Albert Herring

Sung in English with English supertitles. Approximate Running Time: 3 hours (including two intermissions)

This charming chamber opera written in 1947 by Benjamin Britten will have you rolling in the aisles with laughter. The busybodies of the Loxford May Day committee cannot find a virtuous female to be the May Queen, so they name the shy, coddled grocer’s son, Albert Herring, as May King. During an extravagant crowning ceremony, Albert gets tipsy on rum-spiked lemonade and gains the courage to discover the world outside his mother’s greengrocer shop. After a frantic search by the entire town, Albert reappears, having enjoyed a night of debauchery.

Depending on your point of view, he has been either ruined or saved.  Endlessly witty, poignant and beautifully layered, Britten’s comic opera highlights the misadventures of a lonely shop-boy in a small English village that is teeming with colorful and amusing characters.

The score contains some of Britten’s wittiest musical invention and his gifts for parody and caricature, already evident in Peter Grimes, are given full reign. Don’t miss this comic romp!      

Music By Benjamin Britten
May 15, 2015, 8:00 pm
May 17, 2015, 2:30 pm
Bethel Church
14736 Bethel Lane SW, Vashon
Tickets can be purchased at vashonopera.org or Vashon Bookshop
$35 Individual Ticket Price