It was Francesca Caccini's score, & Vache Baroque's performance, that surprised & captivated: La liberazione di Ruggiero at Buxton International Festival

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero - Jon Stainsby, Camilla Seale - Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina; Camilla Seale, Jon Stainsby, Phoebe Rayner, Vache Baroque, director: Eloise Lally, music director: Jonathan Darbourne; Buxton International Festival at Pavilion Arts Centre

Dazzling instrumental playing with music that seduced in a trifle over-serious staging but with some fine individual performances make this a notable revival of Francesca Caccini's rarely staged gem

La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina by Francesca Caccini has the reputation as the first opera by a woman composer. Certainly, it is Caccini's only surviving opera, written for the Medici court in Florence in 1625. It remains, however, on the fringe of the repertoire though Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) staged it in 2015 [see my review]

Vache Baroque have been presenting their production of Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero at Buxton International Festival in the Pavilion Arts Centre (seen 21 July 2026), directed by Eloise Lally (who directed Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore for St Paul's Opera last year, see my review) with Jonathan Darbourne as music director. Designs were by Zahra Mansouri and lighting by Katie Kelly. Camilla Seale was Alcina, Jon Stainsby was Ruggiero, Phoebe Rayner was Melissa and Filippo Turkheimer was Nettuno with Betty Makharinsky, Harriet Burns, Alina Miyagi Magnell and Tom Kelly. Jonathan Darbourne directed from the harpsichord with an instrumental ensemble of three violins, viola da gamba, violone, three recorders, three sackbuts, theorbo and organ. The staging encompassed the whole stage with the instrumental ensemble spread around the auditorium. Caccini's full scoring does not survive; no credit was given in the programme so I presume that it is to Darbourne we have to thank for the particular orchestration here.

Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero - Phoebe Rayner - Vache Baroque at Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The plot, based on Ariosto, is similar to the one from Handel only here Ruggiero is rescued by another sorceress, Melissa, and Alcina turns people into plants rather than animals. Eloise Lally's concept of the plot took her some way from Caccini's court entertainment which was written for a visiting prince (and originally ended with a horse ballet). Here magic was played down. Lally explained her concept in the programme book:

'Set within a world on the brink of collapse, this work explores the tension between preservation and reinvention. Through the opposing forces of Alcina and Melissa, it questions who has the right to shape the future: those who uphold existing systems of power, or those who seek to dismantle and rebuild them entirely.'

Katie Kelly's lighting was certainly atmospheric but it did rather obscure some of the details of the staging, making the plot a little opaque. The production worked best when it forgot about explaining the mechanics of the plot and concentrated on personal interactions and the sheer seductive power of Caccini's music.

Musically, an evening of complete enjoyment: Olivia Fuchs's playful 'Love Island' setting for Handel's Amadigi in Buxton

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula - Tim Morgan, Hilary Cronin, Rowan Pierce - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula; Tim Morgan, Rowan Pierce, Hilary Cronin, James Hall, director: Olivia Fuchs, the English Concert, conductor: Erin Helyard; Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House
Reviewed 20 July 2026

By turns playful and distracting, Olivia Fuchs's production allowed a fine young cast to develop strong performances combining enjoyment and engagement with technical bravura

Handel's opera Amadigi di Gaula (1715) belongs to a small group of operas he wrote when he first came to London and the exact form of his style of opera seria was not yet fixed. Like its predecessor Teseo (1713), Amadigi is based on a French source and there are tantalising hints that the original plans for the opera included French elements such as dancing. [see my article on Handel's experimental early London period.] As it is, Amadigi has a freedom of form that makes it attractive to modern directors.

Olivia Fuchs has directed Handel's Amadigi di Gaula for the Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House. We caught the final performance on 20 July 2026. Erin Helyard (artistic director of Pinchgut Opera) conducted the English Concert with Tim Morgan (replacing Jake Ingbar) as Amadigi, Rowan Pierce as Oriana, Hilary Cronin as Melissa and James Hall as Dardano. Designs were by Eleanor Bull with lighting by Ben Pickersgill.

Both Cronin and Morgan have form with this opera. Tim Morgan sang the title role with English Touring Opera in 2021 (directed by James Conway, conducted by Jonathan Peter Kenny, see my review), whilst Hilary Cronin sang Oriana in concert with the English Concert (conducted by Kristian Bezuidenhout, see my review).

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula - James Hall - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The opera has one of those 'black box' plots beloved of opera seria: the characters all confined to a single place. Here, four people in a love tangle: Melissa loves Amadigi who loves Oriana as does Dardano, all complicated by Melissa's power as a sorceress. What elevates the opera is the extraordinary power of the music for Melissa and Dardano, both of whom are disappointed in love.

