2021 BIF Brochure by Buxton International Festival

BOX OFFICE 01298 72190 BUX TO N FE S T I VA L .CO.UK

OPER A MUSIC BOOKS

8 – 25 ¬uly 2021

E V ENT S DIARY T H U R S DAY 8 J U LY 7.15pm A Little Night Music

p.24

F R I DAY 9 J U LY

10am

11.30am Wildlife Walk with Mark Cocker p.30

12pm

Pelléas Ensemble

p.31

3pm

Kathryn Stott

p.32

4pm

Iain Dale

p.32

5.30pm Kathryn Stott

p.32

7.15pm The Dancing Master

p.20

Margaret MacMillan

Lord Adonis, Rachel Reeves MP, Julian Glover with Iain Dale p.33

12.30pm The Enchanted Pig

p.26

7.15pm A Little Night Music

p.24

S U N DAY 11 J U LY 10am 11am

5.30pm Martin Roscoe

p.37

6pm

p.29

7.15pm Acis and Galatea

Song at Six

p.18

T U E S DAY 13 J U LY

p.30

SAT U R DAY 10 J U LY 10am

10am

Nick Hayes and Guy Shrubsole with Mark Cocker p.38

12pm

James Rebanks

p.38

12pm

Equinox Duo

p.40

3pm

Jennifer Pike and Martin Roscoe p.39

4pm

Festival Salon with Fiona Sampson

p.40

5.30pm Jennifer Pike and Martin Roscoe p.39

7.15pm The Dancing Master

p.20

W E D N E S DAY 14 J U LY

10am

Martin Latham

11.30am Gossiping with and about the Georgians

p.41 p.41

Parm Sandhu with Stuart Prebble

12pm

Ben MacIntyre

p.41

p.34

12pm

Jeffrey Makinson

p.42

Festival Mass

p.29

3pm

Trio Rouge

p.43

4pm

Jacqueline Riding

p.42

7.15pm Dido’s Ghost

12.30pm Craig Ogden and Helen Thatcher

p.34

3pm

Mark Padmore

p.35

4pm

Giles Fraser

p.35

7.15pm Dido’s Ghost

8.45pm Nachtmusik with NCO Ensemble

p.16

M O N DAY 12 J U LY

p.16 p.43

T H U R S DAY 15 J U LY

10am

Juliet Nicolson

p.44

10am

Matthew Parris

p.36

12pm

Jennifer Pike and Petr Liminov p.44

12pm

Tabea Debus

p.36

2pm

A Little Night Music

p.24

3pm

Martin Roscoe

p.37

3pm

David Owen Norris

p.45

3.30pm Wildlife Walk with Mark Cocker p.30

4pm

Martin Edwards, Nicola Upson with Sarah Ward p.37

4pm Cendrillon

p.22

3.30pm Vera Brittain and Buxton in the First World War

p.45

4pm

5.30pm David Owen Norris

p.45

7.15pm A Little Night Music

p.24

Mary Colwell

p.45

Opera

F R I DAY 16 J U LY 10am

Music

Books

Walks

M O N DAY 19 J U LY

Polly Toynbee and David Walker

p.46

10am

11.30am Promenading with Mr Edward Milner

p.48

11.30am Vera Brittain and Buxton in the First World War

Vernon Bogdanor, Isabel Hardman and David Reynolds p.54 p.45

12pm

Dame Sarah Connolly

p.47

12pm

Klezmer-ish

p.54

3pm

Freddy Kempf

p.48

3pm

Consone Quartet

p.55

4pm

Rebecca Wragg Sykes

p.49

4pm

Cendrillon

p.22

4pm

Festival Salon with Wendy Moore

p.55

5.30pm Freddy Kempf

p.48

6pm

Song at Six

p.29

7.15pm The Dancing Master

p.20

10am

8.45pm Phantom of the Opera (1925)

p.49

11.30am Wildlife Walk with Mark Cocker p.30

10am

Samir Puri

p.50

12pm

Max Hastings

p.50

12pm

Roderick Williams

p.51

2pm

The Enchanted Pig

p.26

3pm

Natalie Clein

p.52

Festival Salon with Laura Thompson

5.30pm Natalie Clein

7.15pm Dido’s Ghost

5.30pm Consone Quartet

p.55

T U E S DAY 2 0 J U LY

12pm

S AT U R DAY 17 J U LY

4pm

Susan Owens

p.56

BIF Chamber Ensemble 2021: Corran Quartet p.56

2pm

Acis and Galatea

p.18

4pm

Martyn Rady

p.57

5.30pm Creating Carmen

p.57

7.15pm Acis and Galatea

p.18

W E D N E S DAY 21 J U LY p.52

p.52 p.16

S U N DAY 18 J U LY

10am

Richard Fortey

p.58

12pm

Andrew Marr

p.58

12pm

Fleur Barron and Adrian Kelly p.59

3pm

Fitzwilliam Quartet

p.60

4pm

Michael Spitzer

p.59

5.30pm Fitzwilliam Quartet

p.60

6pm

Song at Six

p.29

8pm

Strictly Musical Concert

p.27

10am

Helena Attlee

p.53

11am

Festival Mass

p.29

2pm

Acis and Galatea

p.18

3pm

Lizzie Ball

p.53

4pm

Isabel Hardman

p.53

5.30pm Lizzie Ball

p.53

10am

7.15pm Acis and Galatea

p.18

10.30am The Fibonacci Sequence

p.61

12pm

p.62

2.30pm The Fibonacci Sequence

T H U R S DAY 22 J U LY Dr Waheed Arian

Neil Oliver

p.61

p.61 3

E V ENT S DIARY

Opera

Books

Walks

S AT U R DAY 24 J U LY

3.30pm Gossiping with and about the Georgians

p.41

4pm

p.62

Festival Salon with Sarah Aspinall

Music

10am

Petroc Trelawny and Simon Heffer p.66 Jamal Aliyev and Maksim Štšura

p.66

5.30pm The Fibonacci Sequence

p.61

4pm

7.15pm The Dancing Master

p.20

2pm

Cendrillon

p.22

2pm

A Little Night Music

p.24

Festival Salon with Ian Bradley

p.67

F R I DAY 23 J U LY

10am

Nazir Afzal

p.63

12pm

Kris Garfitt

p.63

12pm

Simon Heffer

p.64

3pm

The English Concert

p.64

3.30pm Promenading with Mr Edward Milner

4pm

7.15pm The Shackled King

Michael Taylor

buxtonfestival

4pm

p.48

5pm

Ex Cathedra

p.67

6pm

Song at Six

p.29

7.15pm A Little Night Music

p.24

8.45pm Ex Cathedra

p.67

S U N DAY 25 J U LY

p.65 p.65

@BuxtonFestival

BOX O FFI CE 01298 72190

10am

Selina Todd

p.68

11am

Festival Mass

p.29

@buxtonfestival

BUX TO N FE S T I VA L .CO.U K

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

Chief Executive’s WELCOME

Come to Buxton International Festival for a breath of fresh air, and experience your favourite singers, authors and musicians in a magnificent setting.

fter the enforced cancellation last year, BIF is back! We are thrilled to share our exciting programme of opera, music, and books for the much-anticipated summer festival in our beautiful spa town. We had over a thousand responses to our survey and the clear message we received was that mounting a festival, with coronavirus safety protocols in place, is important and necessary. Rest assured that we will be working within official guidelines to provide an exceptional artistic experience in a safe environment. Adapting to an evolving pandemic has led the team to new ways of thinking about how we make art. For the first time in our 40-year history BIF will release a recording of a performance of Early Opera Company’s production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea, and a series of concerts and book talks online. We have explored works which adhere to social distancing restrictions and we are proud co-commissioners of Errollyn Wallen’s Dido’s Ghost along with the Barbican Centre, Mahogany Opera, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale, and Dunedin Consort. The Opera Series also includes a new production of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master and Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon. The Festival will be mounting our first-ever musical, Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, in collaboration with the Buxton Opera House (BOH). This year BIF and BOH launched a new initiative – Platform 3 – which will provide a platform for all ages within the local community to create, perform, and engage with the Arts. As part of Platform 3, the festival will showcase singers from Royal Northern College of Music and a production of Jonathan Dove’s The Enchanted Pig. In many ways, the 2021 opera season is bolder, more diverse, more forward-thinking than many previous seasons.

