TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL
There was a big success also for the community
opera Tobias and the Angel, by Jonathan Dove. Directed by Michael Barry,
this had a cast of hundreds of local schoolchildren and elders, supporting
the professional cast and orchestra. Barry was lucky to find a
counter-tenor, Philip Jones, who looked and sounded like an angel, and he
was joined as Tobias by Richard Jeffrey. Nicholas Smith directed an ensemble
which included fascinating tuned percussion, and kept the vast forces under
control.
Liverpool Daily Post
The contemporary work, Tobias and the Angel, performed in St John’s Church,
is another original Festival production – and a Buxton tradition, featuring
100 children from local schools alongside the professionals. Conductor
Nicholas Smith and director Michael Barry make it compelling. Two promising
young singers, Heather Longman and Richard Jeffery, impress in the leading
roles.
Manchester Evening News
The solo roles in Buxton’s production were uniformly strong. The children’s
chorus, from four local schools, made the most of their opportunities,
representing the birds and the river (which included manipulating a large,
vividly coloured, carnival-style fish). Michael Barry’s direction used the
minimal set and props to excellent effect. Nicholas Smith conducted with a
fine command of pace and ear for detail.
Music and Vision website
Roberto Devereux
...this magnificent
razor-sharp Roberto Devereux - sung in Italian - lacks nothing in intensity
The Independent
Conductor Andrew Greenwood,
Buxton's new artistic director, drives things with flair and passion from
the pit, and the outstanding Plazas is supported by a strong cast including
American tenor Todd Wilander, who negotiates Essex's painfully high-flying
role with plangent lyricism
The Guardian
...a courageous and gripping
show, wisely sung in the original bel canto Italian
The Times
It's the power of the
confrontations at which Donizetti excels - and so does Medcalf, supported by
a strong cast and robust musical direction by the festival's new artistic
director, Andrew Greenwood
The Times
...it makes for riveting music
drama, especially when it is sung with such fervour as here, by a cast that
any of our national opera companies would be proud to field
The Sunday Times
...this ranks as an
outstanding success for Buxton
Daily Telegraph
The cast is outstanding: the
diminutive but marvellous Mary Plazas (Elizabeth), Susan Bickley (Sara),
Jonathan Best (Nottingham) and Todd Wilander in the title role.
Greenwood conducted the Northern Chamber Orchestra with a sure touch
Manchester Evening News
A real winner, one of the most
riveting and polished productions Buxton has seen
Manchester Evening News
Buxton Festival's staging of
Donizetti's fine but neglected opera is totally triumphant
Sheffield Telegraph
This is Andrew Geenwood's
first production since taking over as artistic director of the two-week
festival. It's great to be able to report that his first production
deserves to be a hit
BBC Radio Stoke
If you love opera as it should
be seen and heard, I respectfully suggest you hasten to Buxton and take the
opportunity of hearing Donizetti's excellent dramatic creation well sung,
superbly staged and conducted
Music Web International
website
Bluebeard
Annilese Miskimmon stages
Offenbach's Bluebeard with immaculate comic timing...Not to be missed
The Times
A good Offenbach production
sounds as light as a soufflé, yet it needs a careful blend of ingredients if
it isn't to collapse. Miskimmon gets the balance just about right: the
singers can all act, conductor Wyn Davies is a felicitously idiomatic
operetta specialist, and there is a sprightly new translation by Kit Hesketh-Harvey
The Guardian
A romp with kick, this
Bluebeard bubbles with boulevardier sophistication
The Independent
Annilese Miskimmon's bright
and breezy production is on the ball, and her excellent cast and chorus gave
an object lesson in operetta style - clear diction, firm projections, sharp
timin. Wyn Davies conducts with the required effervescence, and a
happy time is had by one and all. Why can't ENO do operetta as well as
this?
Daily Telegraph
Director Annilese Miskimmon
makes the most of the riotous possibilities and Wyn Davies conducts the
fitfully delightful score vivaciously
Manchester Evening News
This is Andrew Greenwood's
first season as Director at Buxton...I am confident that from this showing
and the excellent Devereux of last night we can look forward to many more
superb seasons ahead
Music Web International
website
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