"Full of fun" says the LA Times and others. Read reviews under "learn more" above.
Conducted by James Conlon
It's spring in a bucolic English country village; time to choose a May Queen from the lovely local maidens. But the only virgin to be found is Albert Herring, a meek mama's boy who reluctantly becomes Loxford's first May King.
After his friends surreptitiously ply him with liquid courage at the coronation ceremony, Albert discovers the nerve to assert himself for the first time in his life.
Tenor charmer Alek Shrader will make his Company debut in the title role. Albert Herring is the second in a series of operas celebrating the upcoming centenary of the legendary English-language composer, Benjamin Britten.
PARENTAL GUIDE:
This is a coming of age comedy. Contains mild alcohol use and sexual innuendo; parental discretion is advised. Half-price tickets are available to students ages 9-17 and we have special programs/operas for younger children. Please read the synopsis for further details. If you have any questions, call us at 213.972.8001.
NOTES
Production from the Santa Fe Opera
Production New to Los Angeles
Approximately two hours and fifty minutes, including one intermission.
Evening performances: 7:30-10:20 p.m. (approximately)
Matinee performances: 2:00-4:50 p.m. (approximately)
The scene is Loxford, a small market town midway between Ipswich and Aldeburgh, in East Suffolk. One of the more important persons of the district is Lady Billows, who combines an autocratic zeal for good works with a horror of immorality in all its forms, but especially among the young and unmarried. This has brought her to the notion of reviving the May Day Festival in Loxford. She appoints a small committee to guide her in selecting a worthy girl for May Queen, offers twenty-five guineas as the premium on virtue, and sets Florence, her housekeeper, ferreting around for gossip about all likely candidates.
Alas! When the committee has its final meeting in April, the evidence against its nominees is comprehensive and damning. To elect a local girl for her virtue would shirk the plain facts. None of them is fit.
The situation is saved by the Superintendent of Police. If there is no Queen available, why not have a May King? Why not Albert Herring? His reputation is spotless: his shyness and his fear of girls are notorious. The Vicar agrees: why should virtue be a prerogative of the female sex? Lady Billows grasps at the chance of snubbing the unforgiveable Loxford girls, and the whole committee sets off to break the news to Albert and his mother.
The Herrings keep a greengrocer's shop in Little Street, next door to the butcher's. We see Albert first on a normal workday morning, with Sid from next door dropping in for a chat. They are joined by Nancy, Sid's latest girl, and the flirting between her and Sid discomfits Albert, who is glad to see the back of them. He is made still more uncomfortable by the arrival of Florence, as forerunner to the whole committee, and objects strongly to their plan of crowning him, but is overruled by Mum, who has a weather eye on the twenty-five guineas.
Intermission
Act II
Act II is May Day itself. Nancy and Sid are making last preparations for high tea, while everyone else is at the service in the parish church celebrating Albert's coronation. Sid persuades Nancy to help him in a practical joke: they fill all the glasses with lemonade, and dose Albert's glass with a stiff lacing of rum.
Miss Wordsworth takes a final rehearsal of the ode she has written for the occasion, until the guests begin arriving, Albert last of all, in a neat but ostentatiously clean white suit. Bouquets are presented, speeches made and applauded, the purse of guineas delivered, and all join in a toast to their May King. Albert takes a long swig from his glass, demands more "lemonade" and becomes immediately much brisker. The curtain falls with everyone settling down to the food.
Later that evening, Albert comes home in a state of considerable exhilaration. Mum is visiting her sister, and Albert can spread himself in memories of the magnificent feast: he is interrupted by Sid and Nancy on their way for a walk. They stop to chat under the lamppost outside the shop, laugh at the quaint picture Albert made in his white suit, but soon forget him in their own flirtation, which Albert overhears with horrible fascination. When they have gone, his excitement, embarrassment and indignation combine in a wild desire for escape. He suddenly makes up his mind to enjoy one night's freedom at least and slips out into the night. Mum returns, locks up and trudges wearily off to bed, thinking Albert is in and asleep already.
Act III
Next day the whole town is feverishly alarmed by the May King's disappearance. Business stops, the search spreads wider and wider round the district and rumors abound. Mum is brokenhearted at the loss of her boy. Suspicion hardens into dreadful certainty when a solemn procession arrives at the shop bearing the little wreath of orange-blossom Albert wore at the coronation. It has been found on the Ipswich road, crushed by a cart.
All join in a threnody of lamentation around the wreath, which is broken by the arrival back of Albert himself, filthy, disheveled and defiant. His explanation of his night out is appalling. He has plunged into unforgivable excesses, but at least he has learned the value of his own independence and can stand up for himself in future.
(Synopsis written by Eric Crozier for the 1947 world premiere at Glyndebourne.)
The reviews are in and everyone is in love with Albert Herring!
From the Los Angeles Times:
"Los Angeles Opera's production of Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring, which opened at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Saturday night, is full of fun. The music making, highlighted by James Conlon's vital conducting, is... excellent."
From Variety:
"[The] orchestra under James Conlon's expert baton bristles with excitement!"
From Out West Arts:
"L.A. Opera does well by Britten’s score and gives the show a huge, luxurious production across the board. James Conlon and his players dug into the score at times like it was Wagner."
From Class Act:
"...a first-rate production that sparkled like a finely tuned Rolex."
From All is Yar:
"Most of all, it's funny. Truly funny, with that special brand of wry humor the British seem to possess in droves."
From LA Splash:
"LA Opera manages to pull off comedy to a tee."
With James Conlon
Designed to enhance your experience of the opera. Begins one hour prior to each performance in the Grand Hall.
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PODCAST: ALBERT HERRING PRE-PERFORMANCE TALK
2011/12 Season Podcast #44 - Albert Herring
LA Opera: February 10, 2012
KUSCs Brian Lauritzen chats with Albert Herring director Paul Curran about the critical working relationship between the conductor and the director, and the challenge of communicating the subtleties of Britten's characters to a large audience.
Listen
Pre-performance lectures are generously sponsored by the Flora L. Thornton Foundation and the Opera League of Los Angeles.
With James Conlon
LA Opera: February 10, 2012
Britten
