Albert Herring (Opera)

About

Albert Herring is a comic chamber opera with music by British composer Benjamin Britten and was intended to be a companion piece to the composer's significantly more serious opera, The Rape of Lucretia. Despite the complexity of the work, the music and libretto are considered to be extremely humorous, with recognizable musical quotations appearing throughout the performance. Like much of Britten's subjects for his operas, Albert Herring deals with the reaction of society towards the individual who does not fit in. However, unlike the bulk of Britten's operas which deal with this issue in a darker, more serious light, Albert Herring examines the outsider from a more lighthearted perspective.