Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera, a revival of Giles Havergal’s Opera North production from 2013, appears to be in its optimum performance space in the beautiful Howard Assembly Room attached to Leeds Grand Theatre, which provides just the right level of intimacy.
Any attempt to put ‘Albert Herring’ into a grandiose theatre with a proscenium arch would be mad. The audience surrounds the clever set, designed by Leslie Travers, a pretty simple representation of the fictional Suffolk village of Loxford in the late 1940s, complete with fresh fruit and veg which you can almost smell, and the performers can get within touching distance. In fact, they can sing right into your face if you are sitting downstairs, an unusual and rather disturbing experience, especially if the singer is soprano Judith Howarth.
She plays Lady Billows, who is accustomed to calling the tune for a bunch of villagers who are just as reactionary and prejudiced as herself. On opening night, she delivered her message with great force and put plenty of harshness into it when necessary. She wants to find a girl to be the May Queen who is one hundred percent free of any taint of sexual precocity, and believe it or not, she can’t. One by one the candidates were paraded before her, simpering and trying to look coy, but they were all exposed by her housekeeper, Florence Pike, played by mezzo-soprano Heather Shipp, who keeps meticulous records on who kissed or fondled whom and when. Her incisive, impressively dark voice matched the stony face she assumed so alertly. The decision is made by the assembled village worthies (after the Lady has decided), to appoint a male equivalent, a May King, a title that would fit the young man who runs the local greengrocer’s with his domineering mother: one Albert Herring, generally considered to be a virgin.
Baritone William Dazeley stood out amongst the worthies as a vicar with a rigid social outlook, and soprano Amy Freston was impressively agile in both voice and body as Miss Wordsworth, the local schoolteacher. She became charmingly comical when she mustered some of her pupils to sing Albert’s praises at his crowning ceremony. Loxford’s mayor, played superbly by tenor Paul Nilon, was convincingly old-school, and Mr Budd, the Superintendant of Police, played by bass Richard Mosley-Evans was quite a Wagnerian Mr Plod, with a huge, rich voice.
Making his debut with Opera North, Welsh tenor Dafydd Jones played Albert Herring himself, showing that he is adept at dramatic flexibility. He came into his own after his lemonade had been spiked with rum. Before this event, during his crowning with a silly hat, his face displayed the features of a man travelling from shyness to utter dismay, and after he had tossed the drink down, to a sudden awakening. The character who provides the rum is Sid from the butcher’s, who has a laid-back attitude to life, along with his girlfriend Nancy, from the baker’s. Baritone Dominic Sedgwick is the spiker who liberates Albert, and is entirely credible as a new man of the post-war period, from his constant flipping of a comb through his hair to his unselfconscious embracing of mezzo Katie Bray, who was fresh and compelling as Nancy.
I was full of admiration for the dozen-strong orchestra conducted by Gary Walker, which adapted to the constant switches and oddities in the music brilliantly. The whole score is a pastiche, full of comedy, from the Tristan chord which goes with the spiking of Albert’s lemonade to a violin simulating a wolf whistle to signify the relationship between Sid and Nancy. The entr’actes, all beautiful, covered a series of dashes by cast members to readjust the set by shifting what could be shifted and to dive into drawers to bring out small items to be placed correctly.
The threnody (lament) which occurs in Act Three, when the villagers, and especially his tearful mother, mezzo Claire Pascoe, believe he is dead because of his disappearance, was performed with great impact, with all concerned trooping in rings around Albert’s discarded white jacket. It was perfect tragi-comedy. The vicious abuse that is hurled at a defiant Albert on his return, especially when he does not reveal the full details of an encounter he says has taken place during his adventure elsewhere, is followed by a final scene with Albert Sid and Nancy all full of joy.
It all represents Britten’s prescience, because the piece is about social changes to come in the 1950s, and it just might have been another man that Albert met and kissed, which he won’t admit to, but not so fast, not so fast. The opera can be enjoyed at any level, and it certainly was when I watched it. The performers were all well-applauded, especially the children, Rosa Sparks, Willow Bell and Oliver Mason, who certainly deserved every clap.
Further performances at Howard Assembly Room:
Fri 12 Jan 7.00pm
Sun 14 Jan 2.00pm
Tue 16 Jan 7.00pm
Thu 18 Jan 7.00pm
Sat 20 Jan 2.00pm
Thu 29 Feb 7.00pm
Sat 2 Mar 4.00pm
Main image: Dafydd Jones as Albert Herring All photography: Tom Arber
Conductor Garry Walker, Director Giles Havergal, Revival Director Elaine Tyler-Hall, Set and Costume Designer Leslie Travers, Lighting Designer John Bishop, Movement Director Tim Claydon
