NEW YORK CITY BALLET IN ‘MIDSUMMER’ ON PBS

George Balanchine’s 1962 two-act ballet “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a strange collage of compressed, sometimes perfunctory narrative episodes and extended, often glorious pure-dance sequences.

As a choreographic reduction of Shakespeare’s comedy, it lacks the structural ingenuity and brilliant character-dance scenes that make Frederick Ashton’s one-act ballet “The Dream” (choreographed two years later to some of the same Mendelssohn music) so satisfying.

Yet, as proven anew on the PBS “Live From Lincoln Center” telecast, taped last Saturday (but shown locally Sunday afternoon on KCET), Balanchine’s “Dream” provides a spectacular showcase for the most accomplished and alluring dancers in each New York City Ballet generation.

Whether melting from one position or phrase to another at high speed or filling the screen with her lush beauty in repose, Maria Calegari made a ravishing Titania and Ib Andersen excelled at the intricate footwork in Oberon’s solos.

With Calegari and Andersen electric together in every pantomime encounter, the absence of an Oberon-Titania pas de deux seemed especially unfortunate--though, of course, the wedding divertissement offered a tender, inventive duet for “guest” principals uninvolved in the story. It was smoothly performed by Merrill Ashley (successfully muting her normally speedy, sharp attacks) and Adam Lueders (carefully mastering the formidable partnering challenges).

Judith Fugate, Peter Frame, Kipling Houston and Stephanie Saland gave the darkly lit conflicts of the mismatched mortal lovers maximum definition and Victoria Hall whipped through the fog-shrouded fouettes as Hippolyta.

Jean-Pierre Frohlich not only made the most of Puck’s bravura opportunities, his spot-lit bare skin and earth-toned costume often supplied the only relief from screen images drenched in midnight blue.

Directed for television by Kirk Browning, with an inevitable loss of impact in large-scale corps passages, the two-hour program included inane intermission interviews by Patrick Watson.