There was nothing semi- about the performances, we were certainly drawn into this quirky world: ENO's first ever production of Britten's Albert Herring

Britten: Albert Herring - Dan D'Souza, Caspar Singh - ENO 2025 (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Britten: Albert Herring; Caspar Singh, Emma Bell, Carolyn Dobbin, Aoife Miskelly, Eddie Wade, Mark Le Brocq, Andri Björn Róbertsson, Dan D'Souza, Caspar Singh, Anna Elizabeth Cooper, Leah-Marian Jones, director Anthony McDonald, conductor Daniel Cohen, English National Opera; London Coliseum
Reviewed 13 October 2025

A stripped back production that loses little of the sense of place, with an ensemble of strong character singers supporting an engaging account a central character who repaid all our attention

English National Opera has never before performed Britten's Albert Herring. A new production directed and designed by Antony McDonald rectified this lack as well as helping launch the company's season in Greater Manchester. Billed as a semi-staging, McDonald's production opened at the London Coliseum on Monday 13 October with a further performance on 16 October before travelling to the Lowry in Salford for two performances.

Daniel Cohen conducted with Emma Bell as Lady Billows, Carolyn Dobbin as Florence Pike, Aoife Miskelly as Miss Wordsworth, Eddie Wade as Mr Gedge, Mark Le Brocq as Mr Upfold, Andri Björn Róbertsson as Superintendent Budd, Dan D'Souza as Sid, Caspar Singh as Albert, Anna Elizabeth Cooper as Nancy, Leah-Marian Jones as Mrs Herring, Abigail Sinclair as Emmie, Natasha Oldbury as Cis and with Henry Karp as Harry (sharing with Lucien Flutter).

Britten: Albert Herring - Carolyn Dobbin, Eddie Wade, Emma Bell - ENO 2025 (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Anthony McDonald's production was not so much a semi-staging as a stripped down one. The concept seemed to be that we were at some sort of recording, radio presumably. The basic set had a Brechtian quality to it with labels hung from the flats indicating the locations. The setting was 1940s, the era when the opera was written and the cast were all in period apposite costumes. Some fussy details relating to the omnipresent stage manager (actor Ashton Hall) apart, it worked remarkably well. Mainly thanks to the sense of detail that the cast brought to their roles. There was nothing semi- about the performances, we were certainly drawn into this quirky world.

McDonald had added or highlighted a whole array of details that brought interesting nuances to the story. Florence Pike had an illicit smoking habit. Mr Gedge, rather than being sweet on Miss Wordsworth was seen with a bag of sweets chasing after young Harry (who remained oblivious). Emmie and Cis pushing a toy pram complete with a baby doll that they threw between them during the ball games at the opening of Act One. Sid's overall covered in blood. Mrs Herring's first appearance in curlers. That Florence Pike appeared at the May Day celebration carrying a sword was obviously a sly dig at the recent coronation, but it also gave Emma Bell's Lady Billows a sword to swing - alarmingly - whilst spouting about St George.

All these details brought the story to life.

Britten: Albert Herring - Emma Bell, Carolyn Dobbin, Caspar Singh, Leah-Marian Jones - ENO 2025 (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Caspar Singh made an engaging Albert. Naive and down-trodden perhaps, but definitely not simple. Singh highlighted the character's shyness and I particularly loved his hiding under the table at one point during the May Day celebration. Singh is quite a physically imposing figure, and he made Albert's physicality all part of his characterisation, the way Albert was constantly trying to make himself shrink. His long solo the second scene of Act Two, after the May Day celebration, represented a real sense of Albert growing up and thinking for himself. This was beautifully realised by Singh, who held our attention throughout the long scene. And in Act Three, after his return, it was his physicality that helped show how he had grown up. At the end of the opera, McDonald gave a rather sly not to the question of Albert's sexuality (at the Royal College of Music in 2015, Liam Steel went so far as to give Albert a male hook-up, see my review). Here, after Singh's Albert has kissed Nancy (Anna Elizabeth Cooper) he went on to kiss Sid (Dan D'Souza).

