Upbeat: Coda

NO ONE was more keenly aware of the sexual hypocrisy of Suffolk Tories than Benjamin Britten, writes Gillian Widdicombe. His opera Albert Herring is a caricature of small-town prigs and narrow-mindedness. Deploring the lack of a girl virtuous enough to be crowned Queen of the May, the local tyrant Lady Billows concludes that Loxford is in a state of complete moral chaos.

All candidates discredited, the police superintendent proposes a King of the May - whereupon the Vicar always brings the house down with 'Not in East Suffolk]'