Victoria Dawson has produced a BIF Book Festival of opinion forming debates, favourite voices from radio and television and a host of the country’s best authors. While Adrian Kelly and Caroline Hewitt, our Artistic Administrator, have managed to secure an impressive list of exceptional musicians. It is likely that social distancing measures will still be in place when the booking office opens and that our venues will be limited to 50% of our usual capacity. Some afternoon concerts will be presented twice to allow more people to attend, and for that reason they will be performed without a break, lasting about an hour. An added advantage is that festival-goers will not have to choose between competing book and music events. Most seats will be arranged in pairs and, if restrictions are relaxed, we shall increase the number of seats we are able to sell. Early booking will be essential and if you are not yet a Friend of the Festival, it is an excellent time to become one. See you this summer in Buxton!

Michael Williams Chief Executive Officer

AT A GL ANCE: OPER A T H U R S DAY 8 J U LY

S AT U R DAY 17 J U LY

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

7.15pm

Stephen Sondheim

p.24

THE DANCING MASTER

7.15pm

Malcolm Arnold

p.20

12.30pm

Jonathan Dove and Alasdair Middleton Stephen Sondheim

p.26

7.15pm p.24

S U N DAY 11 J U LY

DIDO’S GHOST Errollyn Wallen

p.16

4pm

Pauline Viardot

p.22

7.15pm p.18

Malcolm Arnold

S U N DAY 18 J U LY 2pm, 7.15pm

George Frideric Handel

p.18

T U E S DAY 2 0 J U LY

ACIS AND GALATEA

2pm, 7.15pm

George Frideric Handel

p.18

STRICTLY MUSICAL

8pm

A Charity Gala Concert

p.27

THE DANCING MASTER Malcolm Arnold

7.15pm p.20

S AT U R DAY 24 J U LY

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC 2pm, 7.15pm

T U E S DAY 13 J U LY

THE DANCING MASTER

p.16

T H U R S DAY 22 J U LY

CENDRILLON

George Frideric Handel

7.15pm

Errollyn Wallen

W E D N E S DAY 21 J U LY 7.15pm

M O N DAY 12 J U LY

ACIS AND GALATEA

p.26

ACIS AND GALATEA

S AT U R DAY 10 J U LY

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

2pm

Jonathan Dove and Alasdair Middleton

DIDO’S GHOST

F R I DAY 9 J U LY

THE ENCHANTED PIG

7.15pm p.20

Stephen Sondheim

p.24

CENDRILLON

2pm

Pauline Viardot

p.22

W E D N E S DAY 14 J U LY

DIDO’S GHOST Errollyn Wallen

7.15pm p.16

T H U R S DAY 15 J U LY

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC 2pm, 7.15pm Stephen Sondheim

p.24

F R I DAY 16 J U LY

CENDRILLON

4pm

Pauline Viardot

p.22

THE DANCING MASTER Malcolm Arnold

Join the Friends of BIF for early booking Annual Membership starts from just £33 See p.69

7.15pm p.20 7

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

Artistic Director’s WELCOME

Buxton is the most beautiful setting; it’s no wonder such an array of world-class musicians, performers and authors are drawn to our summer celebration.

n January of last year, I wrote a welcome text for the 2020 festival in which I promised ‘an entirely different feel’. What transpired is not quite what I had in mind, but for 2021 we have done our very best to adapt to the unpredictable situation which has preoccupied all of us over the last year. The operas which take place in the Buxton Opera House all have a distinctly English feel to them. George Frideric Handel’s Acis and Galatea is one of the jewels of the composer’s output. Christian Curnyn is one of the world’s finest interpreters of Handel’s music, and he has brought some of his favourite singers. While Handel was a revered member of London society, Sir Malcolm Arnold was perhaps never truly accepted by the establishment. However, he always maintained popular appeal, due to his extraordinary gift as a melodist. 2021 is the centenary of Arnold’s birth and we present his comic opera, The Dancing Master. Conductor John Andrews’ recent recording of the work has received considerable critical acclaim. He is joined by the cast from the recording and the Northern Chamber Orchestra. Dido’s Ghost is an innovative combination of a new work and a classic of the Baroque era. Errollyn Wallen is one of the leading composers of her generation. The piece delves into the events leading up to and following on from Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. It is always interesting to recontextualise well-known works, and I am looking forward to hearing this juxtaposition of old and new, delivered by the brilliant Dunedin Consort. Towards the end of the Festival we will experience one of the great singer-actors of our time, Sir John Tomlinson, tackling one of the iconic roles. John Casken’s music drama The Shackled King is based on Shakespeare’s King Lear. We are excited that this work will receive its stage premiere in Buxton. It promises to be a compelling evening. 8

Our music series is as strong as ever, so much so that it seems wrong to single out individual artists or ensembles. There are some very familiar names, but also some wonderful emerging artists, like recorder player Tabea Debus or mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, both of whom have glittering careers ahead of them. Lastly, I am delighted that we will mount our first coproduction with the Buxton Opera House, Stephen Sondheim’s musical A Little Night Music, conducted by Wyn Davies and directed by Paul Kerryson. I find it particularly heartening that Buxton Festival and Buxton Opera House are joining forces at what is a perilous time for so many arts organisations. Over the last year, most of us have gained a new appreciation for simple freedoms which we had previously taken for granted. There is a palpable sense that people are longing for the society, the buzz and the sense of occasion that comes with live performance in a theatre or concert hall. I hope you will join us for what promises to be a vibrant festival.

Adrian Kelly Artistic Director

¬ennifer Pike AR TIS T IN RE SIDENCE ¬ennifer is simply a world-class musician – Adrian Kelly

e are delighted to welcome Jennifer Pike as 2021’s Artist in Residence. Winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2002 at the age of 12, Jennifer has managed to make the often treacherous transition from child prodigy to mature artist with grace and style. Her interpretations are fresh and insightful, something which those who were lucky enough to hear her rendition of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending at 2019’s Festival will be able to confirm.

For her two concerts in St John’s Church, Jennifer goes back to her Polish roots: her first recital, with her regular duo partner Martin Roscoe, opens with Beethoven’s timeless ‘Spring’ Sonata, and includes a composition by Jennifer’s father Jeremy Pike. In her second recital, with Russian-British pianist Petr Limonov, she brings us Mozart’s G Major Sonata, K. 301 followed by Karol Szymanowski’s masterful Violin Sonata, and closing with Poldowski’s virtuosic Tango.

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

F R I DAY 9 J U LY

T H U R S DAY 15 J U LY

PELLÉAS ENSEMBLE

12pm

K ATHRYN STOTT

p.31

3pm, 5.30pm

p.45

DAME SARAH CONNOLLY AND JOSEPH MIDDLETON

3pm

FREDDY KEMPF

p.35

TABEA DEBUS AND ELIZABETH KENNY

12pm p.36

3pm, 5.30pm p.37

p.47 p.48

8.45pm p.49

S AT U R DAY 17 J U LY

RODERICK WILLIAMS AND SUSIE ALLAN NATALIE CLEIN

T U E S DAY 13 J U LY

12pm

3pm, 5.30pm

ZORADA TEMMINGH Phantom of the Opera (1925)

M O N DAY 12 J U LY

p.34

12.30pm

MARK PADMORE MORGAN SZYMANSKI

EQUINOX DUO

p.44

F R I DAY 16 J U LY

CRAIG OGDEN AND HELEN THATCHER

12pm

DAV I D OW E N N O R R I S 3pm, 5.30pm

p.32

S U N DAY 11 J U LY

M A R T I N R OSCO E

JENNIFER PIKE AND PETR LIMONOV

12pm p.51

3pm, 5.30pm

p.52

12pm p.40

S U N DAY 18 J U LY

JENNIFER PIKE 3pm, 5.30pm AND MARTIN ROSCOE p.39

LIZZIE BALL 3pm, 5.30pm AND MILOŠ MILIVOJEVIC p.53

W E D N E S DAY 14 J U LY

M O N DAY 19 J U LY

JEFFREY MAKINSON

TRIO ROUGE

NACHTMUSIK WITH NCO ENSEMBLE

12pm p.42

3pm p.43

KLEZMER-ISH

12pm

p.54

CONSONE QUARTET

3pm, 5.30pm

p.55

8.45pm p.43

T U E S DAY 2 0 J U LY

BIF CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

p.56

CREATING CARMEN

12pm 5.30pm p.57

AT A GL ANCE: MUSIC W E D N E S DAY 21 J U LY

FLEUR BARRON AND ADRIAN KELLY FITZWILLIAM STRING QUARTET

F R I DAY 23 J U LY 12pm p.59

3pm, 5.30pm p.60

T H U R S DAY 22 J U LY

THE FIBONACCI 10.30am, 2.30pm, 5.30pm SEQUENCE p.61

KRIS GARFITT AND SERI DAN

12pm p.63

THE ENGLISH CONCERT

3pm

p.64

THE SHACKLED KING

7.15pm p.65

S AT U R DAY 24 J U LY

JAMAL ALIYEV AND MAKSIM ŠTŠURA EX CATHEDRA

12pm p.66

5pm, 8.45pm p.67

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

Book Festival Director’s WELCOME

After a year in which books became our nourishment and our companions, it is exciting to think that we once again enrich our minds within the glorious spa setting of Buxton and with like-minded and varied companions.

