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Albert Herring, Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten.
Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera The Rape of Lucretia. The libretto, by Eric Crozier, was based on Guy de Maupassant's novella Le Rosier de Madame Husson, with the action transposed to an English setting. Fiona Maddocks, " Queen for a day. And his name's Albert". The Observer, 17 February 2002.]
The opera received its U.S. premiere on 8 August 1949 at the Tanglewood Music Festival. In 1949, Britten's English Opera Group toured with both Rape of Lucretia and Albert Herring, giving ten performances between 12 and 23 September in Copenhagen and Oslo.Paul Kildea. Britten on Music. Oxford University Press, 2003: p. 92 An almost complete recording of one of the Copenhagen performances has been released commercially.
Sviatoslav Richter called it "the greatest comic opera of the century"Personal diary, published in Bruno Monsaingeon Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations. London: Faber, 2001: p. 292 and in 1983 staged Albert Herring as part of the December Nights Festival at Moscow's Pushkin Museum. Letters from a Life: the Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Vol. 5 1958–65 ed. Philip Reed & Mervyn Cooke. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2010: p. 339.
The opera was performed at Buenos Aires's Teatro Colón in 1972. The Chicago premiere was given by Chicago Opera Theater in 1979. In 2008–2010, over 55 performances were given by companies such as those at Glyndebourne and the Portland Opera in Oregon (2008 season); the Opéra-Comique in Paris and the Opéra de Normandie in Rouen (2009);and, for 2010, at the Landestheater in Linz, the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki and the Santa Fe Opera. Performances from 2011 on Operabase.com Retrieved 20 July 2013 The Santa Fe production was given by the Los Angeles Opera in 2011. Vancouver Opera presented the work, in a co-production with Pacific Opera Victoria, in 2013.
Working at the greengrocer's, Albert is teased for his timidity by the easygoing butcher Sid. Sid's girlfriend Nancy comes in to do some shopping, and the couple shares a tender moment while Albert looks on. The lovers leave, and Albert reflects on his miserable existence under his mother's thumb. The Festival Committee arrives with the news of his selection as May King. Mrs. Herring is thrilled by the prize of £25, but Albert balks at being paraded in swan-white and mother and son quarrel to the mocking commentary of the village children.
That night, Albert arrives home alone and quite drunk. In the street, Sid keeps a rendezvous with Nancy, and the two discuss their sympathetic pity for Albert before going off together. This is the breaking point for Albert, who has overheard. He takes the prize money and heads out looking for adventure.
Notes
Additional sources
Australian television production
Australian television aired a live performance in 1959. Albert Herring presented on television on 28 October 1959 This was at a time when Australian TV productions were rare.
Roles
Lady Billows, an elderly aristocrat soprano Joan Cross Florence Pike, her housekeeper contralto Gladys Parr Miss Wordsworth, a schoolteacher soprano Margaret Ritchie Mr. Gedge, the vicar baritone William Parsons Mr. Upfold, the mayor tenor Roy Ashton Superintendent Budd bass Norman LumsdenDennis Barker, Obituary for Norman Lumsden, The Guardian (London), 5 December 2001 Sid, a butcher's assistant baritone Frederick Sharp Albert Herring, from the greengrocer's tenor Peter Pears Nancy, from the bakery mezzo-soprano Nancy EvansTim McDonald, Obituary for Nancy Evans, The Guardian, 24 August 2000 Mrs. Herring, Albert's mother mezzo-soprano Betsy de la Porte Emmie soprano Lesley Duff Cis soprano Anne Sharp Harry Boy soprano David Spenser
Synopsis
Act 1
Housekeeper Florence Pike is run ragged. Her mistress Lady Billows is organising the annual May Day festival and has gathered all the important people of the village to elect the May Queen. But Florence has dug up dirt on every single girl nominated, proving that none is worthy to wear the once-much-coveted crown. Lady Billows is depressed. Superintendent Budd suggests that the solution may be to select, this year, a May King instead. He knows of a young man in town who is as certainly virginal as the girls are not: Albert Herring.
