Luisa Miller by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

A melodrama tragico in three acts

Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano, sung in Italian with English side-titles, visible from all seats

A Buxton Festival production, with the Northern Chamber Orchestra and Festival Chorus

Verdi's troubled love story about the corruption of an innocent girl's love for the son of the local count through the machinations of a sinister rival is plagued by class conflicts and bitter family squabbles. The relationship between the pure young, petit bourgeois heroine and the dashing, aristocratic hero is far from conventional: it is characterised by torment and unhappiness and is ultimately destroyed by the selfish, suffocating love of their fathers.

Verdi brings his extraordinary insight into the nature of the relationship between parents and their children and specifically between a father and a daughter. Where Miller and Luisa lead, Rigolettto and Gilda, Boccanegra and Amelia, Amonasro and Aida follow.

This masterpiece of Verdi's early period has one of the composer's most lyrical and underestimated scores, here presented by the award winning team that produced Lucrezia Borgia, an outstanding international cast and enlarged Festival chorus.

Conductor - Andrew Greenwood
Director - Stephen Medcalf
Designer - Francis O'Connor
Lighting Designer - John Bishop

Count Walter - Balint Szabo
Rodolfo, his son - John Bellemer
Federika, Duchess of Ostheim, Walter's neice - Miroslava Yordanova
Wurm, Walter's steward - Andrew Slater
Miller, a retired old soldier - David Kempster
Luisa, his daughter - Susannah Glanville


Generously supported by:

Performance sponsor:

No. 6 The Square Tea Rooms


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The Barber of Baghdad by Peter Cornelius (1824-74)

A comic opera in two acts

Libretto by the composer, adapted from stories in The Arabian Nights, sung in a new English translation by Hugh Macdonald

Cornelius’ Barber is the most delicious of comic operas: melodious, inventive, sharply characterised and wittily timed.  The composer’s touchingly poetic libretto is set to music of extraordinary freshness and vitality with a sense of comic felicity that few operas achieve.  The Barber is a really original work: the melodies are sweet, the comedy is sophisticated and the musical nuances subtle in ways associated only with later and more honoured composers.

Baghdad was for a time the largest city in the Middle East, western Asia and Europe, with near-legendary status, and the setting for the collection of classic stories, The Arabian Nights.  Our hero Nureddin is very much in love with Margiana, the daughter of the Caliph Mustapha.  The ‘fixer’ Bostana and the mischievous Barber help him in his search for love and the plot’s various twists and turns ensure a delightfully sparkling German comedy.

Jonathan Lemalu makes his first Buxton stage appearance in a fine cast directed by the rising star Alessandro Talevi.

Conductor - Stephen Barlow
Director - Alessandro Talevi
Designer - Madeleine Boyd
Lighting Designer - John Bishop

Caliph - Adrian Clark
Baba Mustapha, a Cadi - Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks
Margiana, his daughter - Rebecca Ryan
Bostana, a relative of the Cadi - Frances McCafferty
Nureddin - Michael Bracegirdle
Abdul Hassan, a barber - Jonathan Lemalu


Generously sponsored by:

Performance sponsors:

Guy Salmon Land Rover Stockport
Karen Drinkwater representing St James’s Place Wealth Management

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Idomeneo by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)
arr. Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

An opera seria in three acts

Revised German text by Lothar Wallenstein, in a new English translation by Niall Hoskin

Concert performances produced by Buxton Festival, with the Northern Chamber Orchestra, Festival Chorus and Buxton Madrigal Singers

Idomeneo, King of Crete, makes a promise to Neptune, God of the Sea. When the king realises the terrible price it will incur, vows and hearts are broken. For many years overshadowed by Mozart’s glorious comedies, Idomeneo is now recognised as one of the greatest of all opera seria.

Aiming to bring Mozart’s masterpiece to a new audience in the 1930s, Strauss cuts the score, reorders the numbers, composes new recitatives and adds original pieces of his own. For much of the time, his revisions keep close to Mozart, but at odd moments Straussian harmonies and startling modulations emerge, giving hints of the final trio of Der Rosenkavalier, one of Strauss's many acts of homage to his lifelong idol.

These concert performances with an all-star cast offer a very rare opportunity to hear this skilful adaptation.

Conductor - Andrew Greenwood

Idomeneo - Paul Nilon
Idamante, his son - Victoria Simmonds
Ilia, Trojan princess, daughter of Agamemnon - Rebecca Ryan
Ismene - Mary Plazas
Oberpriester - Jonathan Lemalu
Arbaces - Philip Gault

Performance sponsor:

The Anglo-Austrian Society

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Zaide by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

A singspiel in two acts

Libretto by Johann Schachtner, after Sebastiani’s Das Serail, sung in English

A Classical Opera Company production with the Orchestra of the Classical Opera Company

When love is just possession,
And lust becomes obsession,
The fruit dies on its vine,
And no-one drinks the wine

from Michael Symmons Roberts’ libretto for Zaide

The Classical Opera Company makes a welcome return to the Festival to present the world première of its new completion of Zaide.  Mozart wrote some 70 minutes of music for this remarkable opera, including the celebrated ‘Ruhe sanft’, and clearly held it in high regard.  He feared, however, that the work was too serious for Viennese taste, and the unfinished score was left to gather dust.  This new completion has been created by conductor Ian Page, with a new English text by Michael Symmons Roberts and Ben Power.

