Aspen Music Festival (13): Britten's Albert Herring, students of the Aspen Opera Theater Center, Robert Spano, conductor; Edward Berkeley, director. 15.08.2006 (HS)


There's nothing like a young, enthusiastic and immensely talented cast to make Britten's Albert Herring come to life on stage. That's exactly what the Aspen Opera Theater Center delivered to a thoroughly charmed audience Tuesday night. But there's also something about Britten, even a piece as tuneful and full of life as this one, that sends a percentage of the Aspen audience fleeing into the night. In this case I estimated about 25 percent empty seats for Act III, which is too bad because those who remained saw and heard some terrific comic opera.

With Robert Spano, music director of the Atlanta Symphony, conducting the music with vigor and idiomatic humor and Edward Berkeley doing his usual insightful work directing, Albert hit all the right notes musically and theatrically. The singers battled their English accents with varying degrees of success, but vocally they were good, especially in ensembles such as the nine-part threnody the townsfolk sing when they think Albert is dead.

Kalil Wilson, who starred last year here in Giasone, brought a silken tenor sound and an engaging and often funny stage presence as the slow-witted goodie-two-shoes title character. He made a believable transformation to a young man willing to stand up to his mother and the repressive citizens of the English country town of Loxford. Liam Bonner looked appropriately rakish and his burnished baritone sounded sturdy as Sid, Albert's, um, more experienced pal who carries on an obvious flirtation and encourages Albert's growing-up with the help of some rum-laced lemonade.

The other characters are caricatures of British small-town types, with corresponding musical parodies to identify them. A few standouts: Lyric soprano Khori Dastoor as the teacher Miss Wordsworth does well with the sweet tunes she has to sing. Dramatic soprano Jennifer Root as Lady Billows (in immensely puffy sleeves), the domineering busybody, navigated the character's Handel-esque coloratura to a T. Mezzo-soprano Sarah Lawson as Florence Pike seemed to be sending up Mrs. Sedley, the busybody in Britten's Peter Grimes. And Spanish mezzo-soprano Gemma Coma-Alabert, whose accent came and went, made a believable Mrs. Herring, just the kind of mother for Albert to finally rebel against.

This completes a strong summer for the Opera Theater Center, which earlier triumphed with Verdi's La Traviata (I heard the cast with Amanda Grooms and Rolando Sanz) and made a strong case for Ned Rorem's new opera, Our Town. With Julius Rudel conducting Verdi and David Zinman guiding Our Town from the pit, the musical values have been higher than ever.

 

 

Harvey Steiman