May Day is looming, and the small town of Loxford is in chaos.

All the potential May Queens are deemed morally unsuitable. Desperate, the locals decide a May King will have to do instead. They choose the blameless Albert Herring, from the greengrocers. He isn’t keen, but stuck firmly under his mother’s thumb, he’ll do what he is told. However, after one rum-laced lemonade at the May Day ceremony, Albert disappears, and even greater chaos ensues.

The opera’s librettist Eric Crozier took a story by Maupassant and transformed it into a quintessentially English comedy. Britten’s music characterises the town’s inhabitants with a biting satirical wit – but there’s a touch of affection, too, for a vanished way of life. The intimacy of the Howard Assembly Room is the perfect environment for Giles Havergal’s delightfully immersive production.

“Each character comes alive”
★★★★★ — Financial Times (2013)

“…buckets of energy and zestful acting”
★★★★ — The Times (2013)

Albert Herring will be streamed online via our partners at OperaVision.