The opera is directed by Melly Still, whose previous work includes the award-winning Coram Boy at the National Theatre and Rusalka at Glyndebourne Festival.  The title role is sung by the exciting young South African soprano Pumeza Matshikiza, with rising tenor Andrew Goodwin as Gomatz.

Conductor - Ian Page
Director - Melly Still
Designer - Anna Fleischle
Lighting designer - Natasha Chivers

Zaide - Pumeza Matshikiza
Gomatz - Andrew Goodwin
Allazim - William Berger
Osmin - Simon Lobelson
Perseda - Amy Freston
Soliman - Mark Le Brocq

These young singers and a period-instrument orchestra – packed with many of the wisest practitioners in the business – deliver uniformly superb interpretations
Gramophone


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Alcina by George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759)

An opera in three acts

Libretto based on Fanzaglia’s L’isola d’Alcina, sung in English

A production by Opera Theatre Company, Dublin with the OTC period orchestra

Set in a timeless world full of passion, plots and potent illusion – where reality blurs with fantasy – the enigmatic Alcina reigns.  Intrigue surrounds this alluring but ruthless sorceress, who spends her time seducing lovers, then, once bored, swiftly discarding them.  However, when the handsome Ruggiero is bewitched by Alcina’s charms, his fiancée Bradamante enlists the help of her friend Melisso and – disguised as a man – sets out to rescue her beloved.

Deceit, sensuality and seduction pervade Handel’s glorious music, with exquisite arias lamenting love unrequited and faith betrayed.  The acclaimed Annilese Miskimmon and Opera Theatre Company return to Buxton with a strong cast and imaginative, classical production.


Conductor - Nicholas Kok
Director - Annilese Miskimmon
Designer - Nicky Shaw
Lighting designer - Tina MacHugh

Alcina - Sinead Campbell-Wallace     
Ruggiero - Stephen Wallace
Morgana - Emma Morwood
Bradamante - Doreen Curran
Oronte - Mark Milhofer
Melisso - Julian Hubbard

The superb singing and playing, and the imaginative set, kept me entranced ... quite magnificent
Irish Examiner

Spine-tingling             
Irish Theatre Magazine


Supported by:

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Trouble in Tahiti by Leonard Bernstein (1918 - 1990)

An opera in seven scenes

Libretto by the composer, sung in English

A production by Psaphha

Bernstein’s first foray into music theatre, his one-act operatic masterpiece bites deep into the Big Apple.  Its bittersweet exploration of the shattered American dream and a day in the life of a young married couple draws on jazz, musical and operatic idioms, as well as pop-ish jingles of the 1950s.


Arias and Barcarolles

'I like music with a theme, not all them arias and barcarolles’, declared President Eisenhower to Bernstein.  Nearly 30 years later the composer responded wittily with Arias and Barcarolles, another semi-autobiographical entertainment, exploring the joys and frustrations, hopes and realities of family relationships.  Bright Sheng’s inventive scoring for strings, percussion and voices loses none of Bernstein’s piquant use of a variety of musical styles. 

Conductor - Nicholas Kok
Director - Elaine Tyler-Hall
Designer - Aaron Marsden
Lighting designer - Marc Rosette

Dinah - Catherine Hopper  
Sam - Dean Robinson

with Jane Harrington, Ashley Catling and Quentin Hayes

Watch Psappha's film here!

I don't think I have ever seen a better performance of Trouble in Tahiti.  The protagonists were alive to every nuance in the writing and the orchestra was plain terrific.
Humphrey Burton (Bernstein's Biographer) on Psappha's production of Trouble in Tahiti

Psappha’s production of The Lighthouse stands out among the many I’ve seen. The players sounded radiant, and projected their tricky lines with striking precision      
The Sunday Times

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All the King’s Men by Richard Rodney Bennett (b.1936)

An opera for young people

Libretto by Beverley Cross, sung in English

A Buxton Festival production with the Dark Peak Youth Orchestra

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett’s All The King’s Men is a moving and hugely enjoyable children’s opera, inspired by the popular ‘Humpty-Dumpty’ rhyme about a weapon created during the English Civil War.  Royalist soldiers attempt to seize control of Gloucester by building a siege-engine to cross the River Severn, but the river is widened – with devastating consequences.

Michael Barry directs a Festival cast and Derbyshire children in this classic of its kind.

Conductor - Ewa Strusinska
Director - Michael Barry
Designer - Nigel Hook

A Buxton Festival community production generously supported by donors to the Education Fund and:

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Floratorio by James Redwood and High Peak primary school children

Music by James Redwood
Words by Peter Roberts

with sinfonia ViVA

Floratorio celebrates the life of Florence Nightingale in the 100th anniversary year of her death.  Nationally acclaimed composer James Redwood leads a team of sinfonia ViVA musicians in four local schools [Whaley Bridge Primary, Thornsett Primary, Hague Bar Primary and Burbage Primary schools] to create a series of new songs inspired by the life of the famous ‘Lady with the Lamp’.  120 young people will perform this major new oratorio incorporating their own compositions.

