Albert Herring (Complete opera)

"It's a thoroughly delightful score, and Naxos has assembled a starry cast beautifully molded by the baton of Britten speciaist Steuart Bedford. With Christopher Gillett¡≈s insouciant embodiment of the title part, to the strong vignettes provided by British notables Josephine Barstow (Lady Sillows) Robert Lloyd (Superintendent Budd) Gerald Finley (Sid) and Della Jones (Mrs. Herring), this bargain-priced set rivals the composer¡≈s 1964 recording (with Peter Pears as Albert). It¡≈s an up-to-date rendition that combines musical accuracy with theatrical immediacy and pungent humor in every measure."
- Robert Croan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 6, 2003 (circ. 420,000)

"This recording was made in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1996 with the city's own orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia, a chamber ensemble tailor-made for this sort of music and they play magnificently. There is a crack British cast of huge collective experience and a real feeling of ensemble effort prevails...This is a great operatic craftsman at work and the music is performed with a real sense of virtuoso ensemble...The recording quality is excellent..."
- John Leeman, musicweb.uk.net, June 2003

"The musicians of the Northern Sinfonia treat the score very much as extended chamber music, with the instruments almost as characters in their own right. The recorded sound is atmospheric and expertly balanced. At the new price, there's no excuse for not having one of Britten's richest but least appreciated operatic scores in your collection."
- Matthew Rye, BBC Music Magazine, April 2003, 5 Stars for Performance and Sound

In 1945 Benjamin Britten stunned the operatic world with the triumphant première of Peter Grimes, a tragic depiction of the social misfit, struggling unsuccessfully to exist in an alien society with which he cannot establish a connection. This grand opera, complete with large orchestra and prominent chorus, put British opera back on a map from which it had been virtually absent since the death of Henry Purcell in 1695. The combination of story-telling and psychological study in Peter Grimes, infusing everyday life with the forces of darkness, set a precedent which characterized much of Britten's operatic output for the rest of his life. It was Britten's genius, of course, to bring these stories to musical life in powerful masterworks which transcend their often provincial English settings.

Like Peter Grimes, Albert Herring is set in Britten's native Suffolk, and reflects a rural village sensibility. Herring, written and first performed in 1947, is, however, ostensibly very different from its grand predecessor. Britten's librettist for Albert Herring was Eric Crozier, who had suggested, as a possible opera subject, a short story by Guy de Maupassant, Le rosier de Madame Husson. Crozier adapted the story, relocating it from its original Normandy setting, and, with Britten, creating a cast of finely drawn characters and a scenario for a chamber opera. They created Albert Herring for their newly-formed English Opera Group, which had a mission to produce opera in English, on a small scale which could easily be toured. There is no chorus, and, instead of a large orchestra, an instrumental ensemble of twelve players. Albert Herring is a comedy, set around the May Day celebrations of the fictional Suffolk village of Loxford. The major issue appears to be the crowning of a May King in the absence of a young woman of sufficient virtue to be May Queen. It could hardly be further from Peter Grimes, with its mysteriously missing fisherman's apprentice boys.

Albert Herring is also a study in Suffolk village mores, with its clear delineation of the population into an upper middle class of straight-laced - some might say straight-jacketed - worthies and an earthier, generally more appealing stratum of working class folk. Britten and Crozier clearly know this territory, and even the names of the characters, which could be straight out of Dickens, are borrowed from real people and places: Albert Herring himself is named after a shop-keeper near Britten's own Suffolk home; Harold Wood is a station on the Ipswich-to-Liverpool railway line; and Cissie Woodger was a local girl from Snape, the village which now boasts The Maltings concert hall.

The opera, however, has its own darker side, exemplified by the gravitas of the Threnody, sung by the town dignitaries upon discovering, as they think, that tragedy has befallen the May King. There is also the psychological issue of the dilemma of a dutiful young son who, at the age of 22, is more than ready to sow a few wild oats, despite being under the thumb of his mother, for whom he works in the village greengrocer's.

It is Britten's genius to create, with small chamber forces, a comic opera sparkling with character, wit, and, at times, great poignancy. Each individual in the cast has a distinct musical personality, paralleling his or her dramatic persona, whether in bantering dialogue, lyrical melody, or parodistic soliloquy, as in the May Day tributes offered by the local dignitaries: the swooping moral rectitude of Lady Billows; the flighty Miss Wordsworth, accompanied by a twittering flute; or the over-excited monotone of the pompous Mayor. The music of the local lovers Sid and Nancy, by contrast, is radiant with warmth and implicit sexuality.

It is the musical portrayal of Albert Herring himself which is, of course, central to the opera. Written for Britten's life partner and musical collaborator Peter Pears, the music reflects the character's sweet nature, his increasing frustration with his mother's-boy status, and his ultimate liberation. This musical characterization is typical of one of Britten's most extraordinary gifts: it is a vivid musical portrayal of the personality of the dramatic character, created by exploiting the specific musical and vocal attributes of the performer for whom it is written. To this day, the rôle of Albert Herring (or of Peter Grimes, or others) evokes for many the sound, which they may know from recordings if they never heard it live, of the voice and delivery of Peter Pears. This evocation provides a template for subsequent performers, as well as a challenge for them to make the rôle their own; but it ensures an individuality and a dramatic and musical coherence which make Britten's compositions so uniquely identifiable.
- Sue Knussen