More than a concert: Mozart's La clemenza di Tito at the Buxton Festival brings out the work's real drama

Mozart: La clemenza di Tito; Maria Stella Maurizi, Indyana Schneider, Xavier Mas, Frances Gregory, director: Corina Würsch, conductor: Adrian Kelly, Buxton International Festival; Buxton Opera House
Reviewed: 19 July 2026

A mainly young cast brings out the dramatic strengths in a semi-staging of Mozart's late opera with compelling performances from Maria Stella Maurizi and Indyana Schneider

Like the Grange Festival [see my review] last month, Buxton International Festival (BIF) has opted to explore Mozart's late masterpiece, La clemenza di Tito via a pair of concert performances (seen 19 July 2026). Adrian Kelly, artistic director of the Festival, conducted the BIF Orchestra (which mixes seasoned professionals with early career players) and the concert staging was directed by Corina Würsch who as assistant director/movement director on the Festival's recent production of Verdi's La traviata. Würsch was also movement director for Blackheath Halls Opera's 2025 production of Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris [see my review].

Adrian Kelly is also head of the International Opera Studio (IOS) at Zurich Opera and the casting leveraged this connection. Italian soprano Maria Stella Maurizi (Vitellia) and Australian mezzo-soprano Indyana Schneider (Sesto) are current members of the IOS Zurich whilst New Zealand-born baritone Samson Setu (Publio) is a former member. Tito was played by French tenor Xavier Mas with Frances Gregory (whom we recently saw as Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo with Chelsea Opera Group, see my review) as Annio and Jessica Lawley as Servilia.

The orchestra was on stage which helped put them centre stage for once, though the sound was perhaps a little recessed. Adrian Kelly played the forte piano recitatives and the instrument a little too discreet for the space.

The acting space was a wide strip in front of the orchestra with Würsch's production concentrating on basics. The result was some admirably character-led drama. Costumes were simply variants of modern concert dress, though it was perhaps a trifle confusing to have Maria Stella Maurizi's Vitellia wearing trousers (albeit very elegantly) when two other women in the cast played en travestie. The chorus was off-stage for the conclusion of Act One but for the other appearances the singers efficiently filed on and off stage left.

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.

Style & substance: Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet in Buxton is a rewarding musical & dramatic feast with the festival confidently stepping on the shoulders of its previous production

Thomas: Hamlet - Gregory Feldmann - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Ambroise Thomas: Hamlet; Gregory Feldmann, Yewon Han, Alastair Mile, Allison Cook, director Jack Furness, Orchestra of Opera North, conductor: Adrian Kelly; Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House
Reviewed 20 July 2025

Buxton's return to Hamlet does the work proud with a stylishly minimal production from Jack Furness allowing the two astonishing young principals to shine, all under Adrian Kelly's loving musical direction

Ambroise Thomas was the nearly man of 19th century French opera. His opera Mignon followed Gounod in adapting Goethe, first with spoken dialogue then as full grand opera, and Mignon echoed Faust's popularity. His Shakespeare adaptation Hamlet sat on the cusp between the older grand opera and the lyric drama espoused by Massenet. Hamlet retained a hold on the repertoire, thanks to the spectacular mad scene for Ophélie. But in modern times, neither of Thomas' operas has retained anything like its 19th century popularity.

In 1980, the fledgling Buxton Festival presented a production of Thomas' Hamlet (with Thomas Allen in the title role) in an enterprising Shakespeare-themed season that included Berlioz' Beatrice et Benedict. Since then, sightings of the opera in the UK have been relatively rare. Covent Garden presented it in 2003, for the first time since 1910 (!) and Opera North gave it in 1995, but it remains a rarity, dependent on the right baritone and soprano.

45 years on, Buxton International Festival decided to return to the work in a new production directed by Jack Furness and conducted by the festival's artistic director, Adrian Kelly with the Orchestra of Opera North in the pit. We caught the performance on 20 July 2025 at Buxton Opera House. Adrian Kelly is also head of the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera of which both the leads, Gregory Feldmann (Hamlet) and Yewon Han (Ophélie) were members. Alastair Miles was Claudius, Allison Cook was Gertrude, Joshua Baxter was Laërte, Tylor Lamani was Marcellus and Dan D'Souza was Horatio. Designs were by Sami Fendall and lighting by Jake Wiltshire.

Thomas: Hamlet - Yewon Han - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

The strange thing about watching Thomas' Hamlet is the way that in each of the play's familiar scenes, the opera responds with standard French grand opera tropes. The libretto was by experienced hands, Michel Carré and Jules Barbier, and if you can forget Shakespeare, then Hamlet makes a striking piece of operatic drama. Some of the differences may be laid at the libretto's source which is not Shakespeare, but the 1847 French version by Alexandre Dumas, père, and Paul Meurice which already has differences to the English. Most of the smaller roles are cut, the libretto focuses on Hamlet, Ophélie, Claudius and Gertrude. Polonius is not killed in the closet scene (he is not present) and the role is reduced to a cipher. Here it was admirably performed by Richard Woodall.

