This review was originally written for The Reviews Hub: https://www.thereviewshub.com/english-national-opera-albert-herring-london-coliseum/

The English National Opera’s pared-down version of composer Benjamin Britten’s infrequently performed Albert Herring struggles to find its feet in a tonally and stylistically clashing production.

Albert Herring centres around the eponymous, virtuous, shopkeeper’s son who is thrust into the spotlight of the small, fictional, village of Loxford when their events committee chooses Herring to be their ‘May King’, a first, having been frustrated by their local girls’ lack of virtue and decency. It is a fun premise, and puts Herring front and centre when he so desperately does not want to be, as a pillar for what the village deems as morally right. This comes to a climax at the end of Act Two, where Albert, decked out in virtuous white, has his celebratory lemonade spiked by cheeky pals Sid and Nancy, giving mummy’s boy Albert his first taste of alcohol, and his first taste of freedom, with chaotic consequences.

Tenor Caspar Singh makes his English National Opera debut in the titular role, and shines in bringing to life this bumbling, conflicted, young man. Singh’s presence on stage is effective in conveying Albert’s growing longing for understanding, with Singh channelling this vulnerability well into his individual performance. Despite it being his debut for the company, Singh looks completely at home in holding the audience’s attention upon the Coliseum’s vast stage.

Soprano Emma Bell leads the wider cast as the formidable Lady Billows, whose crusade to find, originally the ‘May Queen’ before settling for Albert, sets the wheels in motion of a piece that sideswipes that inherently British, stuffy desire for moral decency. It is a fun portrayal of this character, and Bell’s Lady Billows, much like the rest of the opera’s wider company, falls in line with the caricature depiction of various tropes found in small village communities, such as the Lady of the Manor, the overly pious vicar, the deal-making Mayor and the incompetent policeman.

The opera’s satirical look at moral decency does provoke a bit of fun as the characters’ own contradictions are laid bare, though this is undermined by some odd choices (is that sweet-shaking scout master really needed?), and this is slightly underdone by the baffling orgy of gluttony that unfolds at the end of Act Two, where all characters seems to bizarrely lose all sense of them selves for a ten-second blip.

This staging of Albert Herring is part of a wider initiative at the ENO, taking it from London to later perform at the Lowry in Salford. As a result, this semi-staged production is stripped back to its essentials. In truth, Antony’s McDonald’s design here, created in part out of necessity, does somewhat detract from the rest of the piece.

The production includes an onstage stage manager (played by Ashton Hall), who adds very little other than an odd choice to wave a giant clock around and incessantly ring a shop bell. This choice, adding an odd sense of metatheatre to the production, adds very little, as do the plodding set changes, which take far too long to just move a few tables and change a sign or two, hindering the much-needed momentum a comedy opera, which relies so much on farce, requires.

It is pace where this production really struggles, with the opera almost grinding to a complete halt in a painfully slow opening to Act Three, helping nudge the opera towards almost the three-hour mark, though fortunately, this energy is reignited for a swift and fun conclusion.

McDonald’s direction of Britten’s opera is creative, but it struggles, much like Albert, to find its identity. There are many ideas at play here, but what mostly falls victim to these stylistic clashes is the opera’s humour, which becomes a little too inconsistent. While underpinned by terrific performances, the muddled direction stutters the opera’s momentum. The goofy nature of the Loxford committee is plain to see, but this version, much like the villagers, is too contradictory.