f I were to describe the BIF programme in any one year, I would say we host a mix of serious and ‘opinion forming’ debate, alongside events of cultured escapism, by way of favourite ‘voices’ from radio and television. Largely, but not entirely, we present literary seriousness before lunch and escapism after. Mixed throughout are our muchloved festival walks and ‘music and books’ Salons. Never has it seemed more important than to have Polly Toynbee and David Walker discussing fairness in society. We reprise our debate on Brexit Britain with Isabel Hardman, Vernon Bogdanor and in the Chair, David Reynolds. Described by one audience member in 2019 as the most ‘sane’ commentary they had heard on the issue to that date, political balance applied to our Brexit panel, of course. Iain Dale is a broadcaster who has edited a collection of essays subtitled 55 Leaders, 55 Authors, 300 years. Iain will bring together three of his contributors – and that political balance – with Julian Glover, Lord Adonis and Rachel Reeves, debating the strengths of our contemporary Prime Ministers. ‘Law and Order’ is the subject across two events. Parm Sandhu was the highest ranking British Asian female police officer in the Metropolitan Police. Stuart Prebble is a former CEO of ITV. Together they have written an institutionally challenging book called Black and Blue. Nazir Afzal’s book The Prosecutor has been described as ’an inspiring account of the career of an outstanding public servant’. Former Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West, Nazir has been a fearless solicitor unafraid of resigning in order to speak freely on topics such as the Manchester Arena Bombing or child sexual exploitation. Our history events cover a genuinely epic span – from Neanderthal culture with Rebecca Wragg

Sykes, The Wisdom of the Ancients with Neil Oliver, and How Empires Have Shaped the World with Samir Puri. For those wanting to jog memories of more recent events, Juliet Nicolson will be with us to discuss Frostquake, her account of the harsh cold winter of 1962, and Andrew Marr with his look at the modern ‘Elizabethan age’. And that ‘cultured escapism’? Take your pick from Susan Owens on Spirit of Place: Artists, Writers and the British Landscape; or Jacqueline Riding on the life of William Hogarth; Fiona Sampson on Elizabeth Barrett Browning; or Sarah Aspinall on her own mother’s extraordinary life from Liverpool bookies runner to restless globetrotter. ‘Favourite voices’ abound – from Reith lecturer Margaret Macmillan to religious commentator Giles Fraser and many, many more. It is time to wake up the sleeping beauty that is BIF Books and enjoy our opinion forming, inspiring but hopefully always entertaining line-up.

Victoria Dawson Book Festival Director

BUX TON FE S TIVAL LITER ARY SALONS Surely there’s no grander place to host a literary salon than the beautiful settings of BIF. Our Festival Salons celebrate our unique triptych of opera, music and books. These events feature an author talking about their new book plus music from the period to complement the subject. Our musicians showcase the astonishing solo talent within the BIF Company. Our Salons should be sampled as a decadent afternoon treat taking place within the newly restored Assembly Rooms at the Buxton Crescent Hotel, and the iconic Palace Hotel. One wonders which other notable personages have been inspired and entertained in these rooms. Assembly Rooms events are in partnership with the Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust and The Buxton Crescent Hotel

AT A GL ANCE: BOOK S F R I DAY 9 J U LY

M A R G A R E T M AC M I L L A N

S U N DAY 11 J U LY 10am

War: How Conflict Shaped Us

p.30

WILDLIFE WALK WITH MARK COCKER

11.30am p.30

IAIN DALE

4pm

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along: Shout Less. Listen More

p.32

10am

p.34 Black and Blue: One Woman’s Story of Policing and Prejudice

GILES FRASER

4pm

Chosen: Lost and Found Between Christianity and Judaism

p.35

M O N DAY 12 J U LY

S AT U R DAY 10 J U LY

LORD ADONIS, RACHEL REEVES MP, JULIAN GLOVER WITH IAIN DALE

PARM SANDHU WITH STUART PREBBLE

10am p.33

The Prime Ministers: 55 Leaders, 55 Authors, 300 Years of History

MATTHEW PARRIS Fracture: Stories of How Great Lives Take Root in Trauma

WILDLIFE WALK WITH MARK COCKER

10am p.36

3.30pm p.30

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

MARTIN EDWARDS, NICOLA UPSON WITH SARAH WARD

4pm p.37

The Moving Finger: Historical Crime Fiction and the Writer as Chronicler of the Past

POLLY TOYNBEE AND DAVID WALKER

p.46

PROMENADING WITH MR EDWARD MILNER

NICK HAYES AND GUY SHRUBSOLE WITH MARK COCKER

10am p.38

The English Countryside and the Long Battle for Public Access

11.30am p.48

REBECCA WRAGG SYKES

4pm

Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art

p.49

S AT U R DAY 17 J U LY

JAMES REBANKS

12pm

In conversation with Julian Glover English Pastoral: An Inheritance

p.38

FIONA SAMPSON

4pm

Festival Salon Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

p.40

W E D N E S DAY 14 J U LY

M A R T I N L AT H A M

10am

The Bookseller’s Tale

p.41

GOSSIPING WITH THE GEORGIANS

11.30am

BEN MACINT YRE

12pm

p.41

In conversation with Julian Glover Agent Sonya

p.41

JACQUELINE RIDING

4pm

Hogarth: Life in Progress

p.42

SA M I R PU R I

10am

The Great Imperial Hangover: How Empires Have Shaped the World

p.50

MAX HASTINGS

12pm

Operation Pedestal: The Fleet that Battled to Malta in 1942

p.50

LAURA THOMPSON Festival Salon Heiresses:

4pm p.52

The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies

S U N DAY 18 J U LY

H E L E N A AT T L E E

10am

Lev’s Violin: An Italian Adventure

p.53

ISABEL HARDMAN

4pm

The Natural Health Service: What the Great Outdoors Can Do For Your Mind?

p.53

M O N DAY 19 J U LY

T H U R S DAY 15 J U LY

JULIET NICOLSON

10am

Frostquake: The Frozen Winter of 1962 p.44 and how Britain Emerged a Different Country

3.30pm

VERNON BOGDANOR, ISABEL HARDMAN AND DAVID REYNOLDS

10am p.54

Perspectives: Brexit: Opening a new chapter

p.45

VERA BRITTAIN AND BUXTON IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR

MARY COLWELL

4pm

In conversation with Mark Cocker Beak, Tooth and Claw: Why Predators are needed for a healthy British Countryside

p.45

WENDY MOORE

10am

The Lost Decade: 2010-2020

T U E S DAY 13 J U LY

VERA BRITTAIN AND BUXTON IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR

F R I DAY 16 J U LY

11.30pm p.45

4pm

Festival Salon Endell Street: p.55 The Suffragette Surgeons of World War One

AT A GL ANCE: BOOK S T U E S DAY 2 0 J U LY

SUSA N OW E N S

10am

Spirit of Place: Artists, Writers and the British Landscape

WILDLIFE WALK WITH MARK COCKER

p.56

11.30am p.30

MART YN RADY

4pm

The Habsburgs: To Rule the World

p.57

In conversation with Mark Cocker A Curious Boy: The Making of a Scientist

ANDREW MARR

MICHAEL TAYLOR

3.30pm p.48

4pm

The Interest: How the British p.65 Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery

S AT U R DAY 24 J U LY

PETROC TRELAWNY AND SIMON HEFFER

10am p.66

A Land Without Music?