The ennui of modern life: Bernstein & Poulenc's one-act operas from the 1950s in an intriguing double bill at Buxton International Festival

Bernstein: Trouble in Tahiti - Charles Rice, Allison Cooke - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Leonard Bernstein: Trouble in Tahiti, Francis Poulenc: La voix humaine; Hanna Hipp, Charles Rice, Allison Cooke, Chloé Hare-Jones, Harun Tekin, Ross Cumming, director: Daisy Evans, conductor: Iwan Davies; Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House
Reviewed 19 July 2025

Two operas from the 1950s in a clever double bill that does not quite work as a pairing but features some strong individual performances

Both were written in the 1950s and both deal with dissatisfaction with modern life and relationships, yet Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, and Francis Poulenc's La voix humaine would seem to inhabit different worlds. Trouble in Tahiti, which had a troubled debut in 1952 and remains forever linked with Bernstein's later sequel, A quiet place, is imbued with jazz and the failure of the American dream. La voix humaine, which debuted in 1959, was written for (and perhaps partly created by) the great singing actress Denise Duval, yet has an aura of Paris of the 1930s when Jean Cocteau's play, on which the opera is based, made its debut.

Buxton International Festival, in collaboration with Norwich Theatre, made the brave decision to create a double bill from these two. Directed by Daisy Evans and conducted by Iwan Davies, the production also featured the debut of the Festival Orchestra. We caught the performance at Buxton Opera House on Saturday 19 July with Charles Rice and Hanna Hipp as Sam and Dinah, plus Chloé Hare-Jones, Harun Tekin and Ross Cumming (all three from the BIF Chorus) as the vocal trio, and Allison Cooke as Elle. Designs were by Loren Elstein, lighting by Jake Wiltshire.

Bernstein: Trouble in Tahiti - Ross Cumming, Harun Tekin, Chloé Hare-Jones, Charles Rice, Hanna Hipp - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Loren Elstein's bleak but stylish set caught the essential ennui of Sam and Dinah's (Charles Rice and Hanna Hipp) marriage, and this must be one of the bleakest accounts of Trouble in Tahiti that I have seen. The trio (Chloé Hare-Jones, Harun Tekin and Ross Cumming) were almost modern Commedia dell'Arte figures, highly involved in Sam and Dinah's lives, and playing the other silent figures that Bernstein included in the libretto.

A dip into festival history with the return of Thomas' Hamlet, Mozart in lighter mode, four new operas, the new Buxton Festival Orchestra: Buxton International Festival 2025

Buxton Opera House festival time. Credit Buxton International Festival

Having launched in 1979 with a production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in a version, rare at the time, that undid traditional cuts and transposition, the Buxton Festival returned in 1980 with Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet with Thomas Allen in the title role. 

For 2025, the Buxton International Festival is returning to its roots with a new production of Thomas' Hamlet, directed by Jack Furness. The festival's artistic director, Adrian Kelly, will conduct the Orchestra of Opera North. The young American baritone Gregory Feldmann makes his role debut as Hamlet; Feldman was a member of Opernhaus Zürich's International Opera Studio from 2022-24 and his roles in Zürich include Mercutio in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. Singing opposite him as Ophélie is one of Feldmann's colleagues from Zürich, Europe-based South Korean soprano Yewon Han. Also in the cast are Alistair Miles, Allison Cooke, Richard Woodall and Joshua Baxter.

Back to its roots and looking to the future: Buxton International Festival 2025

For 2025, the Buxton International Festival is returning to its roots and looking to the future. 

The company will be mounting a new production of Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet, which was one of the festival's earliest successes with Sir Thomas Allen in the title role, and yes, I was there! But alongside this the festival has commissioned four new one-act operas to form an evening's programme, Shorts. 

Hamlet will be presented in a new festival production with festival artistic director, Adrian Kelly conducting the orchestra of Opera North. Other operas planned include a double bill of Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Taihiti and Francis Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine, a co-production with Norwich Theatre, and Mozart’s The Impresario, in a production by Opera Zuid. In addition, Vache Baroque will bring Charpentier's La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers to the Pavilion Arts Centre.

The festival has commissioned a group of award-winning artists to create four 20-minute operas, Shorts, which will be premièred and performed together in July 2025. The Shorts are composed by Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, Jasper Dommett, Martin Green, Carmel Smickersgill and Yshani Perinpanayagam, with librettos by Zodwa Nyoni, Josh Overton and Jessica Walker. Directors include Marcus Desando and Rebecca Meltzer, designer Elliott Squire and repetiteur Paul McKenzie.

Commenting, Adrian Kelly the festival’s artistic director said: "While opera remains a captivating experience for those who have already discovered it, there is no question that audiences need a boost. All companies that produce opera have a responsibility to look to the future. At the heart of this mission is our desire to bring opera to new audiences and we are also excited to introduce fresh visionary forces. Our creatives come with a diverse range of styles and inspirations as well as an impressive line-up of credits between them, including an Ivor Novello Award, a Sunday Times Best Playwright Award, as well as Netflix, BBC and Channel 4 writing credits."

