A KING
APPOINTED QUEEN
Britten's Comic Opera about a Lovable
Misfit
By D. Rane Danubian
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music
and dance
Week of Aug. 5-12, 2010
Vol. 12, No. 122
SANTA FE, NM---Composer Benjamin
Britten proved himself a master
craftsman in his astute satire of British small-town society, "Albert
Herring" (1948). The comedy comes in fits and spurts. But Britten's
imagination, refinement, and characterization was never better than in
this
rare chamber opera, which exhibits some plot similarities to "Elixir of
Love" and improves on them.
The
first staging of "Herring" in the 53-year history of the Santa Fe
Opera came off exuberantly July 31st amidst yet another grand New Mexico
thunderstorm, struck up in time
for the lovers' duet contending that, when it rains, we'll share a
single
umbrella (a comment drawing rueful laughter from patrons who forgot
theirs).
Propelling
the comedy were conductor Andrew Davis in the pit and Stage Director
Paul
Curran establishing high-comic action and mobility, even where the
scenario
sagged.
As
the village blue-noses could not find a girl virtuous enough to be the
annual
May Queen, in desperation they picked the introvert Albert Herring as
their May
King. Ultimately, to their horror, Albert strays off the primrose path
with a
wild night of drink and debauchery, redeemed through his liberation
belatedly realizing
his identity and personality.
The
music is ingenious and uncharacteristic, as if the serious-minded
Britten had
communed a bit with the ghosts of Gilbert and Sullivan. The rollicking
opening
scene offers both a sextet and a fugue in which the self-appointed
guardians of
purity air their predicament. And in the finale, when the gathering
laments the
apparent demise of Albert, there is both a mourning quartet and a nonet
lament,
each delectable in its own fashion.
In
between, the orchestra furnishes 101 moods in a pictorial way. Rarely
has so
much expressiveness been wrought from so small an ensemble.
There's
nothing small about the cast however, with Albert hemmed in between his
hen-pecking mother (Judith Cristin) and the heavyweight civic leader
Mrs.
Billows (the Wagnerian star Christine Brewer), both comediennes par
excellence.
Britten's deftest scenes of love and flirtation anywhere appear through
the
lovers Sid (Joshua Hopkins) and Nancy (Kate Lindsey), expertly
interpreted.
And, inevitably, there's the slovenly scene-stealing maid (Jill Grove)
who
knows every skeleton in every closet and proves indispensable.
The
Albert of Alek Shrader displayed an attractive lyric tenor, along with
a manner
too bookish to pass as a "simpleton" green-grocer's assistant working
on
minimum wage (or less).
In
the solid cast also featuring Dale Travis, Celena Shafer,
Mark Showalter, and, stepping in
smartly as the Vicar on short notice, Jonathan Michie, were a variety
of
supercharged kids who kept cabbages and fruit flying in the
proceedings,
narrowly avoiding hitting the 1940s hairdos Britten would have
recognized.
Britten
(1913-76) was England's most prolific opera
composer, best remembered for the tragic "Peter Grimes," about yet
another outsider shunned by society. In the concert hall, his War
Requiem still
reigns as a timeless modern masterpiece.
The
meticulously
choreographed scene-changes dictated by the nonstop music are a mite
trying.
And the denouement finale is, as in most such operas, anti-climactic.
But much
of the way, mirth reigns. And who can deny that the nightly New Mexico
electrical
storms help charge up each well-rehearsed show at the theater wide open
to the
elements on either side?
OPERA NOTES---Instead of the
standard pre-curtain announcement, General Director Charles McKay came
up with a comic and novel touch, rapping on the set's French door till
the maid opened up, then coming downstage for to divulge a cast
change....The high esteem in which the composer has been held in
Britain is borne out by his elevated conferred title: Lord Britten of
Aldeburgh.
"Albert Herring,” by Benjamin
Britten, July. 24 at Santa Fe
(NM) Opera, in English, through Aug. 25. For info: (800) 280-4654, or
go
online.
©D. Rane Danubian 2010
#
D. Rane Danubian has been
covering
the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with
relish
-- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never
weakly)
will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with
forays
into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local
artists as well.
#
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