Buxton Festival 2015

For the 2015, the Buxton Festival is returning to its roots. The first festival in 1979 opened with Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor conducted by Anthony Hose and directed by Malcolm Fraser (the festival's founders); this was the first performance in the UK of the complete opera in the original keys. Lucia di Lammermoor returns in 2015, conducted by Stuart Stratford and directed by Stephen Unwin (who directed Dvorak's Jacobin this year and Strauss's Intermezzo in 2012). Joining Lucia is something still pretty rare on the UK operatic stage, Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco which will be conducted by Stephen Barlow and directed by Elijah Moshinsky. Giovanna d'Arco was premiered in 1845 and is Verdi's seventh opera coming two years before Macbeth.

The third festival offering will be a concert performance, Stephen Barlow conducts three performances of Charpentier's Louise (premiered in 1900 at the Opera Comique in Paris conducted by Andre Messager). The opera received its last major UK outing (I think) in 1981 when English National Opera staged it with Valerie Masterson in the title role.