Albert Herring
Royal Academy of Music
La bohème
The Cock Tavern, Kilburn
Whenever there is a new production of Britten’s great comedy Albert Herring I go to it and then carry on at some length about how wonderful the opera is, and this particular production, whichever it may be. And it is always true. For several obvious reasons, Herring is an opera that producers mess around with very little — mild and harmless updatings are just about all that it is subject to; and, though it would be catastrophic to impose a radically new interpretation on it, it would be no worse than what is visited on many other stage works which should be just as directorially unmolested. The Royal Academy of Music has been very lucky to get John Copley to stage its production, which has alternating casts, of which unfortunately I was able to see only the first.
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