The Royal Academy of Music presented a wonderful production of Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten.
The production was wonderfully and thoughtfully presented by director Orpha Phelan, with some very insightful lighting choices by Matt Haskins and some brilliant details in the sets and costumes from Madeleine Boyd (the vicar wearing socks with crucifixes on them for instance). The production was also a springboard for the phenomenal performances on stage.
This chamber opera is about small village life, with one in which they elect a May Queen each year but this year, as all the girls are in such ‘disrepute’, they decide to elect a May King instead, the virginal Albert Herring, firmly under his mother’s thumb. It is a comic opera, probably the most humorous Britten ever did, but there is pathos here too, especially in the third act where Herring is presumed dead. Seeing many of the cast on the beach looking for clues, feeling guilt or grief, especially for his mother, powerfully performed by Anna-Helena Maclachlan. After this sadness it switches back to comedy, with Herring back, having gone away to have a fun night full of alcohol, fighting and romance, using a good sum of his winnings to do it, finally becoming his own man.
I cannot say enough about the performances of the cast that I saw (there were two). Every single person on stage gave it their all and did a brilliant job.
George Curnow as Albert Herring had a lovely voice and did a great job both as the restricted and unleashed Herring. How he managed to keep a straight face wearing such a ridiculous (and absolutely fantastic) hat I’ll never know but he did a great job, keeping things grounded as well.
The standouts for me were Oleksandr Ilvakhin as Sid and Chloe Harris as Nancy. Sid has some of the best arias and is a part of some of the best duets in it, and Ilvakhin makes the most of it. His performance, especially in Act 1 was stunning, a talent to watch out for. The way he really lived the words, first in his interactions with Albert and then with Florence, waxing about romance and living life and then the flirting with Florence, it was so well done and made me wish it was longer. Similarly, Harris brought a warmth and passion to her role and was able to really flex her acting muscles throughout the piece, especially in the final act, firstly racked with guilt about the possible death of Albert and then continuing romance with Sid.
The ‘village’ group: Lady Billows (Madison Horman), Florence Pike (Angharad Rowlands), Miss Wordsworth (Ellen Mawhinney), the Vicar (Conrad Chatterton), the Mayor (Samuel Stopford), Superintendent Budd (Duncan Stenhouse) all brought the comedy with great singing and wonderful performances. Angharad Rowlands and Madison Horman in particular were wonderful.
The Royal Academy Sinfonia played strongly and were very well conducted by Geoffrey Paterson who got the most out of everyone, leading strongly.
There were two intervals, one after each Act and I think having just the one interval would have helped move things a long a bit quicker but that’s my only minor quibble. If you have never been to see performances at RAM I strongly recommend that you do, the performances I saw were the equal of anything I’ve seen at ENO or ROH. It was a wonderful production and fantastic singing and I just wish there had been more performances for me to go back and watch.
The Stuart Review 