Albert Herring

Eric Crozier and Benjamin Britten

English National Opera

Lowry, Salford

October 21-22, 2025: 2 hrs 50 mins

More than meets the eye - Caspar Singh as Albert in Albert Herring. All pics: Genevieve Girling

English National Opera has made a very canny start to its programme in the Greater Manchester area. Not a blockbuster, flash-in-the-pan “grand opera” of the sort that some people associate with the genre, but a cautious toe in the water, effectively a one-night stand (today’s second performance being a matinee), with a chamber opera.

No need for a chorus or full orchestra for Britten’s Albert Herring: it’s a comedy and it’s in English, and in Antony McDonald’s production it’s entertaining and a lot of fun.

The company’s main objective since the announcement that it was to have a “home” in Greater Manchester has been to make friends and influence people, principally through Perfect Pitch, its programme aimed at bringing football fans into contact with opera. That may well explain the fact that last night’s audience was perceptibly different from the one Opera North gets at the Lowry – but the event also showed the depth of artistic resource on which ENO can call. If and when it puts down roots here, in the sense of a physical production base and a local payroll, this was evidence that its Manchester arm could potentially be one that creates high-quality smaller-scale opera for venues rarely visited by the big beasts.

Although carefully categorised by the company as “semi-staged”, McDonald’s production is as fully staged as many theatrical shows these days, with a simple and adaptable set he also designed, made to work on the vast stage of the London Coliseum (where it played two nights last week) as well as the slightly less vast one of the Lowry Lyric Theatre. He frames the story – brought into the time-frame of 1947, the year the show was created – as if it were a performance for radio with a live audience, of the time, with technicians wandering about and a stage manager (speaking part) who occasionally interrupts. This fills up the considerable duration of the entr’acte music Britten provided, and enables a bit of audience participation, as an “APPLAUSE” board is displayed from time to time – all good stuff.

It's still, at heart, an everyday story of small-town folk, satirising the types you might meet in an Ealing comedy, as the committee tasked with finding a pure and virginal girl to be May Queen fails to identify a single one in the community and plumps instead for mother’s boy Albert from the greengrocery store. His drinks are spiked at the celebratory picnic and he goes on a bender later, to consternation all round – they think he’s dead the following morning, but he soon appears and asserts his new-found independence.

The characters are developed (in some cases) a bit from the standard version we’ve seen from Opera North, Buxton Festival, Clonter Opera and the Royal Northern College of Music in recent years. Mr Gedge the vicar (Eddie Wade) is also a scoutmaster and is seen off-stage offering sweeties to children; Lady Billows (Emma Bell), the grande dame of the town, wears military uniform and sports a swagger stick, and is far from elderly; Albert’s mother (Leah-Marian Jones) seems to be the oldest female in the cast, and is a bit of a secret drinker. But the policeman, the mayor, the schoolmistress, the lady’s maid, the bequiffed lad-about-town Sid (Dan D’Souza) and his girlfriend Nancy (Anna Elizabeth Cooper) and the children, are all familiar types.

The magic is in the quality of the acting and singing. It’s a real team achievement, without a weak link. Caspar Singh shows us from the start that there may be more to the seemingly downtrodden Albert than meets the eye, and handles the tessitura with ease; Carolyn Dobbin makes Florence Pike almost sympathetic and has a nice knack of emphasis (“Shocking..!”); Mark Le Brocq (Mr Upfold the mayor) is always a joy to hear and blends his ringing tenor well in the ensembles; Abigail Sinclair and Natasha Oldbury (both at the beginning of their careers) are outstanding as children Emmie and Cis. I could list all the names, but take it from me they’re all top-notch.

Daniel Cohen conducts with quiet authority and exceptional skill.

More info here