The 1947 opera Albert Herring is Benjamin Britain's only comic opera. This is quite typical of opera during the 20th century into our time: the comic operas shine with their absence. Today, the art of opera will take care of the big, swollen emotions. In addition, it is said that comedies are so much more difficult than serious stuff. Maybe especially for us on our Strindberg and Wagnerian latitudes?
This is a French 19th-century novel by Guy de Maupassant, which has been turned into English small-town comedy in an opera version. And now Albert Herring has become the warm-hearted Albert Strömming in Dan Turdén's vintage at the Wermland Opera in Karlstad. Sometimes it's fun, but not as fun as you'd expect. Benjamin Britten's version will take place at the turn of the last century. In this version it is present and then this kind of moral panic is very unlikely, even in Sölvesborg ... It makes you too often feel like sitting on local New Year's Eve.
But certainly there are both dull and hit-and-miss moments. There you come a bit with a male Lucia, heavily dominated by his mother. Something that has also been interpreted as British Britain's own screwed-up self-portrait - a gay man who came out of the closet early. Quite inconceivable, given that homosexuality was imprisoned well into the 1960s. The outsider remained the theme of all his operas.
Musically, Albert Herring is a light year from the local revue. Britain's score for only twelve instruments - which require twelve really sharp musicians and one conductor - is complicated stuff, and one is thought to be riddled with neat musical references. So also in the vocal chords: this is an ensemble opera where many voices sing at the same time.
But there is room for beauty singing, especially for the lovely warm-hearted soloists Rebecca Fjällsby and Hannes Öberg - the opera's charming love couple. Overall, these are all pretty comic cartoons and you don't have to be a warm-up to have fun with Albert Strömming from Laxfors.