This live recording is of a performance given by the English Opera Group, conducted by the composer in the Theatre Royal, Copenhagen on 15th September 1949. It is a fascinating document, coming, as it does, only two years after the first performance of the opera and with no less than eleven members of the original cast still in the team. The composer’s studio recording of Albert Herring was not made until 1964, and, excellent though it is, by then Peter Pears was the only role-creator still in the cast. All limitation of the sound quality aside, this is a wonderful survivor and one of the earliest recorded examples of Britten and the EOG in performance.

Artists

Peter Pears (Albert), Joan Cross (Lady Billows), Gladys Parr (Florence Pike), Margaret Ritchie (Miss Wordsworth), Otakar Kraus (Mr Gedge), Roy Ashton (Mr Upfold), Norman Lumsden (Spt. Budd), Denis Dowling (Sid), Nancy Evans (Nancy), Catherine Lawson (Mum), Anne Sharp (Emmie), Elisabeth Parry (Cis), Alan Thompson (Harry), Libretto by Eric Crozier and Directed by Basil Coleman

The English Opera Group Chamber Orchestra, Benjamin Britten