Pauline Viardot, Francesca Caccini, an early Handel magic opera, late Mozart and more: Buxton International Festival's 2026 season

Lehár: The Merry Widow - Paula Sides in John Savournin's production at Scottish Opera 2025 (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)

Buxton International Festival is going from strength to strength and the 2026 festival, which runs from 9 to 26 July, features 160 events across 17 days including six opera production (four of them new productions), alongside a concert programme, jazz, book events and more. In recent years it has staged musicals alongside lesser-known opera. This year it is presenting two well-known main-stage operas, Lehar's The Merry Widow and Verdi's La traviata, alongside more rarified repertoire including Handel's Amadigi di Gaula, Viardot's Le dernier sorcier and Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero, along with Mozart's La clemenza di Tito.

John Savournin's to Italian-American Mafia-inspired production of Lehar's The Merry Widow (a co-production with Scottish Opera, Opera Holland Park and D’Oyly Carte Opera which we saw last summer, see my review) makes its Festival debut with Iwan Davies conducting the Buxton International Festival Orchestra. Paula Sides is Hanna Glawari and Dominic Sedgwick is Danilo.

A new production of Verdi's La traviata is a co-production with Norwich Theatre, directed by James Hurley and with Adrian Kelly, the Festival's artistic director, conducting the Buxton International Festival Orchestra. Polish-American soprano Alexandra Nowakowski is Violetta with Omer Kobijlak as Alfredo and Andre Heyboer as Germont.

Another Festival production is Handel's Amadigi di Gaula. Olivia Fuchs directs with Erin Helyard conducting the English Concert. American countertenor Jake Ingbar (whom we saw as Nireno in Handel's Giulio Cesare in Salzburg last year, see my review) is Amadigi with Rowan Pierce as Oriana, Hilary Cronin as Melissa and James Hall as Dardano. The Festival is also presenting a lesser known opera of a different vintage, Pauline Viardot's Le dernier sorcier. A chamber opera in two acts which has a libretto by the novelist Ivan Turgenev, with whom Viardot had a long relationship. Erika Gundesen conducts and Lysanne van Overbeek directs with a cast including Phil Wilcox, Eleri Gwilym, David Karapetian and Rebecca Anderson.

Vache Baroque bring their production of Francesca Caccini's opera La liberazione di Ruggiero, the first known opera by a woman and complete with a horse ballet! Eloise Lally directs with Jonathan Darbourne conducting an ensemble of period instruments. Camilla Seale is Alcina, Jon Stainsby is Ruggiero, and Phoebe Rayner is Melissa.

There are two performances of a semi-staging of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito. Adrian Kelly conducts the Buxton International Festival Orchestra and a chorus from the Royal Northern College of Music with a cast including Xavier Mas, Maria Stella Maurizi, Indyana Schneider, and Frances Gregory.

Visitors to the festival include the Sacconi Quartet, celebrating its 25th anniversary; harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani in a programme of Handel and Scarlatti; soprano Louise Alder, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, tenor Nicky Spence, baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Joseph Middleton in four linked song recitals each inspired by points of the compass; the Sitkovetsky Trio in Beethoven's Ghost Trio; cellist Stephen Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih in Sterndale Bennett, Britten and Messager; the Gould Piano Trio in James MacMillan; Will Duerden, Daniil Margulis and Svitlana Kosenko in music for two double basses and piano; the Brodsky Quartet in an American-inspired programme; pianist Peter Donohoe in Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin and Schumann; actor Alexander Armstrong, soprano Claire Booth and pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen explore the roaring Twenties; oboist Ewan Miller and pianist Tomos Boyle in music by Bach, Barber, Musgrave and Brahms; pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason in Beethoven, Ravel, and Dobrinka Tabakova; bass Alistair Miles and pianist Marie-Noelle Kendall in Brahms, Ibert, Finzi and Strauss' Four Last Songs.

Vache Baroque present a programme of Dowland, Iwan Davies (conductor of The Merry Widow) directs Twentieth Century Din in Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire with Allison Cook, and Erwin Stein's chamber version of Mahler's Symphony No. 4. Euan Shields conducts the Halle Orchestra in Weber, Richard Strauss and Brahms. There are concerts in Poole's Cavern featuring music from opera and musicals,

Full information from the festival website.