ALBERT HERRING - CURTIS INSTITUTE
Stage Director: Eve Summer
Conductor: George Manahan
Scenic Designer: Julia Noulin-Merat
Costume Designer: Whitney Locher
Lighting Designer: Benjamin Pilat
Wig and Makeup Designer: Alfreda "Fre" Howard
WMB Photo
Albert Herring at Curtis Opera Theatre
“The performances at Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater augured well for current students’ futures and gave a good, not-too-broad account of the character driven comedy, intelligently directed by Eve Summer…. admirably she [Ruby Dibble as Albert’s mum] and Summer avoided the common trap of mocking this character’s genuine suffering.”
David Shengold, Opera News
“Albert Herring earns the crown at Curtis Opera Theatre. Director Eve Summer piquantly captures the state of life in an insular English village, with an assist from Whitney Locher’s candy-colored costumes and Julia Noulin-Mérat’s verdant garden set. You could practically smell the wisteria! This is a comedy, but it’s also a comedy by Benjamin Britten, and all of his familiar focal points arrive on cue: class distinctions, the pernicious influence of gossip, the lingering sense of poverty, the sense that keeping up appearances matters more than being a good person. Summer handles these tonal shifts nicely, underlining the bite beneath Crozier’s amusing libretto, and making sure that an air of hypocrisy (Britten’s eternal subject) is always front and center. The cutting parody of Anglican mores is never more apparent that in the opera’s first scene…it’s staged as a drawing-room tour de force.”
Bachtrack
“Often exuberant and consistently delightful. Their approach to the unfolding drama carried significant amounts of humor, without neglecting the more poignant moments which explore the development of Albert’s character.”
OperaWire
“A witty, enjoyable Albert Herring from Curtis Opera Theatre. It is hard to imagine how the performance could have been improved. It was sensational. The production values were high, with scenery, costumes, movement, and lighting all working together to create a marvelous effect.”
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