W E D N E S DAY 21 J U LY

RICHARD FORTEY

PROMENADING WITH MR EDWARD MILNER

10am p.58

12pm

The Elizabethans: How Modern Britain Was Forged

p.58

MICHAEL SPITZER

4pm

The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth

p.59

IAN BRADLEY Festival Salon

4pm p.67

Health, Hedonism and Hypochondria: A Hidden History of Spas

S U N DAY 25 J U LY

S E L I N A TO D D Snakes and Ladders: The Great British Social Mobility Myth

10am p.68

T H U R S DAY 22 J U LY

DR WAHEED ARIAN In the Wars: A Story of Conflict, Survival and Saving Lives

NEIL OLIVER Wisdom of the Ancients: Life Lessons from Our Distant Past

10am p.61

12pm p.62

GOSSIPING WITH THE GEORGIANS

3.30pm

SARAH ASPINALL Festival Salon

4pm

p.41 p.62

Diamonds at the Lost and Found: A Memoir in Search of My Mother

F R I DAY 23 J U LY

NAZIR AFZAL The Prosecutor

SIMON HEFFER Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1): 1918-38

10am p.63

12pm p.64 15

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

DIDO’S GHOS T Errollyn Wallen (b.1958) Henry Purcell (1659–1695)

A new opera incorporating Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas

DAT E S & T I M E S

A Buxton International Festival co-commissioned production in partnership with the Barbican Centre, Mahogany Opera, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale, and Dunedin Consort

Sun 11 July 7.15pm Wed 14 July 7.15pm Sat 17 July 7.15pm

The story of Dido and Aeneas did not end with Dido’s death. This new opera by Errollyn Wallen takes the story forward, interweaving a full performance of Purcell’s great tragedy, within this imaginative new partner piece.

VENUE

‘Remember me, but ah! Forget my fate’, sings Dido at the end of Purcell’s opera. But life is not quite as easy as that, and some memories have a destiny of their own. Set several years after the Carthaginian queen’s death, Dido’s Ghost tells the story of Aeneas’ tragic meeting with Anna, Dido’s sister. She arrives shipwrecked on the shores of his new kingdom, just as he had once found himself stranded in Carthage. Anna’s arrival ignites a murderous jealously in Aeneas’s wife Lavinia. As events play out, its characters confront a past that refuses to fade.

£25 – £78 £10 Under 35s offer for Next Gen Friends of BIF, from 1 June. Proof of age required

Errollyn Wallen’s new opera, based on Fasti, a tale by Roman poet Ovid, embraces and complements Purcell’s original, which is performed in its entirety as the centrepiece of a drama that is both old and new. Performed on the period instruments of the Dunedin Consort, past blurs into present and memory becomes emotion in this ambitious and poignant new commission. Libretto by Wesley Stace. Sung in English with side-titles.

Buxton Opera House TICKETS

C R E AT I V E T E A M John Butt Conductor Frederic Wake-Walker Director Anna Jones Designer Ben Pickersgill Lighting Designer CAST Idunnu Muench Dido/Anna Matthew Brook Aeneas Nardus Williams Belinda Allison Cook Spirit/Lavinia Tim Dickinson Sorcerer/Elymas ORCHESTR A Dunedin Consort Duration 90 minutes. Full details on our website

We are proud to be one of the co-commissioners involved in presenting Errollyn Wallen’s (pictured) new opera revisiting Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. It epitomises the spirit of BIF: innovative, challenging, and musically satisfying. Adrian Kelly Artistic Director of Buxton International Festival

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

ACIS AN D GAL ATE A George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)

A Buxton International Festival co-production with Early Opera Company Jealousy and devotion lie at the heart of Handel’s adaptation of Ovid’s classic tale of eternal love, Acis and Galatea. The sea nymph Galatea pledges herself to the mortal shepherd, Acis, but their idyllic existence is torn apart when the envious cyclops, Polyphemus, arrives to claim Galatea for his own. While Mount Etna shakes, he crushes Acis to death with a boulder. Reminded of her divine power, Galatea transforms her beloved’s gushing blood into a bubbling spring, the source of the River Aci, and the two lovers are reunited forever in the Sicilian sea. Having already set the story to music in Naples (1708), Handel returned to it with entirely new music for an English masque as an entertainment hosted by the Earl of Carnarvon at his country estate, in midsummer 1718. It was his first dramatic work in the English language. Baroque specialists Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company bring this popular dramatic work to Buxton after winning the opera category of the BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2019 for their exquisite recording of Acis and Galatea. Director Martin Constantine has gained five-star reviews for his work with Longborough Festival Opera and Welsh National Opera (WNO). His production of Paul Bunyan, for WNO, won a Royal Philharmonia Society Award and was nominated for a South Bank Sky Arts Award. Described by The Times as a ’delectable soprano and a serene, ever-sentient presence’, Anna Dennis is especially noted for her work in Modern and Baroque repertoire. Previous opera stages include Royal Opera House, English National Opera, La Scala, Göttingen and Aldeburgh. Nick Pritchard is currently both a Samling Artist and a member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s ‘Rising Stars’ scheme. Libretto by John Gay. Sung in English with side-titles. 18

DAT E S & T I M E S Mon 12 July 7.15pm Sun 18 July 2pm & 7.15pm Tue 20 July 2pm & 7.15pm VENUE Buxton Opera House TICKETS £25 – £78 £10 Under 35s offer for Next Gen Friends of BIF, from 1 June. Proof of age required C R E AT I V E T E A M Christian Curnyn Conductor Martin Constantine Director Anisha Fields Designer Ben Pickersgill Lighting Designer CAST Anna Dennis Galatea Nick Pritchard Acis Jorge Navarro Colorado Damon/Coridon Edward Grint Polyphemus David de Winter Chorus Duration 110 minutes including an interval. Full details on our website

Sponsored by

Handel’s music is so charming that even those music lovers who are usually cautious about opera will be delighted by Acis and Galatea. Adrian Kelly Artistic Director of Buxton International Festival

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

THE DANCING M A S TER Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)

A Buxton International Festival production in collaboration with John Andrews and Red Squirrel Opera and the Northern Chamber Orchestra

DAT E S & T I M E S

’An absolute zinger of a score’ (Gramophone). ’A musical gem’ (The Times). ’A work of striking charm’ (The Telegraph). This is how the critics responded to the BBC Concert Orchestra’s recording of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master. It is astonishing that this witty, and vivacious opera did not receive a single staging in his lifetime.

Fri 9 July Tue 13 July Fri 16 July Thurs 22 July

Film-maker Joe Mendoza suggested to Arnold they create a televised opera based on Wycherley’s 1671 play The Gentleman Dancing Master. A copy of the script was duly sent with Mendoza expecting comments and suggestions. Instead, two weeks later, the completed score landed on his desk: riotously colourful with flamboyant orchestral writing and unending melodic invention.

Buxton Opera House

It tells the tale of Miranda, who is being romantically pursued by her fierce aunt’s son, the ludicrous ‘Monsieur’. Miranda, though, prefers hapless but charming Gerard. When her father catches Gerard in her bedroom, they claim he is a dancing master preparing her for a dance with ‘Monsieur’. After some initial confusion, Miranda and Gerard conduct a secret marriage, which her father has no option but to approve. Disaster struck when BBC executives rejected the opera as ’too bawdy for family audiences’. Arnold tried Granada instead, singing the whole opera to the executives, but to no avail. The opera quite literally disappeared: its wicked wit, vivid characters, and endless melodic lyricism languishing on a library shelf whilst Arnold’s career raced onwards and upwards. So, now we’ll imagine that those executives were just a little more imaginative and had at least let Arnold and their star performers into the BBC Radio Theatre for a couple of hours. Libretto by J H Mendoza. Sung in English. Supported by Dr Faber and Guests 20

7.15pm 7.15pm 7.15pm 7.15pm

VENUE

TICKETS £25 – £78 £10 Under 35s offer for Next Gen Friends of BIF, from 1 June. Proof of age required C R E AT I V E T E A M John Andrews Conductor Susan Moore Director and Designer Ben Pickersgill Lighting Designer CAST Eleanor Dennis Miranda, an heiress Catherine Carby Pru, her maid Fiona Kimm Mistress Caution, Miranda’s aunt David Webb Gerard, a rake Mark Wilde Monsieur, Mistress Caution’s French-educated son Graeme Broadbent Don Diego, Miranda’s father The duration of the performance is 75 minutes. Full details on our website.

