Pocket Opera Takes on Benjamin Britten’s Comedy

It has been a long time since I have attended a Pocket Opera performance. Indeed, my experience dates back to when Donald Pippin presented abbreviated English-language performances of the operatic repertoire with minimal instrumentation and commentary to substitute for omitted content. Yesterday’s performance of Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring made it clear to me how much things had changed.

Since this was composed as a chamber opera, instrumentation was transparently (one-to-a-part) modest:

• flute/piccolo/alto flute
• oboe
• clarinet (B-flat and A)/bass clarinet (two players)
• bassoon
• horn
• percussion
• harp
• first violin
• second violin
• viola
• cello
• bass

As a result, this is a production that involves more roles for the vocalists than parts for the musicians. Nevertheless, the transparency of the instrumentation provides just the right setting for a coming-of-age narrative based on a novella by Guy de Maupassant.

We tend to associate Britten with his penetrating examinations of the dark side of human nature. In this case, however, the aspect of human nature involves excessive attention to morality; and Britten clearly knew how to give that theme comic treatment. The plot concerns naming a May Queen for an annual spring celebration. Unfortunately, none of a young maidens of the village live up to the high moral standards of the festival’s patroness, Lady Billows (soprano Caroline Altman). Indeed, the most virtuous villager seems to be the title character (tenor Sam Faustine), who is timid unto an extreme and is severely dominated by his mother (mezzo Mary Ruth).

As a result, he is chosen to serve as King of the May, celebrated by a May Day banquet. Fortunately, his friend Sid (baritone Julio Ferrari) decides that Albert needs to sow some wild oats. To further that goal, he spikes Albert’s glass of punch with rum (giving the music a chance to make fun of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde). The rum does its thing, and Albert’s transformation is so radical that no one can find him the next morning. As expected, he eventually turns up leaving his past timidity in the dust.

The plot develops at a well-paced clip, and that pace was skillfully managed by both conductor David Drummond and stage director Nicolas A. Garcia. Between them they made it clear that Pocket Opera had come a long way from its founding traditions. The only disappointment came from the performance taking place in the Gunn Theatre at the Legion of Honor Museum.

Indeed, the venue put both performers and audience at a disadvantage. Most critical was the absence of an orchestra pit. This resulted to placing the musicians behind the staged action, meaning that the audience had a better view of the conductor than the vocalists did! Also, like most of the venues in the Presidio, the venue was not particularly convenient (if not hostile) to those that prefer to get around on foot. At least the producers were kind enough to present the performance in the afternoon. Once the sun has set, I prefer to leave the Presidio to its indigenous wildlife!

Pocket Opera definitely deserves settings more conducive to staged productions. Both the War Memorial and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts provide first-rate venues of different sizes and flexibility. If Pocket Opera has outgrown “Pippin’s pocket,” they deserve sites suitable for their ambitious undertakings.