Peter Roberts and James Redwood have been commissioned to write Floratorio following great success with More Glass than Wall.  Their work will be performed here for the first time by the massed choir, vocal soloists and sinfonia ViVA in the culmination performance.

Floratorio has been generously supported by Buxton Festival, sinfonia ViVA and Arts Council England.

Conductor - David Lawrence

It was amazing – my whole body just felt like I was going to fly
When I heard the orchestra playing the song we wrote I felt simply amazed 
More Glass than Wall participants          


A Buxton Festival community production generously supported by donors to the Education Fund and:

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Andrew Greenwood, the Festival’s Artistic Director, illuminates the forthcoming performance either solo or in conversation with friends.  We hope you enjoy these informative introductions to the opera!

7 July               Opera House stalls
Stephen Medcalf, director of Luisa Miller

8 July               Palace Hotel   
Alessandro Talevi, director of The Barber of Baghdad

9 July               Devonshire Dome
Ian Page, conductor of Zaide

10 July             Palace Hotel
Susan Rutherford, an authority on Verdi

 11 July             Palace Hotel
Stephen Barlow, conductor of The Barber of Baghdad

12 July             Palace Hotel
Annilese Miskimmon, director of Alcina           

13 July             Palace Hotel               
Michael Kennedy, an authority on Strauss

14 July             Palace Hotel                           
Andrew Greenwood, conductor of Luisa Miller

15 July             Devonshire Dome                  
Stephen Barlow, conductor of The Barber of Baghdad

16 July             Devonshire Dome                  
Annilese Miskimmon, director of Alcina

17 July             Devonshire Dome                  
Julian Rushton, an authority on Mozart

18 July             Devonshire Dome                  
Andrew Greenwood, conductor of Luisa Miller

19 July             Devonshire Dome                  
Alessandro Talevi, director of The Barber of Baghdad

20 July             Devonshire Dome                  
Ian Page, conductor of Zaide

21 July             Devonshire Dome                  
Annilese Miskimmon, director of Alcina

22 July             Devonshire Dome      
Andrew Greenwood, conductor of Luisa Miller

23 July             Devonshire Dome                  
Andrew Greenwood, conductor of Idomeneo

24 July             Devonshire Dome      
Stephen Barlow, conductor of The Barber of Baghdad


Generously supported by:

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Here Andrew Greenwood responds to some questions about the new season:

Last summer's productions Lucrezia and Véronique worked particularly well together. How do you choose the Festival operas and are they deliberately complementary?

I try to choose two very different operas, both in style, content, period and mood. So, last year we had a bel-canto Italian rough-hewn blood-and-thunder drama, contrasted with a light, charming, sophisticated French operetta. This year an earlyish Verdi 'melodramma tragico' is contrasted with a rare example of a German comedy from the second half of the nineteenth century.

The operas must be a good 'fit' for the Buxton Opera House, not too extravagant in their demands on resources (avoiding huge casts, orchestra, and especially chorus), 'neglected' to a greater or lesser extent at least in this country, and above all, stageworthy - i.e. they give the audience a good evening in the theatre.

There are areas of the repertoire that for a variety of reasons are neglected by other companies, yet work very well in Buxton - hence our exploration of Handel, Italian bel-canto (particularly Donizetti), nineteenth century German comedies and French operetta in recent years. I hope we can do more concert performances of pieces that have a narrower curiosity value, or whose merits are more musical than dramatic, like Camacho last year. Taken overall with the visiting operas, we try and construct a programme with as much variety as possible, with operas written in the eighteenth century and earlier right up to the present day.


Who will be directing?

Stephen Medcalf will direct Luisa Miller and Alessandro Talevi The Barber of Baghdad. Stephen needs no introduction - he has directed two immensely successful recent productions at Buxton, Roberto Devereux and Lucrezia Borgia.

Alessandro is a very musical (he trained as an accompanist at the Royal Academy) and inventive young director whose company Independent Opera was recently short-listed for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for his production of Pelleas and Melisande. His new production of La Cenerentola has just opened in Malmö, Sweden, to great enthusiasm, and he directs The Turn of the Screw at Opera North in autumn 2010.

What is on your iPod at the moment?

I don't have one. Silly fiddly things, what happens when you lose it or drop it? Well, I suppose they are quite useful when away from home or on holiday (all the rest of the family have one each). I do have an iPhone with a few things on, and being able to download audio files on to my laptop is very useful.

But you can't beat CDs for ease of access and permanence, not to mention the libretti, translations and sleeve-notes that accompany them. (I have a rather worrying Amazon habit...) And yes, sadly, I've kept my large collection of vinyl LPs though moves are afoot to archive them in boxes to free up much-needed shelf space in my study...

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© Buxton Festival

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR