Review: When Masks Fall: Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring in the Hallé Stages

White faces, dressed in black and white, are enthusiastic and important. The mayor, the schoolmaster, the police chief and the priest stand before Mrs. Bellows. She wants to confront the supposed lack of virtue among the young people and offers a prize: the crowning of a May Queen. But when no girl can be found who abides by the rules of virtue, the first May King is appointed: Albert Herring, a greengrocer, who, under his mother's control, is good, hard-working and well-adjusted.

But what does that actually mean: morality, virtue, innocence?
Benjamin Britten and his librettist Eric Crozier raised these questions in the 1940s when they created the opera Albert Herring. A work that initially failed critics. It was not until 1985 – nearly 40 years after its premiere – that it was a huge success at Glyndebourne and was named the “Comedy of the Century.”

The opera is now well established and is performed repeatedly in a variety of venues. As it is now at the New Theater in Bühnen Halle. Director Karolina Swollak staged it in Poznań, Poland, in 2022 and has adapted her production for the Halle. “With Albert Herring it becomes increasingly clear how universal Britten is,” she says. “He touches on something that every society experiences…” She conjures up an absolutely magnificent performance on stage.

The audience looks out onto the stage, and the orchestra in white hats and black and white costumes is part of the production. The characters move on stage like caricatures, stiff and angular. Only the children Amy, Sis and Harry and the young lovers Nancy and Sid seem natural and alive. Britten draws his own musical language and theme for each character individually: sometimes exaggerated and exaggerated, sometimes playful, lyrical and emotional. The Israeli conductor Yonatan Cohen conducts the chamber orchestra of the Staatskapelle Halle – all great soloists on their instruments – with sensitivity and precision.

Albert Herring begins to shake off his shackles, drinks alcohol and discovers the real life for himself, much to the dismay of the bigoted Luxford community.
But what really hides behind their white facades?
What is behind the so-called board of ethics and virtue?

Carolina Suffolk lets her audience peer into the deep abyss. The May Festival escalates: in slow motion, as if in a dream, supposedly virtuous people violently attack each other. They stumble to the ground, their skirts lifted, and they tangle violently. Masks fall when no one seems to be watching.

Production holds up a mirror to us as a society. Because behind every politically correct facade, isn’t there quite the opposite? Don’t prominent and especially important people like to point out those who know how to live their feelings honestly and openly?

Exposing themselves and will continue to expose themselves to the daily contradictions that people have been exposed to time and time again. The evening in Halle seems light and effortless, but it digs deep, direct and difficult into the human psyche. A truly wonderful musical and dramatic performance by all the soloists as well as an impressive ensemble performance.