Victorian Opera explains why Britten’s comic masterpiece was his most deeply personal work.

The Glyndebourne Festival has a proud Britten performing tradition, having staged and reprised almost all his operas since premiering The Rape of Lucretia in 1946. But the following year, Glyndebourne’s founder John Christie turned his nose up at the comic opera Albert Herring. He was reluctant to run it and apparently gave the condescending opening-night disclaimer, “This isn’t our kind of thing, you know.”

It has since become a cherished part of the Glyndebourne repertory, but, for Britten, the initial rejection must have stung: this was just the kind of small-mindedness that he riled against in the opera, and that Victorian Opera will address in its new production opening in July.

Albert Herring is a lesser-known work in his oeuvre, despite its exploration of themes that occupied Britten throughout his composing life. Albert is a painfully shy, awkward youth who works at the greengrocer in the small East Suffolk community of Loxford. The town is up in arms about its traditional May Day ceremony: this year there is not a single local girl wholesome enough to be crowned May Queen. Since Albert is unanimously deemed spotless, he...