Full details from the festival website.

Haydn, Handel, Bizet, Smyth and early Verdi: after a successful 2023 festival, Buxton announces plans for 2024

Bellini: La Sonnambula - Simon Shibambu, Ziyi Dai - Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

As Buxton International Festival looks back on a 2023 festival that exceeded all expectations, the festival has announced plans for next year's festival. Running from 4 to 21 July 2024, the festival will feature five opera productions of works by Verdi, Handel, Bizet, Smyth and Haydn, including renewed collaborations with the Early Opera Company and Norwich Theatre, along with an evening of dance from Carlos Acosta and friends.

The 2023 festival far exceeded expectations with 150 events presented and over 28,000 tickets sold, and 29% of the total audience attended a performance of the festival's production of Bellini's La Sonnambula.

For 2024, the festival is presenting a new production of Verdi's opera, Ernani at Buxton Opera House with the festival's artistic director, Adrian Kelly, conducting the orchestra of Opera North. Written in 1844,   as a follow up to Nabucco and I Lombardi the opera would be Verdi's most popular one in Italy until he wrote Il Trovatore. Performance of the opera in the UK have been somewhat patchy, the last major staging by a UK company seems to have been ENO in 2000, in a production reworking an earlier one from WNO. The present Royal Opera company has never performed the work.

Also in the opera house, The festival is joining forces with Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company to present a staging of Handel's early oratorio, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. Written in 1707, the work was Handel's first oratorio, premiered in Rome at a time when opera was banned so that aristocratic patrons turned to oratorio. Handel returned to it twice in London, once in 1737 for an expanded Italian version and again in 1757 when Handel, now blind, created an English language version with the help of his secretary John Christopher Smith Jr. 

The third presentation in Buxton Opera House is a production of Peter Brook's rather strange boiling down of Bizet's Carmen, La Tragedie de Carmen. This will be the festival's second collaboration with Norwich Theatre.

There will be two presentations in the Pavilion Arts Centre. There will be new productions of Ethel Smyth's delightful 1914 comedy, The Boatswain's Mate, and Haydn's La Canterina. Written in 1766, Haydn's short opera buffa La Canterina was the first opera that Haydn wrote for Prince Esterhazy, it was intended as a pair of intermezzos to be presented between the acts of an opera seria.

Dancer and choreographer Carlos Acosta will present On Before, pays homage to Acosta’s late mother and includes choreography by Russell Maliphant, Kim Brandstrup, and Will Tuckett. Acosta will perform as alongside Laura Rodríguez, a founding member of his Cuban dance company, Acosta Danza.

Full details from the festival website.

The Land of Might-Have-Been: a new musical merges the story of Vera Brittain with songs by Ivor Novello

Vera Brittain

Buxton International Festival and Norwich Theatre Royal join forces in producing a delicate, moving and deeply intense show about love, life and hope during the First World War. Norwich music writer, Tony Cooper, reports  

A new musical The Land of Might-Have-Been - which promises an intriguing, unforgettable and thought-provoking show - is coming our way next month through a fruitful partnership being forged between Norwich Theatre Royal and Buxton International Festival. The book and lyrics have been written by Michael Williams, co-creator of the UK Theatre award-winning opera, Georgiana, a work surrounding the goings-on of Lady Georgiana Dorothy Spencer.  

The eldest daughter of John Spencer, 1st Earl of Spencer and Georgiana Poyntz, makes Lady Georgiana the great-great-granddaughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. By all accounts, a flamboyant and highly controversial woman, she did not respect the conventional mores of her day and embraced the teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and free love.   

In stark contrast to the goings-on of this free-spirited aristocrat, The Land of Might-Have-Been focuses on a very different kind of person, Vera Mary Brittain, an educated, fair and strong-minded individual with her feet most definitely on the ground. But unlike Lady Georgiana, Vera Brittain did respect the order and conventions of her day but, of course, was faced and frustrated with the prejudices and conventions of her day, too, like so many of her peers.  

Although The Land of Might-Have-Been is admirably built around the songs of Ivor Novello, who, incidentally, was born in the same year as Vera Brittain in 1893, the scenario is strongly based on the early lives of Vera and her brother Edward before and during the First World War.  

