Buxton Opera Festival

Every summer the Derbyshire spa town of Buxton, surrounded by the glorious hills of the Peak District, presents a feast of opera, literature and music. Literary talks, concerts and guest performances fill the mornings and surround a core of operas by major composers staged in the afternoons and evenings. The combination of established and promising up-and-coming performers makes for one of the UK’s most stimulating arts festivals, and over the years it has become both nationally and internationally acclaimed.

Taking in the best of the festival’s performances, our 2021 tour offers four productions, including Stephen Sondheim’s musical A Little Night Music, sure to enchant us with its deft interplay of witty observation and poignancy – including the classic song ‘Send in the Clowns’.

We begin with Handel’s contrasting yet equally beloved Acis & Galatea, a co-production between Buxton and the Early Opera Company, whose recording of the work won the Opera category of the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2019.

Rossini’s La donna del lago – The Lady of the Lake – presents something very different again. King James V falls in love with Elena, the beautiful daughter of his enemy, in a narrative based on a poem by Sir Walter Scott. Rossini’s expansive score reflects the opera’s Scottish Highlands setting in this rarely performed yet engrossing work.

Another delight awaits us with Gaetano Donizetti’s Viva La Diva, a Salzburg State Theatre production in association with the Buxton International Festival. Composer and translator Kit Hesketh-Harvey’s new English version of this farcical comic opera about putting on an opera is also known by the names Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (Conventions and Inconveniences of the Stage) and Viva la mamma. It will be directed by Premio Abbiati award-winner Stephen Medcalf and conducted by Iwan Davies, the festival’s Head of Music.

Making the most of our time in Buxton, we look forward to a special visit to the Grade I listed Buxton Crescent, one of the town’s most iconic buildings. Built in the 1780s, it was amongst the first purpose built hotels in the country, and established Buxton as a fashionable Georgian spa destination.

Having fallen into decline in the 20th century, a major £50m renovation development project, partially funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage, recently transformed the Crescent and returned it to its former glory. We hope to enjoy a visit to the restored Pump Room and Assembly Rooms, discovering the history of this fascinating building.

We will also make an excursion to the magnificent Lyme Park. Surrounded by beautiful gardens and a deer park, this former hunting lodge now houses wonderful collections including a new exhibition dedicated to the famous Lyme Missal, the only existing, largely-intact copy of William Caxton’s original 1487 Paris printing and one of the most important books in the National Trust’s collection.

We stay throughout at the Best Western Plus Lee Wood Hotel, a Georgian hotel set in its own mature gardens only a few moments’ walk from the opera house.

This tour will be led by John Bryden, MA, ARCM, ARCO, an international concert pianist and organist who has given concerts in venues ranging from California to Kathmandu via Wigmore Hall. A member of the Dartington Piano Duo, John coached at the Dartington International Summer School for many years, as well as playing widely as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician.