HERRING, EVERYONE? For months I've been looking forward to the Gotham Chamber Opera production of Benjamin Britten's rarely performed Albert Herring, not because I was especially interested in the opera, but because the company's recent productions of Handel's Arianna in Creta and Respighi's La bella dormente nel bosco had blown me away and made we want to see anything else by the Gotham. The company's Albert Herring turned out to be less consistently good than those extraodinary productions but it was still very worthwhile. There are two remaining performances: tonight and Saturday night at 7:30.

Known as Britten's only comic opera, Albert Herring pokes fun at the residents of a fictional English town called Loxford. The town's leaders would like to find a young lady "virtuous" enough to be the new May Queen, but none of the locals seem to qualify. In desperation, the burghers realize that the best-suited candidate is actually a man--the timorous grocery clerk Albert Herring, whom they crown as their first May King. After pranksters Sid and Nancy (yes, Sid and Nancy) spike Albert's lemonade at the May Day coronation, Albert spends a night on the town.

People say that they go to opera for the music, not the stories, but one of the strong points of the Gotham Chamber Opera is its commitment to "present vibrant, fully-staged productions" of opera as musical theater. In this gently satirical production it was entertaining to watch the cartoony townspeople engage in their antics (especially in the second and third acts). Matt Morgan played Albert with a low-key, Harold Lloydian air (in a Harold Lloydian costume). Timothy Kuhn and Leah Wool played Sid and Nancy with spirited physicality. Michael Zegarski had some fine moments playing Mr. Gedge, the vicar, as he hosted the May Day celebration. And Eric Jordan was a vocal standout as Superintendent Budd. Some stage business could have been better developed and some of the vocals (especially ensemble singing) could have sounded sweeter, but ultimately the company did justice to Britten's work.

Next up for the GCO: something called Ariadne Unhinged in the fall and an early Rossini farce next winter.