The Dancing Master is a brilliant rediscovery… one imagines that Arnold had Falstaff and Gianni Schicchi at the back of his mind: his score has something of their mercurial effervescence and it fairly trips along, charged with rumbustious humour and never sounding forced or out of breath. Rupert Christiansen The Telegraph

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

CEN DRILLON Pauline Viardot (1821-1910)

A Buxton International Festival production ’When I want to do something, I do it in spite of water, fire, society, the whole world!’ said Pauline Viardot: the most famous Romantic heroine you’ve never heard of. A household name across Europe during the late 19th century she led an extraordinary life, but her star has unjustifiably faded. Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon is an elegant retelling of the classic fairy tale Cinderella, though a little more light-hearted with a hapless father rather than an evil stepmother. From the Walt Disney version to Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Massenet’s Cendrillon it is a well-told tale, yet thanks to Viardot’s fascinating life, her version is among the most interesting. This miniature operetta pulls together many threads of 19th century Parisian musical life and has been described as ‘a retelling with Gallic wit, Italianate bel canto, and a quirkiness all her own’. Viardot was born in Paris into a renowned operatic family. Her father was Manuel García, the Spanish tenor for whom Rossini had written the role of Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, and her older sister was the celebrated soprano María Malibran. She herself was an acclaimed mezzosoprano and her social circle was a who’s who of 19th century European artistic society. She studied piano with Liszt, co-authored mazurkas with Chopin, sang Tristan and Isolde excerpts with Wagner in her living room, hosted Charles Dickens and Henry James as house guests, and shared insights with her best friend George Sand. An Opéra comique in three acts, sung in French with English surtitles, with libretto by the composer. BIF is proud to introduce the Young Artists for our 2021 Festival in their very own production of this charming and somewhat unappreciated chamber opera. Supported by The Stonehouse Foundation 22

DAT E S & T I M E S Mon 12 July 4pm Fri 16 July 4pm Sat 24 July 2pm VENUE Pavilion Arts Centre TICKETS All seats: £35 £10 Under 35s offer for Next Gen Friends of BIF, from 1 June. Proof of age required C R E AT I V E T E A M Laura Attridge Director The duration of the performance is 75 minutes. Full details on our website.

A perfect evening’s salon entertainment… melodies abound, vocal lines soar and plead, and the Cinderella tale is told with a smile! Robert Levine Opera Rara 23

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

A LIT TLE NIGHT M USIC Stephen Sondheim (b.1930)

A Buxton Opera House and Buxton International Festival production, with the Festival Orchestra Open your heart to A Little Night Music. In this bittersweet tale of romantic possibility, Stephen Sondheim brings his trademark wit and talent to intertwine opera with musical comedy. Taking place during a scandalous weekend in the Scandinavian countryside, A Little Night Music explores the tangled web of affairs between a group of frustrated lovers. After years of travelling, glamorous actress Desiree Armfeldt is reunited with her old flame, Fredrik Egerman, whose recent marriage to a young bride still remains unconsummated. Hoping to win Fredrik back, Desiree invites the couple to her mother’s secluded country estate. But when her married lover, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm arrives unexpectedly with his wife, all plans are overturned. As the night unfolds, old passions are rekindled and fresh feelings catch all of the characters by surprise. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, A Little Night Music has enjoyed many West End and Broadway revivals since its original production in 1973. It features one of Sondheim’s most memorable scores including the poignant Send in the Clowns and the haunting Night Waltz. Directed by Paul Kerryson, winner of Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre at the 2014 UK Theatre Awards and Chief Executive of Buxton Opera House. Paul has directed many other musicals by Stephen Sondheim including Follies, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Pacific Overtures and Into the Woods. Thanks to members of the A Little Night Music Syndicate for their support.

DAT E S & T I M E S Thurs 8 July Sat 10 July Thurs 15 July Sat 24 July VENUE Buxton Opera House TICKETS £25 – £65 C R E AT I V E T E A M Wyn Davies Conductor Iwan Davies Musical Director Paul Kerryson Director Phil Daniels Designer Charles Cusick Smith Designer Ben Pickersgill Lighting Designer CAST Janie Dee Desiree Daniella Sicari Anne David Leonard Fredrik Timothy Walton The Count The duration of the performance is 120 minutes, excluding interval. Full details on our website.

Co-production

A LIT TLE NIGHT MUSIC Original orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick Suggested by a Film by Ingmar Bergman Originally Produced and Directed on Broadway by Harold Prince Performed by arrangement with Music Theatre International (Europe) Limited

7.15pm 7.15pm 2pm & 7.15pm 2pm & 7.15pm

Supported by

A deliciously wicked evening of witty lyrics and luscious waltzes. Paul Kerryson Director and CEO, BOH

The perfect summer treat combining the best of Sondheim’s music and wonderful lyrics that will give every theatre-goer a wonderful evening of sheer delight. Michael Williams CEO, BIF

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

THE ENCHANTED PIG Jonathan Dove (b.1959)

A Buxton International Festival Platform 3 Production ’Princesses do not marry pigs. That’s not the way life should be.’ Princess Flora’s world is changed forever by a surprising turn of events. Our story follows three princesses who ignore the king’s request: do not enter the locked room containing the Book of Fate. Upon entering the room the princesses’ fates are sealed and, whilst Mab and Dot are set to marry kings, Flora must marry a pig! Of course, this pig is a handsome prince under a witch’s curse. Taking her fate into her own hands, Flora ventures to the ends of the earth to free him from the spell. This fantastical story takes us across the universe and shows us the good, oldfashioned power of love. Premiering at the Young Vic in 2006, The Enchanted Pig is a community opera. The story has roots in Romanian and Norwegian folk tales, and blends the worlds of opera, musical theatre, vaudeville, and musical comedy. It’s the perfect opera for families, and for those who are new to the opera world. This production is performed, directed and created entirely by young artists. They first performed The Enchanted Pig in February 2020 for Manchester University Music Society at the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall. Thanks to the support of BIF and their ‘Platform 3’ initiative, a unique opportunity has been created to showcase the work again. With special thanks to Manchester University Music Society, the University of Manchester and the staff at the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama. Libretto by Alasdair Middleton. Sung in English. 26

DAT E S & T I M E S Sat 10 July Sat 17 July

12.30pm 2pm

VENUE Pavilion Arts Centre TICKETS Adults: £35 Child/Student: £10 £10 Under 35s offer for Next Gen Friends of BIF, from 1 June. Proof of age required C R E AT I V E T E A M Nick Bond Director/Co-Producer Katherine Stonham Conductor Ellie Klouda Designer Thomas Clough Co-Producer Max Macmillan Répétiteur CAST Katherine Macaulay Flora Jonny Reynolds Pig Freya Parry Adelaide Verity Stroud Old Woman/Book of Fate Ellie Klouda Mab/Mrs Northwind Molly Sprouting Dot Thomas Clough King Hildebrand Harry Dichmont Sun/King of the East Grace Gammell Day Tom Green Moon Dexter Drown King of the West Dominic Carver Mr Northwind The duration of the performance is 110 minutes, excluding interval. Full details on our website.

S TRIC TLY M USIC AL A C H A R I T Y G A L A CO N C E R T Weds 21 July 8pm with interval Buxton Opera House £15 – £30 For one night only, get the chance to enjoy songs from all your favourite musicals, performed by the talented cast members of the BIF Company of 2021. Buxton Opera House and Buxton International Festival proudly present a tribute to the music of Rogers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. Join us for an unforgettable night of song and music from the maestros of musical theatre performed by the stars from the cast of A Little Night Music and the BIF Company. Hosted by celebrity guests and directed by Paul Kerryson, featuring Adrian Kelly, Wyn Davies and Iwan Davies at the grand piano.

Proceeds will support the ongoing work of Buxton Opera House and Buxton International Festival.

BBC PHILH A R M ONIC J E N N I FE R P I K E , V I O L I N Details to be confirmed The BBC Philharmonic is reimagining the orchestral experience for a new generation – challenging perceptions, championing innovation and taking a rich variety of classical music to the widest range of audiences. Through all its activities and endeavours, from its concerts and recordings to its technological innovations and dynamic learning programme, the BBC Philharmonic keeps one guiding ambition in mind – to bring life-changing music experiences to large and diverse audiences across the UK and around the world. After a triumphant first appearance at the 2019 Festival, the BBC Philharmonic returns to Buxton. Also returning is BIF’s Artist in Residence for 2021, Jennifer Pike.

Supported by

Full programme details to be announced on our website. 27

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

SONG AT SIX Mon 12, Fri 16, Wed 21, Sat 24 July Bandstand at Pavilion Gardens FREE Take a moment and enjoy a breath of fresh air along with music from talented young singers. Members of our Young Artists Programme will perform 15 minutes of al fresco song from 6pm at the Bandstand in the Pavilion Gardens. It is a long standing tradition, which is truly at the heart of Buxton International Festival, and what is more, it is free!

FE S TIVAL M A SSE S St John’s Church FREE donations welcome Buxton Musical Society and the Buxton Madrigal singers, under the direction of Michael Williams MBE, present three special services in the atmospheric setting of St John’s Church.

