{"id":6096,"date":"2013-02-15T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=6096"},"modified":"2013-02-18T09:42:56","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T17:42:56","slug":"albert-herring-funny-poignant-inspiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2013\/02\/15\/albert-herring-funny-poignant-inspiring\/","title":{"rendered":"Albert Herring funny, poignant, inspiring"},"content":{"rendered":"

What did Benjamin Britten, one of the central figures of 20th<\/sup>-century British classical music, want to tell us through the satire Albert Herring<\/i>? Come find out when Pacific Opera Victoria performs Herring<\/i>, one of Britten\u2019s greatest pieces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Albert Herring: the sweetest, most confused hero in opera (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here\u2019s how the quirky story starts: the town of Loxford needs a Queen of the May, but autocratic lady Billows and her housekeeper like none of the candidates. After having considerable debate, Billows appoints a King of the May: Albert Hert Herring, surely the sweetest, most confused hero in opera.<\/p>\n

Robert Holliston, the principal coach of Albert Herring<\/i>, says the opera is appealing because it\u2019s a comedy and has a happy ending. And the cast of characters is very entertaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe characters, which we can all relate to, are set in a little village,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has the internal politics we find in a village, and types of people we find, and we can identify with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of those entertaining characters include a vicar, a mayor, and the aforementioned lady Billows, who comes from the height of the aristocracy and likes to tell people what to do. But underneath the laughter lies something else.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny comedy has poignant underpinnings,\u201d says Holliston. \u201cIt\u2019s not just funny, but also quite touching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holliston says that audiences also like the fact that it\u2019s in English.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost operas we know and love are in foreign languages,\u201d he says. \u201cFor those of us who live in an English-speaking world, it is kind of nice to have some masterpieces being put on that are in English. Audiences will appreciate the humor and appreciate being able to identify with the characters, and they will appreciate the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, the story of this opera can give audiences some motivational lessons about their lives. Holliston says Albert Herring <\/i>tells people it\u2019s possible to thwart those in power and to get what you want out of life by \u201cbeing yourself, finding yourself, and squeezing every drop of juice out of life,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s very inspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albert Herring
\n<\/i>February 7, 9, 15, 17
\nRoyal Theatre
\nrmts.bc.ca<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What did Benjamin Britten, one of the central figures of 20th-century British classical music, want to tell us through the satire Albert Herring? Come find out when Pacific Opera Victoria performs Herring, one of Britten\u2019s greatest pieces. Here\u2019s how the quirky story starts: the town of Loxford needs a Queen of the May, but autocratic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-february-6-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6096"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6223,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6096\/revisions\/6223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}