Our Future in Your Hands: Kate Whitley's new oratorio for Buxton used a chorus of children from local schools and students from the RNCM to terrific effect

Kate Whitley: Our Future in Your Hands - Buxton International Festival (Photo David John King Photography)

Kate Whitley: Our Future in Your Hands; Fiona Finsbury, Rhiannon Dougan, Christopher Cull, children from Derbyshire schools, members of the festival Young Instrumentalists Programme; Buxton International Festival at St John's Church, Buxton
Reviewed 17 July 2022

A climate change oratorio full of imaginative writing and invested with terrific energy and commitment by a chorus of local school children 

Kate Whitley and Laura Attridge's new oratorio Our Future in Your Hands was commissioned for 2020 by Buxton International Festival and the Royal Over-Seas League. Its premiere was postponed until 2022 and we caught the second of two performances at the Buxton International Festival at St John's Church, Buxton on Sunday 17 July 2022. Tom Newall conducted an orchestra made up of instrumentalists from the festival's Young Instrumentalists Programme (taken from students at the Royal Northern College of Music) alongside mentors from the Northern Chamber Orchestra, with soloists Fiona Finsbury (soprano), Rhiannon Dougan (mezzo-soprano), and Christopher Cull (baritone). The two choruses were made up of over fifty young people from eight Derbyshire schools - Platform3 Singing Club (Burbage School, Fairfield Endowed C of E Junior School, Peak Dale Primary School, Buxton Community School, St Philip Howard Catholic Voluntary Academy, St Mary's Catholic Voluntary Academy, Tinderbox Performing Arts and Tintwistle Primary School.  Voices were largely unbroken with a sprinkling broken ones. The orchestra used single woodwind (no clarinet), horn trumpet, bass trombone, tuba and two percussionists.

Baroque gem: Hasse's early serenata gets an intriguing modern staging in Buxton with some stylish singing.

Hasse: Antonio e Cleopatra - Ellie Neate, Thalie Knights - Buxton International Festival (Photo David John King Photography)

Johann Hasse: Antonio e Cleopatra: Ellie Neate, Thalie Knights, director: Evangeline Cullingworth, musical director: Satoko Doi Luck, Buxton Festival Baroque Orchestra; Buxton International Festival at the Pavilion Arts Centre
Reviewed 16 July 2022 (★★★★)

A rare outing for Hasse's early serenata in a stylish performance that brings the work right up to date

Like Handel before him, Johann Hasse (some 14 years Handel's junior) left his native Germany to get some Italianate polish. His first major work was the serenata Antonio e Cleopatra, which premiered at the estate of a Royal councillor near Naples in 1725. A serenata requiring just two singers with strings and harpsichord, it was a small-scale piece for an aristocratic entertainment much like Handel's cantata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, written for an aristocratic wedding in Naples in 1708. It was an imaginative idea for Buxton International Festival to stage Hasse's serenata with two singers from this year's chorus.

We caught Buxton International Festival's production of Hasse's Antonio e Cleopatra on Saturday 16 July 2022 at the Pavilion Arts Centre. Directed by Evangeline Cullingworth with designs by Grace Venning, the opera featured Ellie Neate as Cleopatra and Thalie Knights as Antonio. Satoko Doi Luck directed the Buxton Festival Baroque Orchestra from the harpsichord (Michael Gurevich & Emily Nebel, violins, John Crockatt, viola, Tim Smedley, cello, Dawn Potts, double bass).

Hasse: Antonio e Cleopatra - Ellie Neate, Thalie Knights - Buxton International Festival (Photo David John King Photography)

Not a kilt in sight: Jacopo Spirei's fascinating production of Rossini's La donna de lago at Buxton

Rossini: La donna del lago: Nico Darmanin, Maire Flavin, John Irvin, Catherine Carby, David Ireland, director: Jacopo Spirei, conductor: Giulio Cilona, Northern Chamber Orchestra; Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House
Reviewed 15 July 2022 (★★★★½)

An impressive achievement and a terrific evening in the theatre; strong musical performance and intelligently re-thought staging combined

Rossini's operas for Naples, where he was music director of the Royal theatres from 1815 to 1821 represent an important strand in the development of his opera. There he had a large and well-funded establishment so that he was able to challenge his performers musically, scenically and dramatically. In a way, each of his Neapolitan operas pushes boundaries or experiments with form, as Rossini moves rather old fashioned opera seria towards something more modern. 

La donna del Lago (premiered 1819) is important in many ways. Musically one of the finest operas of Rossini's Neapolitan period, it is the first major use of the work of Sir Walter Scott in the opera house, the first opera to be in any way Romantic, and in his use of the off-stage band and multiple choral groups in the Act One finale, Rossini was breaking new ground. It is an opera that needs and deserves to be heard.

Rossini: La donna del lago - Maire Flavin, Catherine Carby - Buxton International Festival (Photo Genevieve Girling)

But Oh, the plot.

Buxton International Festival 2022 - Rossini's La donna del lago, Hasse's Antonio e Cleopatra

This year's Buxton International Festival runs from 7 to 24 July 2022, and artistic director Adrian Kelly's programme features five operas and a musical including three new productions, along with a wide array of concerts and other events. 