Sun 11 July 11am – 12.15pm Buxton Madrigal Singers and Orchestra J Haydn Missa Brevis in F

Sun 18 July 11am – 12.30pm Buxton Musical Society and Orchestra W A Mozart Missa Brevis in B flat

Sun 25 July 11am – 12.30pm Buxton Madrigal Singers T L de Victoria Missa O Quam Gloriosum Est Regnum

OPER A TALK S Digital Series FREE Our popular pre-opera talks are back, but with a difference. They will be ‘staged’ online before the Festival, via our YouTube channel, for this year only. Hear our creative team’s insights into the history, music and vision behind this year’s productions, from the comfort of your own home. Please check www.buxtonfestival.co.uk for details 29

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

M A RGA RE T M ACMILL AN Fri 9 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £12 War: How Conflict Shaped Us War began as Homo sapiens started to organise into groups. As societies have changed and technologies have developed, we have fought wars differently, often over greater distances and for longer. In turn, war has brought huge changes to society, for better and worse. Economies, science, technology, medicine, culture: all are instrumental to war and have been shaped by it. Best-selling author Margaret MacMillan FBA CC CH is Emeritus Professor of International History, University of Oxford and Professor of History, University of Toronto and was 2018 Reith Lecturer.

This would make a great companion event with Samir Puri’s Great Imperial Hangover

p.50

W IL DLIFE WALK W ITH M AR K COCK ER FE S T I VA L WA L K Fri 9 July 11.30am – 1pm Meet at the corner of Corbar Road and Lightwood Road £20 Also on Monday 12 July 3.30pm; Tuesday 20 July 11.30am Strictly limited to 20 people Buxton in high summer is a wonderful place for wildlife and is surrounded by local woods and fields of flowers. Buxton-born author and naturalist Mark Cocker will take advantage of these seasonal riches to show visitors an array of plants, birds, insects, as well as the local conditions. Perhaps bring boots, binoculars and a brolly but, above all, a sense of wonder.

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PELLÉ A S ENSEMBLE FL U T E , V I O L A A N D H A R P Fri 9 July 12pm – 1pm St John’s Church £25 A Bax Elegiac Trio R Peate Three Diversions P Tchaikovsky arr. L Tunnicliffe Russian Dance from Act 3 of Swan Lake F Couperin La Françoise from Les Nations M Ravel arr. J Morlock Selections from Le Tombeau de Couperin

Walks

FRIDAY 9 J ULY

Formed at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2011, Pelléas Ensemble have been praised for creating an immediate and intimate connection with their audiences. Playing with ‘verve and polish’ (The Times), they recently won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Henderson Chamber Ensemble Award, and the 2017 Elias Fawcett Award for Outstanding Chamber Ensemble at the Royal Overseas League competition. They have appeared live on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’ and have been selected to represent the Guildhall at the City of London Festival. The ensemble is dedicated to performing new music, premiering three new works in 2019, with two further commissions.

THE DANCING MASTER Fri 9 July 7.15pm See p.20

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

FRIDAY 9 J ULY

IAIN DA LE Fri 9 July 4pm – 5pm Pavilion Arts Centre £12

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along: Shout Less. Listen More In an increasingly divided society, why have we all become so disrespectful and intolerant? Using experiences from his career across politics, bookselling, broadcasting and publishing, Iain Dale has written both a passionate memoir and an empathetic polemic about the state of public discourse in Britain today. Iain is optimistic about the fundamental decencies embedded in human nature and uses personal anecdotes to explain why we can look forward, in a post-Covid, post-Brexit world, to a better life both in personal and material terms. Can we emerge from tribalism and division to be more respectful to each other?

K ATHRY N S TOT T PIANO Fri 9 July 3pm – 4pm and 5.30pm – 6.30pm St John’s Church £25 Let’s Dance! B Bartók Romanian Folk Dances C Debussy La plus que lente S Barber Excursions M Ravel Valses Nobles et Sentimentales A Ginastera Three Argentinian Dances Pianist Kathryn Stott is known for her interpretations of English and French classical repertoire, contemporary classical music and the tango. Her programme for this concert combines 32

three of these elements in a wonderful selection of pieces that will surely have your feet tapping in the aisles. Starting with Bartók’s popular Romanian Folk Dances, originally written for solo piano and later orchestrated by Barber himself, we move through French and neo-Romantic works to finish with a flourish of Argentinian Dances by Latin American composer Alberto Ginastera.

Buxton Carnival Day Opera

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SATUR DAY 10 J ULY

LOR D A DONIS, R ACHEL REE V E S MP, J ULIA N GLOV ER W ITH IA IN DALE Sat 10 July 10am – 11.30am Buxton Opera House £15 The Prime Ministers: 55 Leaders, 55 Authors, 300 Years of History Chosen by both The Sunday Times and The Times as a political book of the year, The Prime Ministers profiles all of Britain’s 55 Prime Ministers. In this unique event to BIF, Iain Dale, the book’s leading editor, brings together three of the prime ministerial champions and essayists, to discuss what qualities are needed to be a great Prime Minister – Julian Glover on John Major, Andrew Adonis on Tony Blair, Rachel Reeves on Harold Wilson and Iain himself on Boris Johnson. Expect a lively, informed, passionate discussion ranging across contemporary British politics.

THE ENCHANTED PIG Sat 10 July See p.26

A LIT TLE NIGHT MUSIC Sat 10 July 7.15pm See p.24

Longer Event! 90 minute event in Buxton Opera House

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

PAR M SA N DHU W ITH S T UA R T PREBBLE Sun 11 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £15 Black and Blue: One Woman’s Story of Policing and Prejudice Parm Sandhu joined the police in 1989 and rose through the ranks to become the highest ranking female British Asian officer in the Met. However, her time on the force was not without incidents of racial and gender discrimination, and she eventually found herself facing a spurious charge

of gross misconduct. Stuart Prebble was for many years a leading investigative journalist, notably on ITV’s World in Action programme and later became CEO of ITV. Together, in Black and Blue, friends Parm and Stuart, tell a story of a quest for justice and hope.

CR A IG OG DEN A N D HELEN THATCHER G U I TA R A N D C E L LO Sun 11 July 12.30pm – 1.30pm Pavilion Arts Centre £25 J Nin Suite Española J Zenamon Reflexoes No. 6 R Gnattali Sonata for guitar and cello in three movements E Granados Danza Española Op. 37 No. 5 Andaluza A Piazzolla Cafe 1930; Libertango Craig Ogden, one of the most exciting and extensively recorded guitarists of his generation, joins leading cellist, Helen Thatcher, to perform world-class music with a Latin twist. Ogden is the youngest instrumentalist to have received a Fellowship Award from the Royal Northern College of Music, where he is now head of Guitar. Helen Thatcher is well known as a founder cellist of the DIDO’S GHOST Sorrel Quartet and the Sun 11 July 7.15pm Erringden Ensemble. See p.16

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Walks

SUN DAY 11 J ULY

M A RK PA DMOR E A N D MORGA N SZ Y M A NSK I

S McNeff A Certain Man and Eden Rock (Settings of Charles Causley)

T E N O R A N D G U I TA R

F Schubert Nachtstück; Nacht und Träume

Sun 11 July 3pm – 4pm St John’s Church £25

J Dowland Songs from The Firste Booke of Songes

A Roth A Road Less Travelled (Settings of Edward Thomas) Described by The Times as ’mesmerizing‘, Mark Padmore has established himself as one of the most original and distinctive interpreters of his generation. He has been Artist in Residence with the Berlin Philharmonic and is Artistic Director of the St Endellion Summer Music Festival. His performances as the Evangelist in the Bach Passions are definitive, and he triumphed as Aschenbach in a new production of Britten’s Death in Venice at the Royal Opera House. In characteristic style, Mark Padmore’s programme with award-winning guitarist Morgan Szymanski takes us on a journey from the Renaissance right up to the present day, combining two wonderful contemporary British composers with two giants of the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

GILE S FR A SER Sun 11 July 4pm – 5pm Pavilion Arts Centre £12 Chosen: Lost and Found Between Christianity and Judaism In 2011, the Occupy movement set up camp around St Paul’s Cathedral. Giles Fraser, who was Canon Chancellor of the Cathedral publicly supported their cause. His remarkable book is the story of the personal crisis that followed. As Giles Fraser found himself crushed between the forces of protest, the needs of the church and the implacable City of London, he resigned, and fell into depression and thoughts of suicide. Giles’s exploration of his family’s Jewish past makes this both a fascinating personal story and a meditation on the healing power of theology.

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

M AT THE W PARRIS Mon 12 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £12 Fracture: Stories of How Great Lives Take Root in Trauma While presenting Great Lives on Radio 4, Matthew Parris noticed a trend in the lives of the exceptional men and women the programme covered: many of them had been marked by extreme trauma and deprivation. They seemed to have succeeded not only in spite of their backgrounds, but perhaps even because of them. The origins of the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Ada Lovelace, Edward Lear, Coco Chanel, and many more contribute to a study of success and the legacy of trauma discussed by arguably BIF’s favourite contributor.

