Overture: Friends Newsletter Spring 2023

DEAR FRIENDS

MESSAGE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, ADRIAN KELLY

At the beginning of March, Buxton was cut off for a day or two by heavy snowfall in the Peak District. Since then, Spring has been trying to spring, but, at least as I write this, not entirely convincingly.

Nonetheless there is a mood of great optimism and excitement in the Festival office as we look forward to July. Ticket sales are well ahead of our target and show no signs of slowing down. Nicola Benedetti’s concert in the Opera House has sold out and other events are close to capacity with a full three months to go until we open. It is immensely gratifying to see this positive response to this summer’s programme, particularly after a difficult few years for the Festival, and for the arts in general. I would like to thank all of you, the Friends of the Buxton Festival, for your continued support. It is your

support that allows us to keep striving to improve our offering each summer.

We are always trying to think of ways of bringing new audiences to Buxton. I am convinced that the most powerful resource in this endeavour is our network of Friends. So many of you came to the Festival for the first time because it was recommended by friends and acquaintances. It goes without saying that the impact of each Friend bringing one new visitor with them to the Festival would be enormous. So, if you feel the same sense of anticipation for this summer that we do, I urge you to tell any friends who haven’t yet experienced the colourful array of cultural events which the Festival lays on each year, to give Buxton a try this July. I’m sure they won’t regret it.

ADRIAN KELLY

It is immensely gratifying to see this positive response to this summer’s programme

“ ”

2023 LAUNCH AT DERBY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY

HM Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire Elizabeth Fothergill CBE hosted Friends of BIF at a special after-hours evening at Derby Museum and Art Gallery on Thursday 30 April 2023. The evening included drinks and canapés along with a tour of the excellent Hogarth Exhibition, which has been produced in partnership with the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.

There was music from three talented singers from BIF’s Young Artist Programme, sopranos Jessica Hopkins and Jane Burnell and tenor Dominic Morgan. Adrian Kelly introduced events from this July’s programme, including a number of sellout performances.

Hogarth’s Britons: Succession, Patriotism, and the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion can be seen at Derby Museum and Art Gallery until Sunday 4 June 2023. See page 5 for more Friends events.

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF THE FRIENDS OF BIF

The Friends, once again, have done us proud. Not only have we seen membership hold up in a year with so many financial pressures, but we’re also humbled by the donations that many Friends have made when purchasing their tickets. During the 2021 and 2022 seasons these additional acts of generosity contributed over £10,000 to our fundraising efforts so a huge thank you to everyone who ‘topped up’ with donations to deliver such an incredible total.

We were also grateful to recently receive legacy gifts from two long-time Friends, the late Patricia Austin and Mary Barstow, who had chosen to support the Festival in their estate plans. Part of these gifts have enabled us to bring The King’s Singers to Buxton, with further support going towards the Young Artists Programme. All of us will

have the opportunity to hear and meet some of the young artists when they perform on each of the Friends’ Days on Wednesday 12 and 19 July. We invite everyone to join us in the Assembly Room at the Crescent for an informal cuppa, a catch up and the chance to hear short recitals at 12:45 and 13:45 (booking not required).

The final thank you goes to all those who have already introduced someone new to the Festival this year – these referrals are helping us build our audiences and welcome more people to sample the joy of the Festival this July. It’s not too late to spread the word that there’s something very special taking place in Buxton this summer – we can’t wait to welcome you back.

PETE SPRIGGS Chairman, Friends of BIF

Pete Spriggs with the Treske Quartet

Following the Treske’s sell-out performance at this year’s Friends AGM

It’s not too late to spread the word that there’s something very special taking place in Buxton this summer

“ ”

FRIENDS’ EVENTS: ALL WELCOME!

LUNCH & RECITAL BY THE ENGLISH TOURING OPERA

Lismore Road, Buxton

11am – 2pm, Saturday 13 May, £45

Soloists from the English Touring Opera will perform a lunchtime musical concert with Baritone Jerome Knox and Soprano Julia Mariko, who’ll also be performing in this year’s musical The Land of Might-Have-Been.

