opera review: Albert Herring

[calimac]

Pocket Opera is a small-scale local company known for putting on productions in English translations prepared for them, excellently written and (when appropriate) witty. This was a rare appearance in their repertoire of an opera originally written in English, and the first ever time it was by Benjamin Britten.

Albert Herring is supposed to be Britten's comic opera. It has a comic premise. In a small town in Suffolk (of course, because this is Britten) in Victorian times, shy Albert is elected King of the May because he's so dutiful and well-behaved. But his friends Sid and Nancy (no relation to the other Sid and Nancy) ply him with rum and he goes out and has a wild old time, and he comes back to tell off his repressive mother.

But in the meantime, there's a long stretch of the opera in which everybody thinks Albert is dead, and that's not comic at all, nor is most of the rest of the opera nor is the music with which Britten composed it. I had a hard time registering this as comic in the ordinary meaning of the word, or indeed "charming and witty" which the program said it is.

This is the second Britten opera I've seen all the way through (the first was The Rape of Lucretia). It was not an uninteresting experience nor an ineptly-composed work, but I'm not minded to increase my collection.

Comments

[oursin]

My understanding of Albert Herring is that Albert's qualification is that he is the Only Virgin in the Village; or at least, there has been a lot of gossip about any of the female candidates.

I have a recollection of seeing it at I think Sadlers Wells - ? Glyndebourne Touring Opera 2007 - but memory has really, really, faded.

[cmcmck]

I have to admit to not being a fan of Britten's operatic oeuvre.

[oracne]

I saw a production of this years ago, by students at the Esther Boyer School of Music at Temple (here in Philadelphia). I felt it only got "comedy" because nobody's dead at the end.

There's apparently a recording of Peter Pears as the lead in 1949.

[calimac]

That is part of the plot. But I was writing a two-sentence summary, and Albert's virginity is subsumed under his being dutiful and well-behaved. If he'd been a virgin due to being repulsive and obnoxious, he wouldn't have qualified as King of the May.

[wild_patience]

You may have noticed I sort of checked out during the part when everyone thinks he's dead and was just watching the orchestra intensely. As we were seated right next to them, I had a great view of the percussionist and could see some of the bow work by the string players.