As Albert's mother, Leah-Marian Jones made Mrs Herring a prize specimen. In a nicely observed performance, Jones made this Mrs Herring truly working class complete with a rather narrow viewpoint. Her control of her son was complete, and it was all done verbally rather than physically. I loved the way she stood on a box so that she could reach Singh's head and fuss with her son's hair. Her grief at the opening of Act Three was intense and over the top, without being quite as funny as it could be (I still remember Frances McCafferty's glorious performance in the role in the Glyndebourne tour in 2002).

The worthies of Loxford were all strongly etched and made a finely balanced ensemble. Emma Bell's Lady Billows wore a military uniform and controlled the Festival committee as if they were her troops. The result was a characterisation that was undoubtedly funny but which veered closer to sit-com than might be ideal. But certainly Bell entered into it with a will, and this Lady Billows brooked no disobedience. Bell's voice undoubtedly had the heft for the role, but there was a vibrato-led warmth and an amplitude to the sound that made me look back to the more laser-sharp Lady Billows of the past.

Britten: Albert Herring - Dan D'Souza, Anna Elizabeth Cooper - ENO 2025 (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Carolyn Dobbin did not make Florence Pike a middle-aged frump. Quite the opposite. There was a quiet glamour to her, with the suggestion of an interior life rather different to what Lady Billows' might expect. But this Florence Pike still had a lovely relish for the simple manipulation of people. Aoife Miskelly was a fluttery, ineffectual but quite sharp Miss Wordsworth. Miskelly made the character's flights of fancy into something rather delightful and engaging.

Eddie Wade's Mr Gedge first appeared in a scout master's uniform and he kept this on throughout, even under his vestments. There was nothing strictly objectionable about the character, yet Wade and McDonald gave us hints that suggested something underlying.

This was one of the delights of McDonald's production, he managed to suggest without doing violence to the dramaturgy that Loxford was indeed a hotbed of illicit vice!

Britten: Albert Herring - Natasha Oldbury, Lucien Flutter, Abigail Sinclair
ENO 2025 (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Mark Le Brocq had great fun with Mr Upfold's prosy nature, always keen to overdo things. I particularly liked Le Brocq's gloriously over the top account of Mr Upfold's contribution to the Act Three threnody.

Andri Bjorn Robertsson was a wonderfully conventional Superintendent Budd, suggesting the character's limited intelligence and his discomfort with personal interaction - qualities which would make him least suited to be a small town policeman! Robertsson brought great physicality to the role, we knew what he was thinking even when he wasn't singing.

Dan D'Souza gave Sid a lovely swagger, first appearing on his bike complete with a cowboy hat. This Sid oozed self-confidence, and when Sid talks to Albert about wooing there was nothing remotely suggestive in D'Souza's performance yet he succeeded in giving Albert ideas. Anna Elizabeth Cooper was a brightly personable Nancy, completely stuck on Sid. Yet in her Act Three solo, Cooper highlighted the character's more thoughtful aspects.

Abigail Sinclair and Natasha Oldbury are both at music college but the two managed to suggest two girls far younger and clearly sisters in what was a delightful pair of performances. They were ably partnered by the sly Harry of Henry Karp (doubling with Lucien Flutter) though the programme did not make it clear which.

In the pit, Daniel Cohen (general music director of the Staatstheater Darmstadt) drew a strong performance from the fourteen players. The London Coliseum is not an ideal space for this opera. It was written for Glyndebourne and the production there in 1985 gave the work its modern life and whilst the opera can expand, it fitted the old Glyndebourne theatre admirably. The virtue of this performance was that Cohen and his players never gave any sense of working hard to fill the space, and yet the individual instrumental lines had sympathetic pliability to them.

Britten: Albert Herring - ENO 2025 (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Albert Herring is not an ideal opera for a space the size of the London Coliseum. In fact, the last time we saw the work it was Giles Havergal's in-the-round production presented by Opera North in the Howard Assembly Room. A very different experience indeed. [See my review]. Here the work did seem to be able to expand to fill the space available, with little sense of compromise. Granted there were occasional moments that jarred, but by the end of this performance cast and players all made me forget that we were watching something stripped down. Instead were were drawn into the fictional Loxford by a wonderful ensemble cast in a strongly etched performance surrounding a central character who repaid all our attention