SOLD OUT

FESTIVAL LAUNCH

The Octagon, Buxton

6pm, Wednesday 17 May, £10

Join us as we launch this year’s Festival at The Octagon in Buxton, with introductions to the Opera, Music, Book and Jazz events and performances from musicians from our Young Artist Programme.

SAVE THE DATE BUXTON OPERA HOUSE

TURNS 120

Buxton Opera House

7.30pm, Thursday 1 June, £48

OPERA STUDY DAY

The Lee Wood Hotel, Buxton

10:15am – 2.45pm

Tuesday 16 May, £45 or £15 for Next Gen Friends

This popular event returns to enhance your enjoyment of the Festival with in-depth introductions to this year’s Festival opera productions. Lunch included.

FRIENDS DAYS IN THE ASSEMBLY ROOMS

The Crescent Hotel

Wednesday 12 July and Wednesday 19 July

Come and enjoy free performances in the grandeur of the Assembly Rooms in Buxton’s Crescent Hotel. There’ll be musical interludes, which showcase the talents of our Young Artists Programme and our community choir Kaleidoscope. It’s an opportunity to gather with friends during the Festival, to grab a cup of tea and have a chat.

BIF is proud to be supporting Buxton Opera House as they celebrate their 120th anniversary. The special concert stars tenor Russell Watson with guests including Joanna Riding (Gypsy 2022). Visit www.buxtonfestival.co.uk and click on ‘Friends’ then ‘Friends Events’ to book. Alternatively contact the Festival office on: 01298 70395 / friends@buxtonfestival.co.uk

Attending both the ETO Recital and Opera Study Day? Look online for the £80 ‘Duo Ticket’.

ADRIAN KELLY INTRODUCES THE LA

LA SONNAMBULA

Vincenzo Bellini‘s opera has always been a showcase for a spectacular soprano. Giuditta Pasta and Maria Malibran sang the work in the composer’s own lifetime, and in the twentieth century the role was sung by none other than Maria Callas and Dame Joan Sutherland.

ZIYI DAI AMINA

In Buxton, audiences will have the possibility to hear a remarkable young singer, Ziyi Dai, in her UK debut. Ziyi made an astonishing debut at the Zürich Opera in 2022 singing the role of the Countess in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory. She has a number of exciting debuts planned for over the next couple of years. To my mind, she is one of the most impressive singers of her generation and I am excited that she will be heard by the Buxton audiences. (On a side note, I was a very junior member of music staff, working on a production of Tosca at the Royal Opera House in 2004 when I had the privilege of working with Yuqiang Dai, Ziyi’s father, who made his debut in London singing the role of Cavaradossi. It was my job to stand backstage following the score and to cue him when it was time to let out screams of excruciating pain. Ziyi would presumably have been at primary school back home in China…).

NICO DARMANIN ELVINO

Nico Darmanin sang the role of Giacomo in La donna del lago in Buxton in 2022. He is an extraordinary singer, with thrilling voice and a charismatic presence on stage. Nico’s recent and future engagements have taken him to Torino, Glyndebourne and Tel Aviv. Nico is also a passionate entrepreneur who has developed and promotes his very own brand of gin from his home country of Malta.

SONNAMBULA CAST AND DIRECTOR

SIMON SHIBAMBU RODOLFO

The role of Rodolfo is sung by the South-African bassbaritone, Simon Shibambu. Simon was a young artist at the Salzburg Festival and subsequently at the Royal Opera House. He recently performed Angelotti Tosca with English National Opera, and has also appeared with the Dutch National Opera, Aix-enProvence Festival and Theatre an der Wien.

ELLIE NEATE ELISA (Il re pastore) and LISA (La sonnambula)

Ellie Neate was Cleopatra in BIF’s 2022 production of Hasse’s Antonio e Cleopatra She also found time to sing the role of Maria Bertram in Mansfield Park . This summer she is equally busy, singing the role of Elisa in Il re pastore , as well as Lisa in La sonnambula

HARRY FEHR DIRECTOR

Harry Fehr has directed several productions for the Buxton Festival, including Mozart’s La finta giardiniera (2013) and Bellini’s I Capuleti e Montecchi (2016). Exploring the bel canto repertoire has also involved invitations to direct L’elisir d’amore for the Danish National Opera and Roberto Devereux in Karlsruhe.

