‘Albert Herring’ opera shows at Buskirk-Chumley Theater

In a drunken state following his first taste of rum, guileless town darling Albert Herring resolves to abandon his coddled lifestyle and pursue a night of decadence.

The next morning, the revelation of his antics — among them starting a fight at a pub — sends the town’s authorities into an outrage, but finally sets Herring free from his stifling community.

“Albert Herring,” the comic opera composed by Benjamin Britten in the late 1940s, documents three days in the life of a young man in Loxford —­ a small town in east England — as he breaks loose from society’s moralistic expectations and embarks on a journey of self-discovery after being crowned May King.

Students performed James Marvel’s interpretation of the classic opera from Feb. 9-12 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater as part of the IU Opera & Ballet 2011-12 season.  

The Buskirk-Chumley was chosen instead of the more common operatic venue, the Musical Arts Center, because stage director Marvel felt that the smaller space was more ideal.

“It brings the audience into the show,” Marvel said. “It makes them feel more intimate, more involved. Having the ability to see the expressions on their faces more clearly is extremely helpful and telling, and it helps the comedy.”

It is widely believed that Britten, a closeted gay man, wrote the main character based on his own longing for liberation and self-expression in society. In the process, he
ended up addressing the more universal theme of tension between individuality and conformity.

“I never betray what I believe to be the composer’s intention,” Marvel said. “Benjamin Britten was living in a society where he couldn’t necessarily express who he was. There are moments of camp, essentially, in the opera. And I just wanted to exploit that a little more than what might be done in a more traditional production.”

Marvel said that, by exploiting the concepts of morality and individuality to their extreme form, to the point of absurdity, he was able to make the original play even more comedic.

Britten had written the play with librettist Eric Crozier with a goal in mind: the reestablishment of an English operatic tradition by creating a form of opera that required few resources.

“Britten’s very eclectic,” said Arthur Fagen, Jacobs School of Music professor and the opera’s orchestral conductor. “The opera showcases a conglomeration of style. Britten has created an incredible range of colors with a very small group of instruments.”

In the Buskirk-Chumley, the handful of musicians — a string quintet, woodwind quartet, horn player, harpist, pianist and percussionist — sat in front of the stage and close to the audience as layer upon layer of instrumentation played a major role in the performance.

“The music is constantly shifting its color and instrumentation according to what’s happening on stage,” Fagen said.

He said the music helped to bring out the comedic element of the text.

Furthermore, the technique of tone-painting to imitate human whistling was created by using a slide and harmonic on a violin to reach high notes.

While Fagen said he felt Britten was specific in his notation and had created little space, musically, for personal interpretation, Marvel said he took a fair amount of liberties in portraying the story.

Marvel also said he gave freedom to members from each of the two casts to express their own interpretations in the form of dance moves and unscripted words at pivotal moments during the opera.

Along with such modifications to the original script, the opera department added another dimension: tweeting.

“The point is to come up with a new way of getting audience members to interact with the IU Opera & Ballet, but at the same time to see if we can increase awareness and gain new audience members,” said social media specialist and art administration master’s student Brooke Feldman of the “Twitter Experience” created for “Albert Herring.”  

“Albert Herring” is the first opera of the 2011-12 spring season, and therefore the first time audience members have been encouraged to tweet about an IU opera performance during intermissions, as well as before and after the show.

“You should have positives and negatives within the arts just because you need that feedback,” Feldman said, adding that the IU Opera & Ballet Theater Twitter account gained 15 followers Thursday and Friday.

While all aspects of the performance — music, dance moves, vocal harmonization and British humor manifested in the form of unexpected and sometimes crude lyrics — came together to evoke roars of laughter from the audience, Marvel said the message of the performance was meant to sink in deeper.

“So he has this existential dilemma, this ... ‘what am I doing with my life?’ It’s this wake-up moment,” Marvel said. “And that part isn’t comedic at all, it’s actually kind of stirring. When you realize that your entire life might be relegated to boxes of fruit and vegetables — it’s kind of dark, frankly.”