The Opera House - 1903
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Sarah Brightman
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Early days
Designed
by distinguished Edwardian theatre architect, Frank Matcham,
the Buxton Opera House opened in 1903 but by 1932 was used
largely as a cinema.
In
1936 the idea of a Festival caught on in Buxton and until
1942 – despite the war – the Opera House hosted an annual
summer theatre festival with the Old Vic Theatre Company.
It then resumed its role as a cinema and over the years fell
into disrepair. Despite its dilapidated state, however, (and
the fact that Jaws was playing at the time), Malcolm Fraser,
then lecturer in opera studies at the Royal Northern College
of Music, was enchanted by the Opera House when he first saw
it in 1976. He immediately saw its potential as venue for an
opera festival and it was to that end that he channelled
much of his time and energy over the next three years.
The first Festival
On 30 July 1979, Princess Alice reopened the restored Buxton
Opera House on the first night of the first Buxton Festival.
The Buxton Opera House had been subject to a painstaking
two-year restoration programme by High Peak Borough Council;
its raison d’être a summer opera festival run by Buxton Arts
Festival Ltd. Malcolm Fraser’s dream had become a reality.
What followed is a catalogue of exciting innovation and
rediscovery. From the first highly acclaimed year, the
Festival’s hallmark has been its own new productions of
rarely performed operatic masterpieces centred on a theme or
themes to hold the events together and give them a common
thread. From Sir Walter Scott to Shakespeare, the Greek
Revival to Voltaire, the Festival has used its artistic
policy to great effect.
View a
list of all the Operas staged since the first Festival in
1979
Unusual opera
Lauded past productions range from works such as Cherubini’s
Médée (1984 – the first UK performance with the original
French dialogue) and the British stage première of Kodály’s
Háry János (1982) and Donizetti’s Torquato Tasso (1988) to
almost unknown works such as Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio
Segreto (1981 & 1993), Vivaldi’s Griselda (1983) which had
not been staged anywhere since Venice in 1735. It was the
first Vivaldi opera to be presented in Britain. Handel’s
Ariodante (1986), Agrippina (1992), Suppé’s The Beautiful
Galatea (1999), Verdi’s Un giorno di regno (2001) and
Donizetti’s Maria Padilla (2003) show the variety offered.
First productions
Buxton Festival gave the first complete performance of
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in Britain; the first performance of Conti’s
Don Chischiotte
since the 18th century; the first complete performance of
Grétry’s Le Huron and the first British performance of Cimarosa’s
Il Pittor Parigino.
Children welcome!
The Festival staged the world premières of children’s
operas: Nightingale by Charles Strouse; James and the Giant
Peach by Herbert Chappell; Robin Hood by Norman Kay and
The
Ring for Children, Wagner’s 17 hours slimmed down to an hour
and a half. Great rediscoveries have included Ambroise
Thomas’ Hamlet, Cavalli’s Jason, Gounod’s La Colombe and
L’occasione fa il ladro by Rossini.
New talent
Buxton has provided a stage for such great new voices as
those of the Finnish baritone, Kari Nurmela, the Swedish
soprano, Marianne Häggander, the French soprano, Christine Barbaux and
Carlo Rizzi, the distinguished Italian
conductor.
Stars of previous Festival productions include Sir Thomas Allen,
Donald Maxwell, Rosalind Plowright, Jean Rigby,
Philip Langridge, Ann Murray and Alan Opie. Other famous names are
Victoria Wood, Willard White, Nigel Kennedy,
Cleo Laine,
Sarah Walker, John Ogdon, Alan Bates,
Prunella Scales, Dame
Janet Baker, Victoria de los Angeles, Sarah Brightman and
Ned Sherrin.
A new dimension
Introduced to the Festival in 2000, the literary series has
become a major part of the Festival. Speakers in recent
years include:
Roy Hattersley, Venessa Redgrave, Sir Jeremy Isaacs, Robert
Lacey, Beryl Bainbridge, Melvyn Bragg, Sir John Mortimer, Fay Weldon, Michael
Heseltine, Richard Wilson, Sue Townsend, Doris Lessing,
Rosamunde Pilcher, Shirley Williams, The Duchess of
Devonshire, P D James, Gore Vidal, Michael Palin, Stella
Rimington, Roy Jenkins, Douglas Hurd, Antonia Fraser,
Matthew Parris, Tom Stoppard, Ben Okri, Michael Frayn,
Claire Tomalin, Kate Aide, Sue MacGregor, David Sheppard,
Fiona MacCarthy, Raj Persaud, Sandi Toksvig, Germaine Greer,
Libby Purves, Alain de Botton, George Baker, Sir Roy Strong,
John Sergeant, Robin Cook, James Naughtie, Sir Simon
Jenkins, Joan Bakewell, Lord Deedes, Norman Lebrecht, Barry
Cryer, Blake Morrison and Patrick Stewart.
Finance
The Buxton Festival receives only 10% of its budget from
public funding and relies almost entirely upon ticket sales,
sponsorship, donations and individual support.
All in all, the Buxton Festival’s got a lot to shout about.
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