Royal Academy Opera - Albert Herring

Composed just a year after the searing classical tragedy of The Rape of Lucretia, and for the same chamber orchestral forces, Albert Herring could not be more different. Here we have a vibrant comedy, set in the heart of a quintessentially rural England, at the turn of the twentieth century. The story tells of a naïve and shy teenage boy, cast (in the absence of any suitable girls for May Queen) as May King for the village’s May Fair. The events that unfold are hilarious, the resolution triumphant.

But the opera is just as multi-faceted as all of Britten’s other operas. Beneath the high comedy there are dark undertones, frail insecurities and touching paradoxes, all of which illuminate the human condition even as we laugh at its foibles and eccentricities.

Royal Academy Opera welcomes back the distinguished director John Copley, collaborating for the first time with conductor Nicholas Kok.

Further performances on Friday 12th and Monday 15th March.