ADRIAN KELLY INTRODUCES THE IL

IL RE PASTORE

Il re pastore is one of Mozart’s most beautiful and intimate works, written in Salzburg while the composer was still a teenager. This production gives a platform to five extremely talented emerging British singers.

KATIE COVENTRY AMINTA

The cast is led by the vibrant Scottish mezzosoprano, Katie Coventry, a former Harewood Artist at English National Opera. Last summer she sang the role of Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina at Glyndebourne and has already distinguished herself in Mozart roles such as Dorabella, Cherubino and Zerlina.

OLIVIA CARRELL TAMIRI

Olivia Carrell, who was a Young Artist at the Festival in 2019, will sing the role of Tamiri. She also played a big part in the 2022 Festival, singing the role of Luisa is Donizetti’s Viva la diva (On a side note, I would like to apologise on behalf of the genre of opera for consistently having such confusingly similar names: Ellie has to sing the roles of Elisa and Lisa this summer, not to be confused with Luisa. Also the title characters of the Mozart and the Bellini are called Amina and Aminta. It’s no wonder that opera plots tend to revolve around cases of mistaken identity…)

RE PASTORE CAST AND DIRECTOR

JOSEPH DOODY ALESSANDRO

The part of Alessandro, king of Macedonia is played by tenor Joe Doody, who has also been a regular in Buxton, singing Monsieur Triquet in Eugene Onegin in 2019 and the Italian Tenor in Viva la diva last summer.

GEORGE CURNOW AGENORE

The role of Agenore is sung by the promising young Welsh tenor, George Curnow.

George Curnow is currently on the opera programme at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Mark Wildman and was recently awarded second prize in the 2023 Kathleen Ferrier Awards.

Director Jack Furness has garnered high praise in recent seasons, especially for his productions of Rusalka for Garsington Festival Opera and for Candide for Scottish Opera. In this production, he will focus on human relationships of the finely-drawn characters, as well as exploring the work’s treatment of the natural world.

JACK FURNESS DIRECTOR

THE BOOKSHELF

Do women who write non-fiction get the attention they deserve? Book Festival Director Vicky Dawson looks at the calibre of female writers attending this year’s Festival and finds BIF to be ahead of the game.

It has recently been announced that the Woman’s Prize will launch an annual award for women’s non-fiction writing. ‘Research carried out by the trust found that 26.5% of non-fiction reviews in national newspapers was allocated to books by female writers, while 35.5% of books awarded a non-fiction prize over the past 10 years were written by a female writer, across seven UK non-fiction prizes,’ reported The Guardian.

As a programmer of a non-fiction festival this was of no surprise to me. The broadsheet buzz around female new non-fiction writing can be curiously understated; yet when the female author discusses her work on the Buxton stage, our audience are of course wowed. Somehow this disconnect doesn’t happen to our nonfiction writing chaps.

In another recent Guardian piece, it was reported that just 2% of GCSE candidates studied a book by a female author. Good grief! Really? Perhaps it is time for exam boards to read Claire Harman’s new book All Sorts of

Lives: Katherine Mansfield and the Art of Risking Everything. Virginia Woolf considered Mansfield an author she felt jealous of, and Claire Harman’s book suggests she is relevant, timely and certainly in need of reassessment.

With these two pieces of research in mind, I thought I should present a snapshot of the amazing female writing which makes up BIF 2023.

Leah Broad is garnering rave reviews for her book Quartet: How Four Women changed the Musical World. One of her four protagonists, Ethel Smythe, we have already celebrated at BIF in 2021 with a musical salon featuring her Suffragette anthem The March of the Women Leah Broad also rejuvenates the reputations of Dorothy Howell, Doreen Carwithen and Rebecca Clarke.

Polly Toynbee’s memoir An Uneasy Inheritance may come as a surprise to some. That she was the daughter and grand-daughter of intellectual Toynbee men, may have been obvious. Polly’s amazing, strong, often ghastly, sometimes delightful, and certainly aristocratic female forebears are more of a revelation. I’ve already devoured a very early proof copy of the

book and as always Polly examines meritocracy in the UK alongside searing honesty about the privileges of her own background.

