Word: brittenã
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...Benjamin Britten??s 1947 comic opera “Albert Herring” revels in the notion of being bad on purpose. The Dunster House Opera’s current production, which runs through Feb. 13, uses its formidable discipline to create a tight, wry vision of Britten??s fable of mischief...
...Britten??s astringent score calls for an equally dry wit, and Dunster House Opera’s laconic production of “Herring” appropriately aims more for poised subtlety than madcap laughter. Concise acting makes the plot clear at all times, even when the clarity comes at the expense of a joke (though there are plenty). Humor emerges from the libretto rather than being scaffolded upon...
Olarte-Hayes also manages to capture Britten??s pastoral disquiet especially well, given the disadvantage of a reduced dynamic palette. In terms of both music and plot, the defining idiosyncrasy and greatest challenge of Britten??s work is the sense of a rural world that has just disappeared from real life—grimy and intolerant, yet somehow possessed of some endearing ignorance that we no longer have. The orchestra warmly articulates the meandering melodic lines, but shades them with a well-measured anxiety that elegantly propels the emotional dynamic of the opera...
...Albert. Imitation folk songs are sung in a child’s squeal. Mock-Italian quintet singing is delivered with appropriate exuberance. Herring hiccups repeatedly to the “Tristan und Isolde” chord before he goes out for his night on the town—Britten??s in-joke to regular operagoers, and one entirely appropriate for an opera that depicts desire as transgressive as Wagner’s, but with infinitely more levity...
...liberation—and this time it won’t just be your roommate shaking off the January blues. Instead, this spectacle comes in the form of a comic, irreverent tale of innocence lost and knowledge gained: the Dunster House Opera’s upcoming production of Benjamin Britten??s “Albert Herring...