Act 2
It is the day of the festival. Sid and Nancy are preparing the banquet tent, and they take the opportunity to slip some rum into Albert's lemonade glass. Together with a crown of flowers and the gruesome but improving Foxe's The Book of Martyrs, Albert is awarded twenty-five pounds in prize money. Asked to make a speech, he is tongue-tied and becomes an object of pity at the feast in his honour, but after draining his lemonade glass (which Britten satirically underlines with a Tristan chord, alluding to the love potion in that opera).Tom Service, "Albert Herring" (Glyndebourne review). The Guardian, 22 October 2002 and having a fit of hiccups he manages a few hip-hip, hurrahs.
Act 3
The next morning Albert has not returned, and the village is in a panic. Superintendent Budd is leading the search, while the guilt-stricken Nancy tends to Mrs. Herring. A boy shouts that a "Big White Something" has been found in a well, and the village worthies file in to break the news en masse that Albert's crown of flowers has been discovered, crushed by a cart. A lengthy threnody of grief follows, but is interrupted by the surprise return of Albert. He thanks the Festival Committee for funding his night out. They, in turn, are outraged by his tale of drunken debauchery and leave in a huff. Albert finally stands up to his mother and invites the village children into the shop to enjoy some fruit at his expense.
Musical style and character themes
Albert Herring is a musically complex work, despite its somewhat light-hearted subject matter. The text is genuinely humorous, and the score, while matching the text in character, includes myriad musical quotations as well as some complex forms. Like Peter Grimes and other works by Britten, this opera explores society's reaction to an odd individual, although, in this case at least, it is from a generally humorous and lighthearted perspective.Michael Kennedy, "Herring stock soars", Telegraph (London), 22 March 1997
Andrew Clements, "Britten: Albert Herring; Gillett, Bedford et al.", The Guardian, 7 February 2003 Some of Britten's contemporaries saw in the title character a satirical self-portrait of the composer.Alfred Hickling, 'It's quite New Labour', The Guardian, 9 February 2002.
Recordings
There are five audio recordings of Albert Herring and one DVD recording, with the following artists:
1949 Peter Pears*,
Joan Cross*,
Denis Dowling,
Nancy Evans*,
Catherine Lawson,
Gladys Parr*,
Margaret Ritchie*,
Otakar Kraus,
Roy Ashton*,
Norman Lumsden*Benjamin Britten,
English Opera Group Orchestra
(Live recording of a performance in the Theatre Royal, Copenhagen, on 15 September)
Nimbus Records
NI 5824/6
(2008)1964 Peter Pears,
Sylvia Fisher,
Joseph Ward,
Catherine Wilson,
Sheila Rex,
Johanna Peters,
April Cantelo,
John Noble,
Edgar Evans,
Owen BranniganBenjamin Britten,
English Chamber OrchestraDecca Records
421,849–2
(1989)1985 John Graham-Hall,
Patricia Johnson,
Alan Opie,
Jean Rigby,
Patricia Kern,
Felicity Palmer,
Elizabeth Gale,
Derek Hammond-Stroud,
Alexander Oliver,
Richard Van AllanBernard Haitink,
London Philharmonic Orchestra
(Video recording of a performance at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera)
Director: Peter Hall
Designer: John GunterWarner Music Vision
5046 78790-21996 Christopher Gillett,
Josephine Barstow,
Gerald Finley,
Ann Taylor,
Della Jones,
Felicity Palmer,
Susan Gritton,
Peter Savidge,
Stuart Kale,
Robert LloydSteuart Bedford,
Northern SinfoniaNaxos Records
8.660170/8
(2003)1996 Christopher Pfund,
Kirsten Dickerson,
Samuel Hepler,
Nancy Maria Balach,
Barbara Kokolus,
Tara Venditti,
Lynette Binford,
Scott Bearden,
James Powell,
Scott AltmanDavid Gilbert,
Manhattan School of Music OrchestraVox Records
VXP2 7900
Recording source on opera-collection.net2001 James Gilchrist,
Susan Bullock,
Roderick Williams,
Pamela Helen Stephen,
Anne Collins,
Sally Burgess,
Rebecca Evans,
Alan Opie,
Robert Tear,
Stephen RichardsonRichard Hickox,
City of London SinfoniaChandos Records
CHAN 10036
(2003)
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