Albert Herring- The Lowry, Salford

Score: Benjamin Britten

Libretto: Eric Crozier

Director and Designer: Antony McDonald

The English National Opera’s production of Albert Herring arrives at The Lowry carrying baggage. The decision to move the ENO from London to Manchester was imposed upon the company by Arts Council England under the then-government’s instruction that more arts funding should be spent outside the capital. The hesitancy of the ENO to comply with the controversial proposal led to an initially tense relationship with the city earmarked for their new home. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s response to the ENO’s reluctance was to advise them to come willingly or not at all.

The first production under the new arrangement – just two performances and one of them a matinee -seems like dipping a tentative toe into the water rather than whole-hearted commitment. The choice of an opera by Benjamin Britten does, however, ease new audiences into ENO’s policy of singing operas in English as a means of enhancing the emotional connection between performers and audiences.

The plot of Albert Herring is close to the old joke about the difficulty of staging a Nativity play in the absence of three wise men and a virgin. In 1947 in the small market town of Loxford it proves to be impossible to select a May Queen as the organising committee cannot find any women who meet the ridiculously high standards of morality imposed by the indomitable chairperson, Lady Billows (Emma Bell). Rather than abandon the celebrations the committee, determined to make virtue attractive, decides to break with tradition and crown the shy and innocent greengrocer’s boy, Albert Herring (Caspar Singh), as the May King. However, when a prankster spikes Albert’s soft drink with rum the celebrations descend into debauchery.

Director and designer Antony McDonald matches the post-war period in which the opera is set by staging the show in a BBC Radiophonic Workshop or early recording studio complete with rough soundproofing on the walls and a head-phones wearing technician in clear view prompting audience applause when required . Scene changes are announced simply by stagehands in overalls erecting captions over the spare set. There is an acknowledgment of the British affection for saucy innuendos with female villagers longing for a piece of beef.

In Loxford the ruling elite seem out of touch with the growing discontent within the wider community. Emma Bell’s Lady Bellows is so wrapped up in her own self-importance  she turns a blind eye to  the high degree of hypocrisy apparent in the city fathers who claim to support a virtuous lifestyle. The local mayor sells contraband black market goods and a questionable scoutmaster wanders around offering sweets to children. The discontent within the community becomes clear as the May Day celebrations begin politely but quickly slide into an orgy of greed and consumption as wartime privations are swept aside.

Caspar Singh is a trooper enduring hideous costumes for his art. Initially styled with swept back hair and spectacles in the manner of diffident Clark Kent he later has to cope with the May King costume which makes him look like Lord Fauntleroy. Albert’s change in attitude is less a transformation into a fiery rebel and more a personal journey of sensual discovery from which he emerges soiled and baffled; finding himself an unlikely figure capable of inspiring change in other people.

Whist the opera may have been conceived originally as a satire on social class hypocrisy director McDonald takes a more generational approach. The village matriarch Lady Billows continues to wear her wartime uniform despite the conclusion of the conflict and there is a sense of the old order encountering pressure for change. The inflexibility of Lady Bellows pushes the village towards crisis-incapable of adjusting her standards she risks breaking the social order. The younger members of the village, such as Albert’s friend Sid (Dan D’Souza), chafe at the strict limitations on their freedom. Pre-teens Emmie and Cis (inspired scene-stealing turns from, respectively Abigail Sinclair and Natasha Oldbury) are positively anarchic in their gleeful challenging of social conventions.

After all the fuss and bother about moving the ENO to the North West one might have expected their first production in the area to seek to make a strong impression with a large chorus and lavish sets. The intimate, stripped-down Albert Herring is, therefore, something of a surprise. Judged entirely on its own merits the ENO’s cheeky version of Albert Herring ensures the opera’s surprisingly subversive promotion of the need to acknowledge discontent and embrace change remains relevant to the present day.

Runs until 22^nd October 2025