Albert Herring review – Britten’s postwar comic opera sits surprisingly well in the 21st century

Across East Lothian, new housing developments now extend Edinburgh’s commuter belt, but my Dunbar-born mother would have recognised the market town dynamic of Benjamin Britten’s Loxford, the setting of his comic opera Albert Herring, making it a very suitable Scottish Opera choice for the Lammermuir festival.

Daisy Evans’s new production mixes nods to the postwar period of the work’s conception with modern dress in the garish costuming, while Kat Heath’s village hall design sits so well in Haddington Corn Exchange it was difficult to see the joins.

The moral rectitude of the worthies charged with selecting this year’s May Queen, under the brash chairmanship of Susan Bullock’s Lady Billows, in fuchsia and Marigolds, should surely seem more dated than it does in the 21st century, and that is the idea that Evans runs with in her contemporary staging, rather than giving us a period piece or overplaying any broad comedy.

Tenor Glen Cunningham supplies an Albert that it is easy to root for, his voice ideal for the role, and although a few of the cast were not always as audible as they might have been over the small orchestra in front of them, most had the measure of the space and the ensemble work – some of the best music in the entire Britten canon and the pinnacles of this score – was first rate.

The company debuts of mezzo Chloe Harris, as worldly wise Nancy, and bass-baritone Edward Jowle, both new recruits as Scottish Opera Emerging Artists, were especially impressive, even if Jowle’s PC Budd looked uncannily like comedian Jimmy Carr. Francis Church contributed a thoughtfully characterised and particularly well-sung Vicar Gedge.

Britten’s scoring for the 13 instrumentalists is just as fascinating as the vocal music and there were star performances in the make-shift pit too, from clarinettist Kate McDermott, Sue Baxendale on horn and Toby Hession at the piano. Conductor William Cole, another company debut, was as crucial to the singers as the players in his detailed direction.

How it will come across on other stages only time will tell, but at Lammermuir this Albert Herring looked remarkably timely and in exactly the right place.

• Further performances in Edinburgh and Glasgow in October and November alongside Scottish Opera’s revival of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale