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   Matt Morgan as Albert Herring & Karen Huffstodt as Lady Billows

Albert Herring
An Interview with Conductor
Neal Goren

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Classical Domain:   What made you pick Albert Herring?

Neal Goren   The Company has been around for about five seasons now, and I always knew that I would do a Britten Opera as soon as possible because he wrote such great chamber operas.   There's Albert Herring, The Rape of Lucretia, The Turn of the Screw, eight or nine operas that we could do.

The Rape of Lucretia and The Turn of the Screw were done recently and done very well, by City Opera.  But Albert Herring has not been done in a long time. It's Britten's most brilliant comedy — there aren't that many operatic comedies that are first rate, but this truly is.  It's now my favorite Benjamin Britten work.  It fits us, it was created as a chamber opera.  The orchestra is fourteen players, they sound like a big group because it's so masterfully orchestrated.  What's unusual about this work, in the realm of chamber operas, is that it has a very big cast.  The cast is as big as any grand opera, we have I think, ten adults and three children.

When I started this company, Gotham Chamber Opera, it was to present work that was intended for smaller spaces — that means opera that was composed for noblemen's homes, and smaller theaters — which includes a great many opera composed in the 18th century and before.   Then virtually nothing in the 19th century, the 19th century is about “big” in the arts, whether the visual arts, opera or anything, the bigger the better.  Then when we get to the 20th century everything started to change, people began to analyze and question art, asking what it was about and what they were doing with the form.  So the chamber opera became big again, because composers had relatively large ambitions but not large budgets.  For Britten this became an issue during Peter Grimes, a huge, huge opera.  From what I understand he was frustrated by the lack of artistic control.  Which is why he founded The New English Opera Group specifically to perform his chamber operas.

CD:    The scale of the Harry De Jur Playhouse is similar to the size of many of Europe's great small houses.

NG:   Essentially the company is using a European model.

CD:    Initially I presumed that Albert Herring was a farce, it's not, is it?

NG:   Britten, wrote this as a coming of age story, while there is much satire, he pokes fun at all the classes equally. He is equally loving to all of his characters.  That's another thing that attracted me to this opera.  The characters are quirky, they're weird, but they're all lovable from the top on down.

CD:    As far as the characters go Britten gives each great music, particularly the satiric town elders — he borrows from operatic conventions to flesh out the musical image of these characters.

NG:   Everyone has great music to sing.   The elders have terrific music, Lady Billows has music of a certain sort, the mayor has another — and it fits their character.

CD:    Britten uses formal elements, and plays with convention.

NG:   In a sense, Britten uses recitative, where the performer is accompanied by the piano. Britten wrote everything exactly the way he wanted it.  Unlike recitative used by Mozart or Rossini, where they gave very approximate indications to the singer, Britten is different.   He is very metered, it's rhythmically exact.

Every single character has their own arias, some have two.   Then there are the ensembles.  Sometimes very big ensembles — bigger than you get in Mozart operas actually.  So sometimes it even feels like a chorus, even though there's no chorus it's just the town elders singing at the same time.

CD:   Are you doing the piece in the period that it was set, Edwardian rural England?

NG:   No, it's been moved up to the 1950s.  When Britten wrote the opera he was looking back about 50 years.  Now we are looking back about 50 years, also.   Not a single word needed to be changed, everything fit exactly.  The point being that the 1950s were the last time you could set this work, where it was an innocent time, where you might fine a community that took the May Day ceremony seriously, where a kiss was big deal.   By the sixties times had changed and maybe people would have taken May Day seriously, but most likely is would have been met with derision, and a sense of irony, perhaps?

The audience as well, might be better able to relate to the 1950s, rather than the turn of the century.

CD:    Do you think that it would resonate if you translated it to the bible belt, where communities are advocating chastity and abstinence?  I don't want to ask about relevancy, but do you think that it could translate to a contemporary setting?

NG:   Certainly, we thought about bringing it up to the present.   Although you'd have trouble with the the details.  It would have mostly worked, but “mostly“ isn't good enough.   There would have been problems that I didn't want to deal with, like the English dialect accents written into the opera.

CD:   It still resonates, regardless.

NG:    Absolutely.  The story follows Albert's growth from being child–like into becoming an adult.   In the course of the opera he takes charge of his life and asserts himself.  That is something that we all can relate to, the journey into adulthood.  I think that's why this piece will resonate with everyone.

