Albert Herring

This opera is a comedy set in an english village in the early 1900's. The basic story is that the village notables decide that none of the village girls are good enough in reputation to elect a festival queen so they choose Albert Herring, the shy village green-grocer who is firmly under his mother's rule to be the festival King . In the subsequent events, Albert appears at the festival, collects his prize money and disappears, much lamented by all. He reappears at the end having spent some of his prize at nearby pubs. Clearly, he is transformed by the experience and takes charge of his own life in a happy ending.
The music is fairly modern and difficult both to sing and play. In spite of this, it easily caught my ear. The lament for Albert near the end is the high point of the music and is wonderful to any ear. Both the singing and playing are at an exceptionally high standard as you can recognize from the cast list. The appearance and acting of the singers and and the stage sets all make for a wonderful sense of the action and the period of time in which it is set. My only negative view is that it is very difficult to understand the sung language of the women and that subtitles or a libretto would be helpful.