The festival's new productions are Rossini's La donna del lago and Hasse's Antonio e Cleopatra, and the musical Gypsy, and there is also the premiere of a new oratorio.

Rossini's La donna del lago, based on Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake, is directed by Jacopo Spirei and conducted by Adrian Kelly with Máire Flavin as Elena, Nico Darmanin as Uberto, John Irvin as Rodrigo and Catherine Carby as Malcolm. Evangeline Cullingworth directs Hasse's Antonio e Cleopatra the Pavilion Arts Centre with Buxton Baroque Ensemble, music director Satoko Doi-Luck, with Ellie Neate and Thalie Knights in the title roles. The final festival production is Jules Styne's Gypsy, directed by Paul Kerryson,

Visiting productions include Salzburg State Theatre's production of Donizetti's Viva la Diva, directed by Stephen Medcalf, with George Humphreys as Agatha and Jenny Stafford as Prima Donna, Waterperry Opera's production of Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park, directed by Rebecca Meltzer with Sian Griffiths, Milo Harries, Ellie Neate and Sarah Champion, and Tom Coult's new opera Violet which is a co-production by Music Theatre Wales and Britten Pears Arts, presented in association with the London Sinfonietta, directed by Jude Christian, conducted by Andrew Gourlay with Anna Dennis, Richard Burkhard, Frances Gregory and Andrew Mackenzie Wicks.

Kate Whitley's oratorio, Our Future In Your Hands, is a festival commission; setting a libretto by Laura Attridge, the work examines concerns about climate change, with a community cast featuring choirs drawn from local schools, and orchestral musicians from the Royal Northern College of Music, led by mentors from the Northern Chamber Orchestra.

The Brodsky Quartet and the Manchester Camerata both celebrate their 50th anniversaries this year and the two ensembles will be giving a celebratory concerts including a joint one with saxophonist Jess Gillam. Other performers include the English Concert with soprano Anna Dennis and Joanna MacGregor, Chetham’s School of Music, this year’s Royal Overseas League competition winner, violinist Eleanor Corr, Gould Piano Trio, the Solem Quartet, the Chroma Harp Duo, the Delphine Trio and the Solus Trumpet Ensemble. Iestyn Davies and Christopher Maltman both give song recitals and Fretwork makes its festival debut, 

There is also a new jazz programme, books, walks, talks and other events. Full details from the festival website,

Something for everyone: I chat to Michael Williams', Buxton Festival's CEO, about ideas and plans for the festival

Michael Williams (Photo Anton De Beer)

The Buxton Festival has cause for celebration this year, it is 40 years since Anthony Hose and Malcolm Fraser put on the first complete performance of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (in the original keys) at the newly restored Buxton Opera House. Since then the festival has developed enormously, expanding in scope to include a significant musical programme as well as a whole literary side. This year a new team is in charge, Michael Williams, the festival's CEO, took over in 2018, and conductor Adrian Kelly is the new artistic director. I recently met up with Michael to talk about the 2019 festival and learn more of the new team's plans, but also to find out how a South African director and artistic administrator (Michael ran Cape Town Opera for 20 years) has ended up in Buxton.

One of the things that Michael enjoys about the festival is its Friends, there are over 2000 of them and they are highly engaged as well as being critical of the festival. Michael loves the way that the Friends connect with the festival with a sense of passion, something that he finds quite rare.  But whilst he values the Friends and is keen for the festival to serve them, he also wants the festival to respond to the wider area around Buxton and to work with communities and draw them in. He points out that everyone loves stories and loves song, and opera is just telling a story in song.

So Michael wants to make the festival a bit more open. One of the reasons for doing Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin this year is that it is an opera about young love, something with which everyone can connect. But the festival has developed a reputation for exploring rarities, and this year is no exception. They are collaborating with La Serenissima to stage Caldara's Lucia Papiro Dittatore, an opera which has not been performed for 300 years (Caldara worked for the Imperial court in Vienna, which is where the opera was premiered).

Buxton Opera House (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Movements around Buxton

Northern Chamber Orchestra at the Stoller Hall, Manchester

Now that he has stepped down as Buxton International Festival's artistic director, conductor Stephen Barlow has become patron of Northern Chamber Orchestra. The orchestra, which is the oldest professional chamber ensemble in the North West, has been in residence at the Buxton Festival since 2011. 

The announcement comes as the orchestra begins its 51st season, with concerts in Manchester, Macclesfield and London. Last year Barlow and the orchestra released an imaginative disc, Mind Music, with music by Richard Strauss, John Adams, and Kevin Malone supporting Parkinsons UK [see my review].

For those with long memories, one of Barlow's predecessors at Buxton, Aidan Lang (who ran the festival from 2000 to 2006) is returning from foreign climes (with stints at New Zealand Opera and Seattle Opera) to become the new General Director of Welsh National Opera in succession to David Poutney.

