BENJAMIN BRITTEN'S COMIC CHAMBER OPERA ALBERT HERRING COMES TO OBERLIN COLLEGE'S HALL AUDITORIUM,
MARCH 17, 19, 20, & 21

Conducted by Steven Smith, former Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra
Complimentary Media Tickets: 440-775-8171

OBERLIN, OH—Witty and parodic, combining an evocative score with a hilarious coming-of-age theme, Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring opens on Wednesday, March 17, at 8 PM, in Oberlin College's Hall Auditorium. Albert Herring, a comic opera in three acts to a libretto by Eric Crozier, offers traditional children's songs as well as more serious elements that raise it to a level of wider significance. The opera is loosely based on Guy de Maupassant's story Le rosier de Madame Husson. Like much of Britten's operatic work, it deals with the universal theme of the destruction of innocence, taking a comic look at an extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary boy.

The conductor is Steven Smith, former assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and music director of the Oberlin Conservatory orchestras. Stage direction is by Jonathon Field, opera director and associate professor of Opera Theater. The opera will be sung in English, with English supertitles.

Performances of Albert Herring are at 8 PM, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, March 17, 19, and 20, with a 2 PM matinee on Sunday, March 21. Hall Auditorium is wheel chair accessible, parking is free and hearing enhancement is available upon request. Albert Herring is sponsored by the Oberlin Conservatory Opera Theater program (www.oberlin.edu/operathe) and produced in cooperation with the Oberlin College Theater and Dance Program (www.oberlin.edu/thedance) with support from the Louis C. Sudler Fund.

Composed for an ensemble cast and small chamber orchestra, Albert Herring is exemplary of Britten's dedication to creating intimate, accessible opera. Early in his career, he became frustrated with the politics and pretensions of the opera world. More interested in personal themes, social issues, and the dramatic setting of fine music, he composed tight, smaller works to tell compelling stories. Britten's notes to Peter Grimes reveal one of his main aims in operatic composition: "to try to restore to the musical setting of the English language a brilliance, freedom and vitality that have been curiously rare since Purcell." He never lost the belief, nurtured in the 1930s, that art (especially if it shunned pretension and needless complexity) could convey fundamental truths, for example by confronting social majorities (heterosexual, anti-pacifist) with evidence of their intolerance and insensitivity.

Synopsis and Director's Notes
The small Suffolk town of Loxford is facing a dilemma in the selection of its celebrated May Queen. Lady Billows, an aging autocrat and self-appointed guardian of public morals, is resolved to find a candidate to represent the town in this honored role. It is determined that none of the town's girls is virtuous enough; and rather than suffer the shame of canceling the celebration altogether, the town selects Albert Herring, the greengrocer's boy, to be May King. Albert is not sure he likes the idea?but his mum is delighted and promptly shuts him up. Albert's friend Sid teases him about his perpetual submission to his mother, suggesting that it is time to break free of her control, and when Sid and his sweetheart Nancy resolve to meet at night, Albert begins to wonder what he is missing in his "virtuous" life. At the crowning ceremony of the May King celebration, Albert is presented with honors and gifts from the community's leaders. But Sid offers a secret gift of his own, lacing Albert's lemonade with rum. After the ceremony, the tipsy Albert makes his break for freedom. The next morning his mother and the townspeople are distraught at his absence and lament what they believe is his tragic death. Finally, amidst their mourning, Albert re-appears. His May King prize money squandered on a night of worldly fun, he is finally free?but presumably no longer fulfilling the moral standards of Lady Billows.

"Albert Herring is a sly, witty work that celebrates the unique character of comic opera in the twentieth century," notes Field. "Each member of the ensemble comes alive with a distinct musical and dramatic personality revealed through Britten's remarkable score."

