The fictitious English village of Loxford was in quite a comic quandary. Though outwardly prim and proper in its wholesome rustic setting, no young woman listed as a May Queen candidate appeared worthy of its symbol of chastity and purity for the spring festival. In an ill-thought stroke of progressive thinking, however, a May King was decided upon and your heart went out to Loxford’s elected awkward young man, Albert Herring. But despite being mollycoddled by an overbearing mother, Albert showed the village what he’s made of after one huge overnight leap into adulthood’s adventures – all part of Benjamin Britten’s satirical three-act comic chamber opera.

The Committee in Act One. Photograph © Ben Fon

Once again, following a powerfully chilling staging of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites in 2018, the University of Melbourne’s Conservatorium of Music came up with the goods in a beautifully sung, trenchant and multi-perspective staging of Albert Herring. In a literally head-turning experience, the audience becomes completely surrounded by the action and festivities in this cleverly crafted production from director Jane Davidson.

Britten and his librettist Eric Crozier based the work on Guy de Maupassant’s 1887 novella, Le Rosier de Madame Husson, and gave...