Inner demons - Mozart's Idomeneo at the Buxton Festival

Mozart Idomeneo - Paul Nilon, Heather Lowe, Madeleine Pierard - Buxton International Festival 2018
(Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Mozart Idomeneo; Paul Nilon, Rebecca Bottone, Heather Lowe, Madeleine Pierard, Ben Thapa, dir: Stephen Medcalf, cond: Nicholas Kok, Northern Chamber Orchestra; Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 8 July 2018 Star rating: 3.5
An Idomeneo riven by his own demons in this striking new production

Rebecca Bottone - (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Having explored early Mozart with last year's production of Lucio Silla, this year Buxton International Festival moved to the composer's first mature opera, Idomeneo. Opening at Buxton Opera House on Sunday 8 Juy 2018, the production was directed by Stephen Medcalf with designs by Isabella Bywater, and featured Paul Nilon as Idomeneo, Rebecca Bottone as Ilia, Heather Lowe as Idamante, Madeleine Pierard as Elettra and Ben Thapa as Arbace. Nicholas Kok conducted the Northern Chamber Orchestra.

Mozart's opera was premiered in Munich in 1781, though there were only three performances, and the only other performance in his lifetime was a concert performance given in Vienna in 1786 with an amateur cast. The work has a complex textual history, the composition process was somewhat fraught and Mozart had to make significant cuts before the premiere owing to the work's length. He never made planned revisions to the work (tenor Idamante, bass Idomeneo), though he did make some changes for the 1786 performance which had a tenor Idomeneo. For these performances Buxton used the 1781 version, but trimmed to bring the running time to three hours (a single interval in the middle of Act Two after 'Fuor del mar'), and Arbace lost all of his arias.

Madeleine Pierard - (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Isabella Bywater's striking set seems to have been partly inspired by Romain Veillon's photographs of the ghost town, Kolmanskop, in the Namibian desert which has been taken over by sand. So we had an austere classical structure with views of the sea, yet half taken over by sand. This formed the permanent set, and gave a series of striking locations for the action.

A key to understanding Stephen Medcalf's approach to the opera [see my interview with him] was perhaps that the men's costumes were all military of the World War One era. He suggests that Idomeneo's struggles are due to PTSD, and that the monster is within. Thus the work becomes about Idomeneo's struggle with the guilt he feels arising from the war, rather than an external struggle. This has the advantage that it does not require the depiction of a monster (something with which most directors and designers fail), but does place a lot of focus on Idomeneo.

Paul Nilon was superb at suggesting, from the first moment, a man wracked by guilt and each of his arias had a strong, inner intensity. This was a man struggling with demons from the first moment. That said, I am not sure the scene with the monster (depicted with Idomeneo ravening) quite worked and it left the dramaturgy of the last Act (with Idamante going off to fight the monster) a bit skew. But when Nilon was on stage he held us with the sheer power of his performance, and 'Fuor del mar' was rightly the centre-piece with a bravura yet vivid account of the aria.

Rip-roaring rarity: Verdi's Alzira in a rare outing at the Buxton International Festival

Verdi Alzira  - Luke Sinclair, Jung Soo Yun - Buxton International Festival 2018 (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Verdi Alzira; Kate Ladner, Jung Soo Yun, James Cleverton, Graeme Danby, dir: Elijah Moshinsky, cond: Stephen Barlow, Northern Chamber Orchestra; Buxton International Festival at Buxton Opera House
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 7 July 2018 Star rating: 4.0
Verdi's Alzira reveals itself as full of vigour, with some striking music and fine singing

Kate Ladner - (Photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Alzira is the third of the early Verdi operas to be performed at the Buxton International Festival directed by Elijah Moshinsky and conducted by Stephen Barlow [see my interview with Stephen], following on from Giovanna d'Arco (2015) and the original version of Macbeth (2017). Alzira is seriously rare, one of the most neglected operas in the Verdi canon and the Buxton production, which debuted on Saturday 7 July 2018 at the Buxton Opera House, was the UK's first full staging of the work.

Kate Ladner sang the title role, with Jung Soo Yun as Zamoro, James Cleverton as Gusmano, and Graeme Danby as Alvaro. Designs were by Russell Craig, lighting by Mark Jonathan, sound design by Mic Pool, video by Stanley Orwin Fraser, and movement by Terry John Bates. Stephen Barlow conducted the Northern Chamber Orchestra.

Written for Naples in 1845, Alzira was based on a play by Voltaire set in Spanish colonial Latin America, with Voltaire using the setting to examine philosophical questions regarding the colonisers behaving like savages yet calling the indigenous peoples savages. Librettist Salvatore Cammarano stripped out all the philosophy and left a piece which is highly compact (the Buxton production lasted two hours including the interval). We have little time for development, the characters are introduced and the plot hurtles towards its conclusion with remarkable vitality and dynamism.