Gaia Vince was the first female outright winner of the Royal Society Science Prize for Adventures in the Anthropocene in 2015. Another “good grief” exclamation is coming...that prize was 28 years old at the time! The book became a deserved best seller and Gaia follows it up with Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval. Described as a rousing call to arms and striking an unusually optimistic note, Gaia’s book, offers solutions to the climate displacement that is already underway.

Sarah Bakewell is a philosopher who writes with clarity and accessibility. Her books How to Live: A Life of Montaigne and At the Existentialist Café: Freedom Being and Apricot Cocktails would certainly be on my list of favourite nonfiction and were awarded the WindhamCampbell Literary Prize…but in the US Sarah’s new book Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry and Hope looks at the belief system that you may

only articulate at funerals despite living effortlessly by its tenets.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the notable female author at the heart of the BIF programme this year, Vera Brittain. We celebrate her life in our musical The Land of Might-Have-Been precisely because our, albeit unscientific and anecdotal, evidence is that Vera is not studied in school, not considered as a woman of Buxton, and not widely read. The exception being our own erudite and literary audience. It was a great privilege to hear a very early version of Michael William’s assured and fearless libretto, and with the interpretation of our splendid director Kimberley Sykes, BIF can give voice to Vera once again.

It is not possible to mention all of our amazing BIF women across our triptych of opera, music and books but we look forward to showcasing their astonishing dedication, contribution and talents this July.

VICKY DAWSON BIF Book Director

DON’T FORGET TO BOOK YOUR BIF PROGRAMME BOOK

Highlights of the 2023 Programme book will include:

• David Chandler on Ivor Novello: The Man with the Common Touch

• John Allison on La Sonnambula: A Soundworld of Special Purity

• Susanna MacRae and Olivia Doutney on What is Baroque Gesture?

• Iain Farrington on the reorchestration of Ivor Novello’s music

• Hannah Wolfe on her set and costume designs for Il re Pastore

• Wyn Davies writes a tribute in memory of Kit Hesketh-Harvey

Pre-ordered programme books are available at £12 each, while there will also be copies for sale during the festival at £15.

Visit the box office, www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk

JAZZ IS BACK!

Neil Hughes, BIF’s Jazz Director, introduces this year’s Jazz Line-up Jazz is back in '23 with another fast start at The Palace Hotel. Opening up with New Orleans maestro Dale Storr on Thursday 6 July, we roll through 12 events all the way to Wynton Marsalis on Monday night at the Opera House.

Jazz is such a broad church, and once again we mix solo gigs, Jamie Safir on Friday night, duet gigs, Trish Clowes and Ross Stanley on Saturday night, and an 18-piece big band with the Northern Jazz Orchestra on Sunday lunchtime. Please take a look at the programme, it was so much fun putting it together.

New for 2023, our inaugural Late Night Jazz Cafe in Pavilion Gardens

We have three brand-new late-night shows for you, and if you are attending the musical or opera, you can now join us for food and drink

afterwards, from 10pm. With three great bands booked, it is just like a gig downstairs, but book a platter at pavilion.gardens@parkwoodleisure.co.uk, and you can have VIP access upstairs on the mezzanine with table service for your group.

And of course, we have some bona fide superstars for you. John Helliwell, Supertramp's well known saxophonist, brings his Super Big Tramp Band project to Buxton, an 18-piece rearrangement of all those hits. We have Madeline Bell, Dusty Springfield's backing singer, and a star in her own right with Blue Mink, singing the music of Bacharach and Dusty. And the most famous trumpeter of them all, Wynton Marsalis graces us with a late-night show.

I look forward to welcoming you to Buxton very soon for the best in jazz. Thank you for your continued support.

NEIL HUGHES Jazz Director

TOP PICKS FOR 2023

With the countdown to the Festival underway, we asked a few of our friends and supporters what they’re looking forward to this July and why.

THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE

“The combination of Julian Glover and Isabella Tree makes this a must attend event. Her writing has already opened many eyes, and mine, to new and better ways of looking at our countryside and I am sure her new book will continue this crucial story.”

