Only last week I was complaining that the Barbican Hall was not the Bayreuth Festspielhaus or the Augustinerkirche in Vienna. Without such luminous spaces something of the spiritual quality of Wagner’s Parsifal or a Bruckner Mass inevitably gets lost.

No such problems with the venue for this performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream complete with Mendelssohn’s subtly evocative incidental music. The magnificent Elizabethan Middle Temple Hall is not only contemporaneous with the play but even played host to the first recorded performance of Twelfth Night, possibly with Shakespeare in the cast.

It proved a challenge to create a platform area large enough to contain both the OAE and the actors but director Tim Carroll made skilful use of what he had: by causing his actors to weave in and out of the orchestra, he drew attention to the play’s musical references. Props such as a trombone, a saxophone and a pair of horn bells (for the ass’s ears) sounded a similar note.

Perhaps unavoidably, musical standards were occasionally compromised (though Charles Hazlewood conducted stylishly), while genuinely theatrical sparks were struck only intermittently. The rude mechanicals’ play came alive, however.

Daniel Rigby and Alex Hassell both came into their own here — they also played Demetrius and Lysander. Elena Pavli was equally resourceful as Hermia, Quince and the First Fairy. Martin Turner put his resonant voice to excellent use as Oberon and Theseus, while John Paul Connolly was an engaging Bottom.

The BBC filmed the whole thing as part of its Mendelssohn anniversary celebrations and the result can be seen on BBC television on Sunday night, or on the Radio 3 website until December.