opinions. This orchestral work was written for an Italian dance company that had adapted Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream into a ballet ("il sogno" means "the dream" in Italian), and it followed several smaller ventures Costello had made into the realm of classical music. Costello slightly condensed his ballet score for CD release (on whose cover he looks a bit like Henry Kissinger) and wrote a few new transitions. Unlike some other pop and rock musicians who have tried to cross over into the classics, Costello laboriously taught himself to read notation, to write for a symphony orchestra, and to shape themes and develop them. When it comes to dramatic music in the classical tradition, he did his homework well in regard to the variety of personality types a stage work might include, and to the kinds of signs that might represent them musically. Thus we have convincing supernatural music, lovers' music, and comic rustic music, all of it even stamped with a bit of Costello's irascible personality. There are elements of jazz (and to a lesser extent rock) in the score; on disc they seem to come out of nowhere, but they are interestingly matched with scenes of anger and argument. Several times they are connected with the character of Puck.