TA BE A DEBUS AN D ELIZ ABE TH K ENN Y R ECO R D E R A N D L U T E Mon 12 July 12pm – 1pm St John’s Church £20 ‘Tabea Debus is one of the most exciting young musicians in the early music world…’ CLASSIC FM

WIL DLIFE WA LK WITH M A RK COCK ER FE S T I VA L WA L K Mon 12 July 3.30pm – 5pm Meet at the corner of Corbar Road and Lightwood Road £20 Also on Friday 9 July 11.30am; Tuesday 20 July 11.30am Strictly limited to 20 people See p.30 for information about this event 36

Recorder virtuoso Tabea Debus makes her Buxton Festival debut in a performance with lutenist Elizabeth Kenny, performing a programme titled ’Ohrworm’ (Earworm), which explores how tunes and dances wormed their way into many aspects of music-making in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe – and, in traversing the centuries, contemporary compositions testify to the earworm’s secured place in modern life. The programme will include works by Telemann, Johann Schop and Gareth Moorcraft.

Opera

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MON DAY 12 J ULY

M AR TIN ROSCOE

L van Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor Op. 13 Pathétique

PIANO

J Brahms Three Intermezzi, Op. 117

Mon 12 July 3pm – 4pm and 5.30pm – 6.30pm St John’s Church £25

R Wagner (arr. Liszt) Isolde’s Liebestod F Liszt Sonetto Del Petrarca 104 F Liszt Legend No. 2; St. Francis of Paula Walking On The Waves Martin Roscoe’s extraordinary career spans over four decades and he is one of the most regularly played pianists on BBC Radio 3, having had over 600 broadcasts including seven BBC Proms appearances. His recent concerto highlights include appearances with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra. ‘…I haven’t heard playing from any recent pianist that surpasses Roscoe’s…’ BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

CENDRILLON Mon 12 July 4pm

M A R TIN EDWA R DS, NICOL A UP SON WITH SA R A H WA R D

See p.22

Mon 12 July 4pm – 5pm The Assembly Rooms £15 The Moving Finger: Historical Crime Fiction and the Writer as Chronicler of the Past Historical crime fiction, where compelling stories are combined with evocative settings, remains ever popular with readers. Is it armchair tourism or can writers use a historical setting to shed light on contemporary preoccupations? Join crime authors Sarah Ward (writing as Rhiannon Ward), Martin Edwards, and Nicola Upson as they discuss the highs and pitfalls of writing historical fiction for ACIS AND a modern audience and GAL ATE A the extent to which they Mon 12 July 7.15pm draw on real-life crimes See p.18 and figures.

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

NICK H AY E S A N D GU Y SHRUBSOLE WITH M A RK COCK ER Tue 13 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £15 The English Countryside and the Long Battle for Public Access The English countryside and our access to it are part of a complex, troubled story, celebrated in Derbyshire’s own Mass Trespass. While 55 million citizens own on average seven-hundredths of an acre, half of England is still the private estate of 35 000 super-rich individuals. Only eight per cent of the countryside has public access. No one has done more to highlight the issues, politics and history behind these matters than writers and activists Nick Hayes and Guy Shrubsole, here in conversation with naturalist Mark Cocker.

This would make a great companion event with one of Mark Cocker’s Wildlife walks p.30

Sponsored by

JA ME S REBANK S IN CONVERSATION WITH JULIAN GLOVER Tue 13 July 12pm – 1pm Buxton Opera House £15 English Pastoral: An Inheritance

This would make a great companion event with Richard Fortey’s A Curious Boy

p.58

English Pastoral is the story of an inheritance. It tells of how rural landscapes around the world have been brought close to collapse, and the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things are being lost. And yet this elegy from the Lake District fells is also a song of hope: how, guided by the past, one farmer began to salvage a tiny corner of England, doing his best to restore the life that had vanished and to leave a legacy for the future. The No. 1 best-selling author of The Shepherd’s Life talks to Julian Glover, journalist and Chair of the Government’s review into our protected landscapes.

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TUE SDAY 13 J ULY

Walks

JENNIFER PIK E AND M AR TIN ROSCOE VIOLIN AND PIANO Tue 13 July 3pm – 4pm and 5.30pm – 6.30pm St John’s Church £30

L van Beethoven Spring sonata J Pike Violin Sonata N Paganini (arr. Szymanowski) Caprice No. 20 Renowned for her ‘dazzling interpretative flair and exemplary technique’ (Classic FM) the unique artistry of Jennifer Pike has taken the musical world by storm since she won the BBC Young Musician competition aged 12, while studying at Chetham’s School of Music. Her broad repertoire has included performances of Mozart with Rheinische Philharmonie, Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Singapore Symphony, Tchaikovsky with the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, and ‘The Lark Ascending’ at New York’s Carnegie Hall. For this performance, Jennifer is joined by esteemed pianist Martin Roscoe, with whom she performs and records regularly, for a wonderful programme of violin and piano duets.

THE DANCING MASTER Tue 13 July 7.15pm See p.20

TUE SDAY 13 J ULY

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

EQUINOX DUO FLU T E A N D H A R P Tue 13 July 12pm – 1pm The Assembly Rooms £15

H Harty In Ireland W Alwyn Niades, Fantasy sonata for flute and harp T Takemitsu Towards the Sea III C Nielsen The fog is lifting M Arnold Fantasy for flute Op. 89 A Scott Sonata for flute and harp Equinox Duo (Esther Beyer, harp and Mina Middleton, flute) began playing together as members of the National Youth Orchestra, but it was not until they were both studying at the Royal Academy of Music that they started performing as a duo. Since then, they have performed in various concerts around England, including The Hambleden Concert Series and Barnes Music Festival. Their programme for this concert includes jewels of the flute and harp repertoire. Fantasy for flute by Malcolm Arnold is a nod to the composer’s centenary and the rest of the programme predominantly includes British composers, finishing with the uplifting Scott sonata with its flamenco and jazz influences.

FE S TIVAL SALON WITH FIONA SA MP SON Tue 13 July 4pm – 5.15pm The Assembly Rooms £20 Includes a cup of tea Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Behind the romance of her extraordinary life, Elizabeth Barrett Browning stands as a thoroughly modern figure, who remains an electrifying study in self-invention. Elizabeth was born in 1806, a time when women could neither attend university nor vote, and yet she achieved lasting literary fame. She remains one of Britain’s greatest poets, a high-profile activist for the abolition of slavery who believed herself to be of mixed heritage; and a writer who defied chronic illness and long-term disability to change the course of cultural history. Our musical accompaniment to this event will be songs from Dominick Argento’s song cycle Casa Guidi. 40

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WEDNE SDAY 14 J ULY

M A R TIN L ATH A M

BEN M ACINT Y RE

Wed 14 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £12

IN CONVERSATION WITH JULIAN GLOVER Wed 14 July 12pm – 1pm Buxton Opera House £15 Agent Sonya Ursula Kuczynski Burton was a spymaster, saboteur, bomb-maker and secret agent. Codenamed ‘Agent Sonya’, her story had never been told. From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria, to preventing nuclear war (or so she believed) by stealing the science of atomic weaponry from Britain to give to Moscow, Ursula conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century. Ben Macintyre delivers an exhilarating tale that is as fast-paced as any fiction.

The Bookseller’s Tale Part cultural history, part literary love letter and part reluctant memoir, this is the story of our love affair with books, whether we arrange them on our shelves, inhale their smell, scrawl in their margins or just curl up with them in bed. Taking us on a journey through comfort reads, street book stalls, mythical libraries, itinerant pedlars, radical pamphleteers, extraordinary bookshop customers and fanatical collectors, Canterbury bookseller Martin Latham – proud to be responsible for the biggest petty cash claim in Waterstone’s history – uncovers the curious history of our book obsession.