WYN DAVIES

Patron of the Friends of BIF

“I’m looking forward to Orlando because it’s Handel, and Adrian Butterfield (the conductor) has style. Also, Il re Pastore because it’s Mozart and there’s a lovely bunch of young singers. You can’t go wrong with Handel and Mozart.

The Four Seasons recitals with top singers are a great idea. And, I fancy most of the books talks but especially Lady Ashton because of the fine job she did in Europe and because I hope she’ll spill a few inside stories.”

ROS WESTWOOD

Derbyshire Museums Manager

“I am so excited that Nicola Benedetti is coming to Buxton. She is a great ambassador for the violin, and for young people playing classical music, thrilling with familiar repertoire but so open to extraordinary new works – I loved her collaboration with Wynton Marsalis. To see her perform live in the Buxton Opera House acoustic will be a thrill.”

ANTONY MCKEOWN

Leader of High Peak Borough Council

“I don’t want to miss Alastair Campbell’s book talk. He’s my kind of guy and he’s going to have some fascinating stories.”

SALLY POTTER

Vision Buxton & No 6

The Square Tearooms

“

The Land of MightHave-Been is my mustsee. I love that it’s set in Buxton, and it’s exciting to learn about Vera Brittain’s extraordinary life through music. I’m also really looking forward to Nicky Spence, because he’s just fabulous!”

CHRISTOPHER AND MORGANE SHOULTS

La Gaby, Festival Circle

“At La Gaby we are very exited for BIF to start as it always brings such life and atmosphere to the town!

We are particularly looking forward to seeing the Mozart piece Il Re Pastore! It’s great to see Buxton putting on such big and beautiful productions.”

BIF’S ROLE IN BRINGING NEW LIFE TO THE TOWN’S HISTORIC BUILDINGS IS TO BE EXPLORED IN A NEW JOURNAL

In an interview with The Buxtonian, published by Buxton Civic Association, CEO Michael Williams outlines the importance of music in shaping the architecture of the Derbyshire spa resort.

“It’s obvious to say that Buxton International Festival wouldn’t exist without Buxton Opera House,” said Michael. “Festival founder Malcolm Fraser was inspired to bring opera back to life here nearly five decades ago when he saw it being used as a cinema. However, it’s not courting controversy to say that Buxton Opera House wouldn’t be an opera house without opera in it.”

The July edition of The Buxtonian concentrates on the built environment, and BIF is a good example of an organisation which has brought the past full circle to give Buxton’s buildings a future.

“I am very interested in what I call ‘opera of place,’ creating new works which are linked thematically to the area where they are performed. The first was about Buddha when I was in Nepal, then a work about Tiger Bay in Cardiff and Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

“So, it seemed logical to do something similar in Buxton, and the figure of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, the 18th century beauty with an eventful and tragic life, was the focus for BIF’s critically acclaimed 2019 pasticcio in which music of the period told her story.”

And this year, BIF is putting one of Buxton’s most important historical figures centre stage in another opera of place with the world premiere of The Land of Might-Have-Been, the story of Vera Brittain’s doomed love.

The Festival has grown so much over the years that it now needs more venues, and Buxton’s

architectural treasure trove has provided excellent settings for its literary talks and concerts: The Pavilion Arts Centre, The Octagon and St John’s Church.

St John’s is an obvious case of using a building pretty much as it was intended: music was always central to its existence.

When The Octagon was being planned live music was seen then - and now, if the success of BIF in bringing visitors each year is any indication - as vital to keeping tourists happy.

The Pavilion Arts Centre has played many roles. It opened in 1889 and is the oldest theatre still standing in Buxton, though it was put in the shade when Buxton Opera House opened in 1903, becoming a cinema showing silent movies.

Live drama returned in 1932, when it became The Playhouse, used as a satellite of London’s theatreland from 1937 to 1942 when the Old Vic Theatre ran an annual festival of plays there, with a repertory company which included Sir Nigel Hawthorne.

As The Paxton Suite it took on a variety of roles including as a conference hall and home to book, record and craft fairs until it closed in 2010 to allow for work on today’s multi-purpose theatre and cinema complex to get underway.

The full interview will be in The Buxtonian, an e-publication available to BCA members.

