Last night we watched the 1978 PBS broadcast of the Opera Theatre of St Louis production of Benjamin Britten's comic opera Albert Herring. I've seen three live productions - University of Cincinnati CCM, Manhattan School of Music, and a lower East Side production - and three or four videos including Sir Peter Hall's Glyndebourne production, and I'm moving this St Louis production to the top of the list with the Cincinnati production of performances. It's really well done. The comedy is about the events preparing for May Day 1900 in a small English town, Loxford, reigned over by Lady Billows, a Wagnerian harpy with her nose in everyone's business, and her housekeeper Florence Pike. The committee of town leaders - Mayor, vicar, police chief, and school teacher Miss Wordsworth = have failed to find a pretty young virgin to crown as May Queen, the town's symbol for purity, innocence, and grace. As Florence Pike observes, "Country virgins, if there be such, think too little and see too much."
So, they decide to crown Albert Herring, the greengrocer's son and repressed mama's boy, as May King, and all hell erupts, especially after his friend Sid, with his girlfriend Nancy, laces his lemonade with rum at the May Day festivities.
The weakest performance performance for me was the ditzy coloratura school teacher; the singer is young and pretty and sings well, but she's not a very good actress. The Mayor, Vicar, and Police sergeant are wonderful. The Sid and Nancy are attractive and quite wonderful as two unabashed young lovers sneaking around after dark behind their parents, and James Hoback as Albert is really terrific. The jury is still out on Pauline Tinsley, who just died a week ago at the age of 93, as Lady Billows. She has the notes and the poise, but she's not Edith Evans' Lady Bracknell, which seems the prototype.
The production does a wonderful job of filling out visuals during the scene change interludes in Acts One and Two, and my only other complaint is the erratic sound mix of the chamber orchestra.