We see him in the first act grappling with what he wants, he knows he's not content with who he is.   But he doesn't quite know how to break free from that, I think that evolves through the opera.

CD:    Is the production going into Britten's subtle hints at Albert's sexuality?

NG:    We discussed that, and we decided that it should not be made so specific. Because Britten doesn't make it specific. By making it specific you cut off part of your audience. Instead it's clear that Albert has gone through a transformation and has learned who he is and accepted who he is.  That's something we can all relate to. Rather than decide to limit interpretation, we chose to to keep any interpretation open.

Britten doesn't define the things that Albert has learned to accept about himself, none of the specifics in Albert's character are stated either.   Again, by defining them you cut off what the audience might emphasize with.

Note: The interview was conducted in the Harry De Jur Playhouse in front of the proscenium arch, on which a giant union jack was painted in shades of pink. Make of that what you will.

CD:    It took a little while for, the power of Albert's centeredness, that to sink in for me. He doesn't have to rebel anymore, he won his independence.   He's still happy to be a shopkeeper in the end.

NG:    True. What's really interesting though — Guy de Maupassant in the original short story, goes further.   Albert becomes a rip-roaring drunk, the town drunk. Britten placed a much more positive spin on it.

Britten is probably being extremely subversive, ultimately Albert does not reject the town. Britten makes it clear that it's extremely important for Albert to go on this developmental journey.   Though the town elders storm out one by one from the shop, rejecting Albert, I don't think that there is any doubt that Albert will be brought back into the fold of the community.   He has done one thing that they consider heinous; however, the community is still there to accept him and, indeed, he stays part of the community.

CD:   Albert's second to last act in the opera is a gesture of kindness to the children in the community who earlier on taunted him.

NG:   There is something that is comforting to the audience members, part of the search for adulthood is to try to define yourself in terms of a community.

CD:   Albert might have fit the mold as a classic Britten “outsider,” but he avoids a tragic ending.

NG:    Right, exactly, you know that he will return back to the community, and that's OK with him.  Actually if you want to think about it, Albert is going to resemble one of those town elders.  We don't know who, and it doesn't really matter.

CD:   Let's talk about the cast — you've put together a great ensemble.

NG:   I would say that I listened to at least twenty people for each of the characters I cast.   Some like Albert — I think I listened to forty tenors.   Britten's demands, both vocal and dramatic, are absolutely exacting.  It's important theatrically to have people who both look and sound like the roles. It's extremely difficult music. It's not just difficult musically, counting and coming in right, all of the parts are difficult to sing. You need people who are vocally accomplished.

Because this is a coming of age story, there are three distinct groups.   There are the elders, there are Albert and his two contemporaries: Sid and Nancy; then there are the children.  I felt strongly that for this work we had to cast appropriately.   We have people who have had, and still have very strong carriers.  One example Karen Huffstodt who plays Lady Billows, I remember hearing her  do Rosalinda at the MET, and La Vestale at La Scala.   There is a very famous recording of her as Salome.

Barbara Dever, who plays Albert's mother.  I first got to know Barbara, around ten years ago when I was the rehearsal pianist for Pavarotti Plus.  She has sung all of the Verdi Mezzo roles at the MET, La Scala, at the Vienna Staatsoper, everywhere.   We got the very best people for the roles, I could not be happier all the way down the line.

For Albert and his contemporaries who should be in their early to mid-twenties.  For Sid and Nancy I found Timothy Kuhn and Leah Wool at the Santa Fe Festival where they were apprentices.  I went to the apprentice auditions — and I knew immediately they were who I had to have.   They have exactly the right voices, exactly the right personality.

For Albert I wanted someone who is a real stage animal, because he has to dominate the scenes. Even in the first and second act where he dominates by not dominating.   We needed someone who could project Albert's growth — so that we would buy it.   I needed someone who was an excellent musician.  I wanted a warm and clear voice, in Matt Morgan I found that.

For the three roles for children I was extremely lucky.   I called up the Elena Doria, who is the children's chorus master at the MET.   The Gods were smiling on us because there were no productions that required the entire children's chorus.

CD:    I have one last question:  You are a contributor to Opera for Dummies, and if you could say one thing, I don't want to say for the Dummies audience, but if you could make one entry for Albert Herring what would it be?

NG:    (Laughs) That's really easy. It's a strong theater piece. It's in English, it's a comedy — some what rare in opera. It's audience friendly, probably Britten's most audience friendly piece.   All of the characters are compelling.   It's a 20th century opera, but it would be a perfect introduction to opera.