COUNTESS OF CARNARVON

Thursday 20 July 12.30pm – 1.30pm

Buxton Opera House £15

The Earl and the Pharoah: From the Real Downton Abbey to Tutankhamun

The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun was the most astonishing archaeological find of the twentieth century. It was Lord Carnarvon who held the concession to excavate, and whose passion and ability to finance the project allowed Howard Carter’s eventual discovery to take place. Carnarvon’s life, money and sudden death became frontpage news throughout the world, fuelling rumours that persist today of ‘the curse of the pharaohs’. His beloved home, Highclere Castle, is today best-known as the set of Downton Abbey. Drawing on Highclere Castle’s never-before-plumbed archives, Fiona, the Countess of Carnarvon, charts the twists of luck and tragedies that shaped Carnarvon’s restless and enquiring mind.

Thursday 20 July

PAUL LEWIS: PART 2

PIANO

Thursday 20 July 3pm – 5pm (including interval) St John’s Church £30, Balcony £25

F Schubert

Piano Sonata No. 15 in C major, D840

Piano Sonata No. 13 in A major, D664

Piano Sonata No. 16 in A minor, D845

Paul Lewis continues his exploration of Schubert’s piano sonatas (see 19 July), a unique and heart-rending journey from the lyricism of the early sonatas to the transcendence of the late masterpieces, via harrowing moments of despair as his health started to decline. They express with directness and sincerity some of the most fundamental elements of human experience –longing, consolation, despair, joy, loss, nostalgia, and hope. In our time, his music is as essential and poignant as ever.

VERA BRITTAIN’S TESTAMENT OF A LOST YOUTH

Saturday 15 July 3.30pm – 5pm

Meet at the Devonshire Dome £15

See p.28 for information about this event.

Rupert Christiansen

Thursday 20 July 4pm – 5pm Pavilion Arts Centre £12

Diaghilev’s Empire: How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World Serge Diaghilev was the Russian impresario who is often said to have invented the modern art form of ballet. Commissioning such legendary names as Nijinsky, Fokine, Stravinsky and Picasso, this intriguingly complex genius produced a series of radically original art works that had a revolutionary impact throughout the western world. The Ballets Russes not only left a matchless artistic legacy, but they also changed style and glamour, they changed taste, and they changed social behaviour. Rupert Christiansen has been a regular at Buxton International Festival during his tenure as The Daily Telegraph’s opera critic; he now visits as a self-labelled ‘incurable balletomane.’

Jesse Norman Mp

Friday 21 July 10am – 11am

Pavilion Arts Centre £12

The Winding Stair

The Winding Stair is a tale of ambition and revenge set in the courts of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. It tells the story of a bitter struggle for influence and power between two of the most brilliant men of the age: the scholar Francis Bacon, whose genius is the envy of the court, and his hated rival Edward Coke, the greatest lawyer of his generation. Jesse Norman, a former Paymaster General, brings the palaces, parlours, parliaments and royal courts of Elizabethan and Jacobean England vividly to life, giving a peerless view into the lives, thoughts and deeds of their protagonists.

Meraki Duo

FLUTE AND GUITAR

Friday 21 July 11.15am – 12.15pm

St Jonh’s Church £25, Balcony £20

A Dvořák ’Sonatina in G, Op. 100 (arr. D. Massey)

T Takemitsu Toward The Sea

W Grant Still ‘If You Should Go’ and ‘Bayou Home’ (arr. J Girling)

A Piazzolla Nightclub 1960, from Histoire du Tango

E Gismonti Água e Vinho (arr. P Richter)

H Pascoal Bebê (arr. J Girling)

2023 marks 10 years of fl ute-guitar Meraki Duo. At the Royal Northern College of Music, Meera Maharaj and James Girling discovered their shared passion for chamber music, jazz, folk and contemporary works. As Royal Over-Seas League Competition fi nalists, Meraki recently performed at Wigmore Hall and Kings Place.

The Duo celebrates its anniversary with Brazilian folk-jazz, American songs, evocative sea music by Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu, a tango by Piazzolla, and Dvořák’s Sonatina, from the time of his ‘New World’ Symphony.