The plot is a relatively straight-forward love triangle: Gusmano (James Cleverton) is Spanish governor of Peru, taking over from his father, Alvaro (Graeme Danby). Gusmano is hated by the Incas Peruvians, but he declares an amnesty and plans to seal it with marriage to Alzira (Kate Ladner), daughter of an Inca tribe leader, Atalba (Phl Wilcox). But Alzira is in love with an Inca, Zamoro (Jung Soo Yun), who died in an uprising. Complications arise, Alvaro is taken prisoner by the Incas yet freed on the orders of Zamoro (who is in fact not dead) to show the Spanish that the Incas are not savages. Zamoro's return to Alvira gives them a moment of joy, then sends Gusmano over the edge with jealousy and Act One ends with Zamoro's Inca troops fighting with the Spanish. In Act Two Gusmano forces Alzira to marry him by making it a condition for sparing Zamoro's life. In true tenor fashion, Zamoro leaps to the wrong conclusion and there is a violent denoument when he kills Gusmano at the wedding. On his deathbed, Gusmano has a remarkable conversion and wishes everyone to live in peace.

Tchaikovsky, Spontini, Georgiana and a new artistic director - Buxton announces plans for 2019

Adrian Kelly

Earlier this year it was announced that the conductor Stephen Barlow was stepping down as artistic director of the Buxton Festival after this year's festival. The festival has wasted no time in appointing his successor, and conductor Adrian Kelly will take up the role of artistic director after the 2018 festival and will be responsible for the programming for the 2019 festival which will celebrate the  40th anniversary of the founding of the Buxton Festival. Already announced are the three main operas for next year, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Spontini's La vestale and a new pasticcio celebrating the life & times of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.

Adrian Kelly is something of an unknown quantity in the UK, despite his training as a choral scholar at King's College, Cambridge and the RNCM, and his participation in the Young Artists Programme at Covent Garden. He has worked at the Salzburg State Theatre since 2010 and has been music director there since 2017, and next season will be conducting Massenet's Manon and the three Mozart/Da Ponte operas in Salzburg. His work in Salzburg has included the Austrian premiere of Charles Wuorinen's opera Brokeback Mountain (based on the Annie Proulx novella which gave rise to the film).

Kelly's choice of festival operas for 2019 are an interesting mix. Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin has not been done at the festival since 1998, and the opera is an ideal size for the Buxton Opera House. Spontini's La vestale is more admired than performed, and has rarely been done in the UK. English National Opera's production in the 1990s with Jane Eaglen failed to ignite, and I look forward to hearing the work in the more intimate confines of the Buxton theatre. The third choice, the pasticcio, is an innovative way to celebrate the 40th anniversary by concentrating on the local area, and the success of the work will depend on the quality of the book and the appositeness of the selection of musical material. Also planned for 2019 is a New Voices Gala with young artists from the Royal Northern College of Music and from Cape Town Opera.

Further informatiion from the Buxton Festival website.

Seriously unusual: Stephen Barlow introduces Buxton Festival's production of Verdi's Alzira

Eugenia Tadolini's costume as Alzira for the 1845
premiere of Verdi's Alzira

This year the Buxton Festival is performing the third of its trilogy of early Verdi opera, directed by Elijah Moshinsky and conducted by Stephen Barlow. Whilst the previous two operas in the trilogy, Giovanna d'Arco (performed in Buxton in 2015, see my review) and the original 1847 Macbeth (performed in Buxton in 2017, see my review) are relatively rare, this year's opera Alzira is seriously unusually having been rarely performed in the UK. I recently met up with Stephen to talk about Alzira and, as it was recently announced that he is stepping down as Buxton's artistic director, we also looked back over his time in Buxton.

Stephen calls Alzira an anomaly, it was preceded by I due Foscari and Giovanna d'Arco and followed by Attila and Macbeth, yet it has been neglected. He points out that it is rather too easy to take Verdi's remarks about the opera out of context (at one point Verdi seems to have referred to it as 'ugly') and say that Verdi did not like the work. But Stephen feels that you only have to open the score to realise how unusual Alzira is.

A short opera, in its treatment of text, emotion and drama it is a very terse work, more terse than the 1847 Macbeth (which is hardly a long work). A short synopsis of the drama gives no idea of the detail filled into the libretto. In rehearsal, Stephen has been finding that they can spend so much time on three or four pages of recitative. The dynamics, text and sheer terseness give you so much to read between the lines. This means that the old sort of stand and deliver performances rather missed so much of the detail in the work.

Ben Johnson, Kate Ladner and Chorus in Buxton Festival's Giovanna d'Arco 2015. (Photo Jonathan Keenan)

Verdi wrote the work quickly but Stephen finds his choices of tempo and dynamics very clear and very interesting, especially if you actually observe them in performance (something that they did with the performances of Macbeth in Buxton last year). The work is hard because it is compact, but Stephen feels that anyone who lover Verdi and loves bel canto will get it.