Albert Herring, Mid Wales Opera/Touring, review

A misjudged production by Opera North earlier this year had left me a bit disenchanted with Albert Herring – it had reminded me how smug Britten’s pseudo-Ealing comedy can seem when the right dash of acid isn’t added to the mix.

But Mid Wales Opera has restored my faith; its version is freshly imaginative, bracingly sharp-edged and a lot of fun. This small whistlestop touring outfit has done it again – out-pointing its bigger brothers as decisively as it did with its terrific productions of Falstaff and The Tales of Hoffmann.

The show is directed by Michael Barker-Caven, whose Irish roots are discernible. Although Adam Wilshire’s brilliantly inventive and adaptable set evokes the gentle Suffolk landscape, there’s a touch of Father Ted zaniness about the way people behave in a dysfunctional community which doesn’t know which way to look.

Barker-Caven ignores the Edwardian era specified by Eric Crozier’s libretto, and Florence Pike’s Daily Telegraph headline tells us instead that it’s 1979, and that Maggie is in! A social historian might say that this is 20 years too late to allow the sexual prudery on which the plot rests to be truly plausible, but the cast go at it with a gusto that makes it work.

The mood may be merry – the audience laughed readily – but subversive too. As so often, Britten, the mother’s boy who needed to loosen up and get away, is portraying aspects of himself in his protagonist.

This Albert, in Christopher Turner’s fine performance, is also overweight and a plonker – bullied at school, clearly, and suffering from what shrinks today call low self-esteem. His nemesis Lady Billows is played by Catrin Aur as Patricia Routledge in Hyacinth Bucket mode: a snob empowered by a string of pearls, an ample bosom and a megaphone voice.

Between these two Sid and Nancy (Matthew Sprange and Máire Flavin) seem on the verge of following their namesakes into the world of urban punk, while Emmie, Cis and Harry are behaving like kids ripe for Asbos.

In the boxy and over-resonant Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield too many words got lost, but the cast forms a strong team, with stand-out performances by Gerard Collett as Gedge and Aidan Smith as Superintendent Budd.

With Nicholas Cleobury conducting a crack ensemble of 12 players, this is a highlight of my Britten centenary trawl to date, warmly recommended if it’s coming your way.

Touring until 12 November. Tickets: 01686 441027; (www.midwalesopera.co.uk)