VERA BRITTAIN’S TESTAMENT OF A LOST YOUTH

Friday 21 July 11.30am – 1pm

Meet at the Devonshire Dome £15

See page p.28 for information about this event.

Spa And Empire Festival Walk

Friday 21 July 3.30pm – 5pm

Meet outside Buxton Opera House £15

See page p.34 for information about this event.

Dame Kate Bingham And Tim Hames

Friday 21 July 12.30pm – 1.30pm

Buxton Opera House £15

The Long Shot: The Inside Story of the Race to Vaccinate Britain

On 3 April 2020, Kate Bingham was told that the likelihood of any Covid-19 vaccine working was 15% at best. Then on 8 December 2020, the first NHS patient received a vaccine. Now nearly every adult in Britain has had a jab, lockdowns have ended, and we can finally live with Covid. From a cottage miles away from Westminster, Kate (now Dame Bingham) juggled vaccine suppliers, Whitehall, the media circus –and her daughter’s exams. Political manoeuvring, miscommunications and administrative meddling nearly jeopardised the project. This is an unmissable insider view into how the Vaccine Taskforce beat the odds and delivered the scientific miracle we all waited for. Tim Hames has been a columnist for The Times and The Tablet.

DAME SHIRLEY J THOMPSON: WOMEN OF THE WINDRUSH

AN OPERA FOR SOPRANO, PIANO AND FILM

Friday 21 July 2pm – 3pm

Pavilion Arts Centre £25

Through mesmerising instrumental music and song, multi-award-winning composer Shirley J Thompson’s opera, Women of the Windrush, portrays inspirational narratives from the lives of a variety of women who travelled to the UK from the West Indies (1940s – 1960s). Archive film and video projection interweave compelling stories from a cricketer’s wife, a student nurse, a concert pianist and a new bride, who all relate their experiences of arriving and settling in England. Charismatic and versatile lyric soprano, Nadine Benjamin, embodies the essence of the settlers’ experiences in this operatic reimagining of Shirley J Thompson’s original film, Memories in Mind (1992).

‘A gripping work ...celebrating human community and resilience.’ Opera Magazine

‘Excellently performed, mind-stretching (music) …there are fascinating sounds aplenty’ BBC Music Magazine

‘A pioneering, powerful and wonderfully dramatic compose’

BBC Radio 3

Iain Dale

In conversation with Baroness Nicky Morgan

Friday 21 July 4pm – 5pm

Pavilion Arts Centre £12

On This Day in Politics

Friday 21 July

THE LAND OF MIGHTHAVE-BEEN

Fri 21 July 7.15pm See p.20

ORLANDO

Fri 21 July 7.15pm See p.24

On This Day in Politics looks at the key moments in British political history that have occurred every day from 1 January through to 31 December; from the first meeting of an elected English parliament on 20 January 1265 to Britain voting to leave the EU on 23 June 2016. There is a growing thirst for knowledge about the history of our constitutional settlement, our party system and how our parliamentary democracy has developed.

Colour My Song

THE WILLIAMS-HOWARD MEMORIAL PRIZE RECITAL

Friday 21 July 4pm – 5pm

St John’s Church £20, Balcony £18

The Williams-Howard Prize is an annual singing and piano competition at the Royal Northern College of Music for 3rd and 4th year undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates. It was established in 2022 by Michael Harper, Vocal Tutor at RNCM, to promote the study and performance of art songs by composers of African heritage. This concert will showcase the winners of the 2023 competition and gives the audiences of the Buxton International Festival a rare chance to experience this glorious music.

Graham Clark Quartet

Friday 21 July 10pm – Late Jazz Café in The Pavilion Gardens £15

Local hero and ace violinist Graham Clark brings his acclaimed quartet to the festival. With a strongly personal approach to playing violin, he has played in many jazz, rock and experimental contexts, including a long partnership with Daevid Allen of ‘Gong’, several improvising groups, and numerous recordings.

Since 2005, Graham has been putting on a weekly jazz duo gig in Buxton. By playing with the cream of the North West’s pianists, he has built a loyal and enthusiastic audience.

Graham Clark Violin

Richard Wetherall Piano

Paul Baxter Bass

Johnny Hunter Drums

SONG AT SIX

Fri 21 July 6pm See p.17