BENJAMIN BRITTEN

 

Albert Herring

 

A Comic Opera in Three Acts

 

Lady Billows an elderly autocrat......Joan Cross

Florence Pike her housekeeper......Gladys Parr

Miss Wordsworth Head Teacher at the School......Margaret Ritchie

Mr. Gedge the Vicar......Otakar Kraus

Mr. Upfold the Mayor......Roy Ashton

Superintendent Budd......Norman Lumsden

Sid butcher’s shophand......Denis Dowling

Albert Herring from the greengrocer’s......Peter Pears

Nancy from the bakery......Nancy Evans

Mrs Herring Albert’s mother......Catherine Lawson

Emmie......Anne Sharp

Cis......Elisabeth Parry

Harry......Alan Thompson

 

Libretto by Eric Crozier

 

The English Opera Group Chamber Orchestra / Benjamin Britten

 

Directed by Basil Coleman

 

First Performance: Glyndebourne, 20 June 1947

This Performance: The Royal Theatre, Copenhagen - September 15, 1949

 

This live recording is of a performance given by the English Opera Group, conducted by the composer in the Theatre Royal, Copenhagen on 15th September 1949. It is a fascinating document, coming, as it does, only two years after the first performance of the opera and with no less than eleven members of the original cast still in the team. The composer’s studio recording of Albert Herring was not made until 1964, and, excellent though it is, by then Peter Pears was the only role-creator still in the cast. All limitation of the sound quality aside, this is a wonderful survivor and one of the earliest recorded examples of Britten and the EOG in performance.

 

Total Playing Time 2 hrs 13 mins

 

Nimbus 3cds NI5824-6