Written by John Phillips

HOLIDAYS FOR FRIENDS OF BIF

WITH JOHN WHIBLEY’S ‘HOLIDAYS WITH MUSIC’

So far 2023 has seen us enjoying opera holidays in Amsterdam, Dresden and Hamburg and one of our groups is just back from Venice and Trieste where they enjoyed seeing Ernani at La Fenice and Romeo & Juliet at the opera house in Trieste.

Full details of our 2023 opera holidays are in our Summer/Autumn brochure –please ask us for a copy. We continue to make a contribution towards Friends fundraising for each opera holiday booked by a Friend of BIF and we are continuing our offer £50 towards any of the holidays if you send in a copy of this article with your booking form.

Please feel free to get in touch with us by email john@whibley.co.uk 01663 746578 and we’ll happily send you further info about opera holidays.

2023 Opera Holidays

• Ring in Budapest 14 – 19 June

The acclaimed annual semi-staged production at Müpa

• Opera at Garsington and Longborough 28 June – 2 July

Ariadne and Bartered Bride at Garsington; L’Elisir at Longborough

• Ring in Sofia 7 – 14 July

A brand new production with stunning Bulgarian singers

• Savonlinna Opera Festival 16 – 20 July

Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, The Barber of Seville, and The Magic Flute

• Verdi Festival in Parma 20 – 26 September

I Lombardi, Falstaff (chamber version) Il Trovatore and Requiem

• Wexford Opera Festival 31 October – 4 November

Donizetti: Zoraida di Granata, Erlanger: L’Aube Rouge, Tutino: La Ciociara

• Autumn at Glyndebourne 10 – 13 November

L’Elisir d’amore and Don Giovanni

• Opera in Vienna – early December

Performaces tbc

• Christmas Oratorio in Leipzig 14 – 18 December

La bohème, Magic Flute plus Christmas Oratorio in the Thomaskirche

SNEAK PEEK!

Director Jack Furness has been facing the elements whilst preparing for Il re pastore. He has shared this image of himself filming in Bannau Brycheiniog (the Brecon Beacons) last month. See the footage in Mozart’s Il re pastore this July. It looks to be an exciting production!

THE TENOR WHO CAME TO TEA

Once there was a little girl called Milly, who was having tea with her Mummy when the telephone rang.

'I wonder who that can be' said Milly's Mummy. 'It can't be the milkman as we don't have one, and it can't be Daddy as he's upstairs. I'd better answer the phone and find out'. So, Milly's Mummy answered the phone and it was Buxton International Festival who needed somewhere for one of their tenors to stay. Milly's Mummy said 'yes, of course', and a few days later Nico the tenor arrived.

Milly and her mummy showed the tenor the spare room, and offered him some tea, but he didn't drink all the tea in the teapot, and he didn't eat all the food in the cupboard, and he didn't drink all of daddy's beer, or use up all the hot water. A week later Nico said 'Thank you for my nice stay' and he left!

That evening, Milly's mummy and daddy walked down the road to Buxton Opera House to see Nico's critically acclaimed performance in ‘La donna del lago’ and they had a very nice evening. They’re now looking forward to seeing Nico in La sonnambula this summer.

The next day they contacted Lee Barnes (Lee.barnes@buxtonfestival.co.uk) to let him know they'd love to have a singer to stay again, and they hope they will!

BIF features the most promising rising stars in the performing arts world, as well as prominent international singers, musicians and literary figures.

Each July our visiting artists need to find accommodation and this is where you can help.  The Festival has put together an accommodation list of local people who have kindly offered a spare room in their home for an artist to stay.  As the Festival continues to grow in scale we need to find more hosts to welcome artists in to their homes.  Those offering accommodation are able to charge rent, though many don't, with hosts asking for up to £100 per week to cover their expenses.  Typically hosts will allow a guest staying with them to share their kitchen facilities so they can make their own meals.

If you are able to offer a room for a performer to stay in your home, then we would very much like to hear from you.  Please give Lee Barnes a call on 01298 70395 or email lee.barnes@buxtonfestival.co.uk

Nico Darmanin in La donna del lago (2022) and with Milly's mummy!

