Elizabeth Peyton. Prince Eagle (Fontainebleau) 1999
Courtesy of Gavin Brown’s enterprise
The moral leaders of the town of Loxford can not find a virtuous maiden for the impending May Day celebration. Forget the farm girls, they’ve seen too much - and the girls in town keep the midwife busy..... so they decide that only a local man is fit to be May Queen — a local shopkeeper, the chaste, innocuous — Albert Herring. What all that means and what all that does to poor Albert is dished up in Benjamin Britten's comedy of personal awakening: Albert Herring.
Albert Herring is being performed by the Gotham Chamber Opera, under conductor Neal Goren, the cast includes Matt Morgan, Karen Huffstodt, Barbara Dever, Timothy Kuhn and Leah Wool. The production begins starting Thursday February 9th and runs through Sunday the 18th. Check the Gotham Opera websites for exact dates and times.
The over arching theme of Britten's operatic work is the inability of the outsider to conform to the “provincial“ structures of society. Naturally Albert Herring is over shadowed by Britten's twin tragedies of men whom society condemns Peter Grimes and Billy Budd, but similarly Albert Herring is grounded by Britten's appreciation for the plight of the nonconformist. Britten builds the play around that idea that being grown up is not simply adopting a set of conventions, whether those of the young or the old, instead being an adult means something else.
At times wonderfully funny and a bit bawdy, Albert Herring does something rare — it presents us with someone who has a chance to be happy, not different (necessarily), but happy. In Britten’s world maybe this is a panacea, and he leaves us with something curious, a happy ending without a conclusion. Perhaps Britten is thumbing his nose at the comic opera conventions that require a happy ending with a girl and a wedding.....
Thursday, February 9 - 18, 2006
Gotham Chamber Opera
The Harry De Jur Playhouse
466 Grand Street
A synopsis of Albert Herring From the original program for the works premiere by the New English Opera Group, courtesy of the Britten-Pears Foundation.
Britten, wrote this as a coming of age story, while there is much satire, he pokes fun at all the classes equally. He is equally loving to all of his characters. That's another thing that attracted me to this opera. The characters are quirky, they’re weird, but they’re all lovable from the top on down.
Neal Goren speaks about Britten's choices, Albert's journey and the stellar cast of Albert Herring
