On the Festival

Buxton Festival has a touch of the magic about it
The Independent

Buxton: Britain’s most enchanting and hospitable festival town
The Sunday Times

Blessed with Frank Matcham’s Opera House, the Festival works a magic as it goes about its main business of staging unusual opera
The Sunday Times

Buxton Festival last week fully endorsed the opinion of those of us who have long thought that it is the most enjoyable and inviting of such occasions
Sunday Telegraph

A first visit to Buxton revealed a festival full of gentle magic
The Sunday Times

Another winner for one of Britain’s leading Festivals
Liverpool Daily Post

The Festival offers a feast of entertainment for all musical and cultural tastes
Peak District Life 

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The Merry Wives of Windsor

Prime attraction was the Festival director Aidan Lang’s captivatingly inventive production of Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor
Sunday Telegraph

Andrew Greenwood conducted the Northern Chamber Orchestra splendidly
Sunday Telegraph

Yvonne Howard and Helen Williams play a sparky double act
Daily Telegraph

James Rutherford’s Falstaff and Helen Williams’ Mistress Ford led a bubbling cast. Andrew Greenwood conducted sparklingly
The Sunday Times

Aidan Lang’s staging of Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor revealed the sheer capacity of the Festival to get things right
The Sunday Times

The cast is a classy one...with real strength in depth. A real revelation
The Guardian

Aidan Lang created an enchanting production, stylishly conducted by Andrew Greenwood
The Independent

The colourful performances were sharp, droll and uniformly well sung
The Independent

Aidan Lang’s new production is totally in accord with the original opera...
vocally everything is ideal
Yorkshire Post

Buxton assembled a cast without a weak link
Sunday Telegraph

Buxton Festival does full justice to Nicolai’s strangely neglected masterpiece
Sheffield Telegraph

James Rutherford’s vocal authority is sheer quality
Sheffield Telegraph

Helen Wiliams sings superbly... and the excellent Yvonne Howard enjoys herself enormously as Mistress Page
Sheffield Telegraph

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Ascanio in Alba

Gillian Keith sang with a kind of angelic accuracy of note and sentiment... William Purefoy’s Ascanio was admirable too
The Times
 

Gillian Keith, and Tom Randle are extremely fine singers, the Canadian soprano with her pitch-perfect voice and the American tenor with his burnished-toned, heroic voice
Sheffield Telegraph

Buxton Festival’s staging has a major asset, Harry Christophers
Sheffield Telegraph

Gillian Keith’s vocal brilliance shines out as does the aria of considerable agility from Elizabeth Cragg
Yorkshire Post

Gillian Keith a delightful Silvia, Elizabeth Cragg making light of a fearsome coloratura soprano aria, and the counter-tenor William Purefoy most appealing as Ascanio
The Sunday Times

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