Performers and Production Team
This production of Albert Herring features Oberlin Conservatory students double cast in the principal roles. The principals alternate performances, with one cast appearing Wednesday and Saturday, and the other Friday and Sunday. The principal roles include Lady Billows, an elderly autocrat (Karen Jesse '04, Megan Hart '05); Florence Pike, her housekeeper (Robin Hok '04, Kate Lerner '07); Miss Wordsworth, head teacher at the church school (Sarah St. Germain '04, Désirée Brodka '07); Mr. Gedge, the vicar (Todd Boyce '05); Mr. Upfold, the mayor (Mason McCamey '07, Michael Sansoni '06); Superintendent Budd (Dashon Burton '06, Damien Pass '06); Sid, a butcher's shophand (Michael Weyandt '04, Jonathan Green '05); Albert Herring, from the greengrocer's (Matthew Peña '05, Nicholas Bentivoglio '05); Nancy, from the bakery (Abigail Peters '05, Kathryn Leemhuis '05); Mrs. Herring, Albert's mother (Paula Wilhelm '04, Sara Fanucchi '05); and three village children, Emmie (Marie Masters '06), Cis (Megan Radder '05), and Harry (Mara Adler '07).

The Oberlin production team of professional staff and students includes: Assistant Music Director Alan Montgomery; Assistant Director and Stage Manager Victoria Vaughan; Managing Director/Technical Director Michael Louis Grube, associate professor of theater; Scenic Designer Damen Mroczek, lecturer in theater; Costume Designer Chris Flaharty, associate professor of theater; Lighting Designer and Sound Engineer Jen Groseth, lecturer in theater; and Assistant Stage Manager Marta Johnson '04.

Benjamin Britten (Composer, 1913-1976) made the greatest British contributions to the operatic genre in the 20th century. After completing his studies at the Royal College of Music in 1933 and settling in London, his wrote incidental music for theatre, film and radio. His relationships with poet W. H. Auden and tenor Peter Pears played crucial roles in launching his operatic career, providing inspiration and collaboration for storylines and libretti. After personal frustration with companies producing his early works, Britten, along with Pears and Eric Crozier established the independent English Opera Group. Albert Herring was the first work written for this group, which became the house company for the Aldeburgh Festival and was involved in the premieres of all Britten's later operas apart from Billy Budd and Gloriana. These two were Britten's only large-scale operas after Peter Grimes; thereafter he composed small-scale works including The Beggar's Opera, Dido and Aeneas, and The Turn of the Screw, which last confirmed his ability to create a highly personal dramatic effect with restricted means. (Information from Arnold Whittall, www.grovemusic.com)

Steven Smith (Conductor) recently completed his tenure as assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and music director of its Youth Orchestra. He is music director of the Santa Fe Symphony and Chorus, Oberlin's associate professor of conducting, and music director of the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestras. Smith has guest conducted with the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Houston, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Auckland, New Zealand. During the 2000-01 season, he led the Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Smith was associate conductor of the Kansas City Symphony from 1996-98, during which time he received the Conductor Career Development Grant and was named Foundation Artist by the Geraldine C. and Emory M. Ford Foundation. Also an active composer, Smith has been commissioned by The Cleveland Orchestra, and his work has since been featured on National Public Radio and performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the National and Columbus symphonies. Mr. Smith earned master's degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Jonathon Field (Director) has directed over 90 productions and is becoming one of America's most sought-after stage directors. His touring productions for the Lyric Opera of Chicago include Trouble in Tahiti, Gianni Schicchi, The Old Maid and the Thief, and The Spanish Hour. For San Francisco Opera's Western Opera Theatre he directed La Cenerentola and Die Fledermaus and for Seattle Opera, an updated version of La Bohème. He has also directed Eugene Onegin and Boris Godunov in San Francisco and has been deemed the Arizona Opera's "most perceptive stage director." Since coming to Oberlin, he has directed Carmen, Slow Dusk, The Old Maid and the Thief, Roméo et Juliette, Così fan Tutte, Manon, Don Giovanni, Coyote Tales, La Cenerentola, Die Fledermaus, The Rake's Progress, The Bartered Bride, Alcina, and Hänsel und Gretel. As artistic director of Lyric Opera Cleveland, Field directed the 2002 production of Don Giovanni, which was nominated for the Northern Ohio Live Award of Achievement. In the 2004 season Mr. Field will direct Così fan Tutte (opening July 28) and artistic direct Little Women (opening June 16).

UPCOMING OBERLIN OPERA THEATER EVENTS
OPERA SCENES
4 PM & 8 PM, Monday, May 17. Finney Chapel
The two different Opera Scenes programs are free and open to the public.