IT’S SO WORTH THE JOURNEY… BUT THEY NEED YOUR HELP

“BIF has seen me right through since I was a recent graduate. There have been so many great things – coaching, concerts, talks about career progression – it’s just a fantastic experience.”

Joseph Doody, pictured above centre in Viva la Diva (2022). See him as Alessandro in Il re pastore this year.

“Buxton festival has been vital for my development as an artist. It has provided a platform for me to cut my teeth in the operatic world in the chorus and with great covers. Buxton festival is a very special and unique place.”

Brian McNamee, Tenor – Chorus

Every year, BIF brings twelve aspiring singers to Buxton and gives them the opportunity to perform in the chorus of high profile operas that will be seen by thousands of people as well as music critics from all major media outlets.

These young singers are at a pivotal moment in their careers.

In Buxton, not only do these recent graduates get the experience of live performances, our Young Artists also receive individual coaching plus career advice from the Festival’s artistic staff.

At BIF, talented young singers build a CV of roles sung in professional productions that leads to more work in the industry. Many of these talented individuals, like Joseph Doody, go on to become professionals performing all over the world.

We know how important our Young Artists Programme is, but it costs us more than £34,000 each year including £12,000 for travel and accommodation for these youngsters here in Buxton.

Many of you travel to Buxton for the Festival. Let’s help get these young artists here too and give them the experience and springboard they need to establish themselves in the musical field that we all know and love.

To help a young singer on their path to a career, please donate your gift at: www.buxtonfestival.co.uk/donate

ONEOFTHE BEST INTHEWORLD!

Buxton International Festival has been put on the map and named as one of the best 50 music festivals of 2023 around the globe. BIF was chosen alongside Glastonbury, Womad, Glyndebourne and events in Spain, France and the USA by The Times newspaper in its round-up - with our line up being described as ‘tip-top’!

NEW FOR 2023

ROLLING OUT THE RED CARPET

Join us on the red carpet for the premieres of The Land of Might-Have-Been, La sonnambula and Il re pastore, and also to welcome Nicola Benedetti and Wynton Marsalis for their sell-out performances. There’ll be treats and live music on the forecourt during our opening weekend, and ‘Super Monday’!

CHAMPAGNE IN THE BOTANICAL GARDENS

Look out for the newest bar in town! A pop-up champagne bar is opening in Buxton’s botanical conservatory next to Buxton Opera House.

THE LATEST FROM PLATFORM 3

It’s been a busy time for everyone involved with Platform 3, our outreach programme that is run in conjunction with Buxton Opera House. A number of new initiatives have been created, to provide music and cultural provisions within schools and the local community. Here’s a sample of what’s been going on:

• Choir members from Harpur Hill and Buxton Junior schools are busy rehearsing for their chorus roles in Scenes From A Musical. Watch them in action, along with understudies from The Land of Might-Have-Been on Thurs 20 July from 3 - 4pm at the Palace Hotel, Buxton. Tickets cost £15.

• The Top Notes after school singing club is going from strength to strength, providing musical opportunities to students from Whaley Bridge, Taxal and Fernilee Schools.

• Young musicians from Peak District Music Centre Wind Band and Orchestra have been

offered mentoring by members of the Northern Chamber Orchestra.

• A new youth choir has been launched in Glossop for 9 to 14 year olds.

• 40 children aged 5 to 7 from St Anne’s Catholic School in Buxton have taken their ‘Discover Arts Award’ and have been learning about Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals.

• Adrian Kelly and members of BIF’s Young Artists Programme gave a performance and presentation to students at St Benedict’s school in Derby.

JOIN US FOR OUR

RED-CARPET

OPENING WEEKEND

LISTED AS ONE OF THE TOP 50 FESTIVALS IN THE WORLD BY THE TIMES

Join us! We’re rolling out the red carpet for our opera premieres during our opening weekend, and also to welcome Nicola Benedetti, Sir David Hare and Wynton Marsalis

7–10 JULY 2023

• Dress in your 昀nest attire and walk the red carpet

• Professional photographers on hand

• Experience Buxton’ws newest Festival bars

• Canapés and chocolates

• 10% discount for groups of 10+

• 10% discount if you book all three BIF opera premieres