GOSSIPING W ITH THE GEORGIANS FE S T I VA L WA L K Wed 14 July 11.30am – 1pm Meet outside Buxton Opera House £15 Also on Thursday 22 July at 3.30pm Strictly limited to 15 people

Join Anna Seward on a health-giving constitutional as she explains about her life as an acclaimed Georgian poet and unapologetically independent woman of enlightenment. Anna was a regular visitor to The Crescent in the latter part of the 1700s and early 1800s and has many tales of Georgian life to tell – about the accommodation on offer and her fellow guests staying at The Crescent. This walk will take you past the recently reopened Buxton Crescent Hotel and across the slopes to paint a picture of then and now. 41

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

JEFFRE Y M AK INSON ORGAN Wed 14 July 12pm – 1pm St John’s Church £20 J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in E flat major, BWV 552 (St Anne) N de Grigny Recit de tierce entaille F Mendelssohn Organ Sonata No. 1 in F minor F Jackson Impromptu Op. 5 L Vierne Pièces de fantaisie St John’s Church is lucky to have one of the finest organs in the diocese; a 4-manual William Hill organ dating from 1897, which is still referred to as ‘a magnificent piece of exceptional artistry’. We are delighted to welcome Jeffrey Makinson, Assistant Director of Music at Lincoln Cathedral, to play an exciting and varied concert including music by JS Bach, Nicolas de Grigny, Felix Mendelssohn and Francis Jackson, along with three works by the French composer Louis Vierne.

JACQUELINE RI DING Wed 14 July 4pm – 5pm Pavilion Arts Centre £12 Hogarth: Life in Progress On a warm Friday night in 1732, a rowdy group of friends set out on a ‘peregrination’ that took them through the scurrilous streets of Georgian London. Among them was an up-and-coming engraver and painter, just beginning to make a name for himself: William Hogarth. Returning to BIF after the success of her book Peterloo and the film of the same name on which she was historical advisor, Jacqueline illuminates an ambitious self-made man, philanthropist, satirist, devoted husband and an artist who aspired to the highest principles even while charting humanity’s lowest vices.

This would make a great companion event with Susan Owen’s Spirit of Place

p.56

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WEDNE SDAY 14 J ULY

Walks

TRIO ROUGE Wed 14 July 3pm – 4pm St John’s Church £20

M Arnold Piano Trio (1956) A Piazzolla Selection of Four Seasons Trio B Smetana Piano Trio Trio Rouge was formed in 2014 when all three members met in their first year at the Royal College of Music (RCM). Since then they have enjoyed performing in venues across London and Europe and were semi-finalists in the 2017 ROSL Annual Music Competition. They have chosen this programme as it includes three pieces that are extremely contrasting in style and character and takes both the performers and audience on a wonderful journey. The Malcolm Arnold Trio links to our violinist Sophie, who grew up in Northampton where Arnold was born and she regularly performed in the Malcolm Arnold Festival. Arnold also studied at the RCM, as did all three of the members of Trio Rouge.

DIDO’S GHOST

NACHTM USIK

Wed 14 July 7.15pm

N CO E N S E M B L E

See p.16

Wed 14 July 8.45pm – 9.45pm St John’s Church £30 A Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht Op. 4 S Barber Adagio for Strings R Strauss Metamorphosen (Septet version) For this meditative evening concert, string players from the Northern Chamber Orchestra play three masterpieces which invite us to reflect on impending night. Schoenberg’s late-romantic masterpiece Verklärte Nacht, or ‘Transfigured Night‘ was written in a frenzy of creativity in 1899, inspired by his meeting with Mathilde von Zemlinsky, with whom he fell deeply in love and whom he would later marry. The concert ends with Richard Strauss’ haunting Metamorphosen, played here in the Septet version. Written against the backdrop of the

closing years of the Second World War, it is an introspective work, melancholic, but also evoking memories of happier times. Supported by

Friends’ Day J ULIE T NICOL SON Thurs 15 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £12 Frostquake: The Frozen Winter of 1962 and How Britain Emerged a Different Country On Boxing Day 1962 the snow began to fall. It did not stop for ten weeks. In London, milkmen made deliveries on skis. On Dartmoor 2,000 ponies were buried in the snow, and starving foxes ate sheep alive. And, yet, underneath the frozen surface, new life was beginning to stir. A new breed of satirists threatened the complacent decadence of the British establishment. A gamechanging band from Liverpool topped the charts, becoming the ultimate symbol of an exuberant youthquake. When the thaw came, ten weeks of extraordinary weather had acted as a catalyst between two distinct eras.

J ENNIFER PIK E AN D PE TR LIMONOV VIOLIN AND PIANO Thurs 15 July 12pm – 1pm St John’s Church £30 G Bacewicz Polish Caprice W A Mozart Violin Sonata in G major K301 K Szymanowski Violin Sonata Poldowski (Regine Wieniawska) Tango Jennifer Pike explores her Polish heritage through the repertoire of some of the most distinctive voices in romantic Polish music accompanied by Russian-British pianist Petr Limonov, winner of the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition in 1998. Fundamental to the history of Polish music, Karol Maciej Szymanowski is considered the most celebrated Polish composer of the early 20th century and a member of the modernist movement Young Poland.

A LIT TLE NIGHT MUSIC Thurs 15 July 2pm and 7.15pm See p.24

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THUR SDAY 15 J ULY

M ARY COLWELL IN CONVERSATION WITH MARK COCKER Thurs 15 July 4pm – 5pm Pavilion Arts Centre £12 Beak, Tooth and Claw: Why Predators are Needed for a Healthy British Countryside

DAVID OWEN NORRIS E A R LY P I A N O Thurs 15 July 3pm – 4pm and 5.30pm – 6.30pm St John’s Church £25 Mozart’s Hero J C Bach Piano Sonatas from Op. 5 and Op. 17

From foxes and ravens attacking new-born lambs to weasels eating game-bird chicks, predators compete with us, putting them directly into the firing line. Farming, fishing, sport and leisure industries want to see numbers of predators reduced, and conservation organisations also worry that predators are threatening some endangered species. Other people, though, will go to great lengths to protect them from any harm. This clashing of worlds can be intense. So, what do we do?

W A Mozart Pieces from the London Sketchbook W A Mozart Piano Sonata in A minor K310 W A Mozart Variations on Ah! Vous dirai-je maman? Well-known for his witty and insightful programmes on radio and television, David Owen Norris has had a fantastically varied career as a composer, broadcaster, performer, academic and raconteur. In the wonderful acoustic of St John’s church, he will play his own Square Piano and explore how this unusual instrument featured in the friendship between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach’s youngest son, Johann Christian Bach.

V ER A BRIT TA IN A N D BUX TON IN THE FIR S T WORL D WA R FE S T I VA L WA L K

This would make a great companion event with The English Countryside and the Long Battle for Public Access. p.38

Join Netta Christie to hear more about Vera and the town she referred to as full of ‘censorious small-mindedness’. This walk will take you to Vera’s childhood home, St John’s church and to the Devonshire Dome to understand more about the town during the war years.

Thurs 15 July 3.30pm – 5pm Meet outside Buxton Opera House £15 Also on Monday 19 July 11.30am Strictly limited to 15 people 45

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

CENDRILLON Fri 16 July 4pm See p.22

THE DANCING MASTER Fri 16 July 7.15pm See p.20

P OLLY TOY NBEE A N D DAV I D WA LK ER Fri 16 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £15 The Lost Decade: 2010 – 2020 The decade since 2010 had been one of austerity and paralysis nurturing contempt for leaders, institutions and fellow citizens and fertilising the ground for a rebellious Brexit. Alternatively, the decade could be seen as having achieved the rise of renewable energy, low crime rates, the legislation of same sex marriage and with the creative industries continuing to punch well above their weight in spite of cuts. Two of Britain’s most notable social commentators bring their definitive survey of this most tumultuous period up to date for the Covid-era and look to what lies ahead for us all in our new world.

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FRIDAY 16 J ULY

DA ME SAR AH CONNOLLY AN D J OSEPH MI D DLE TON M E Z ZO - S O P R A N O A N D P I A N O Fri 16 July 12pm – 1pm Buxton Opera House £15 – £35 F Poulenc Banalités H Duparc Chanson triste; Au pays où se fait la guerre; Extase; L’invitation au voyage; Testament G Mahler Rückertlieder R Schumann Frauenliebe und-leben

Dame Sarah Connolly is widely recognised as one of the finest artists of her generation. Her operatic repertoire ranges from great Handelian heroes such as Xerxes and Ariodante to Wagner’s Brangäne and Fricka. She was nominated for an Olivier Award for her portrayal of Sesto in David McVicar’s Glyndebourne production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito. It is perhaps her unfailing ability to bring dramatic depth and nuance to her interpretations that distinguishes her most as an artist. Her programme for Buxton begins with the lush harmonies of some of the greatest French melodies, with Francis Poulenc’s Banalités and songs by Duparc. Dame Sarah Connolly has performed all of Mahler’s vocal works, and in this concert she sings the deeply moving Rückertlieder. She finishes with Schumann’s masterpiece, Frauenlieben und-leben, an intimate account of a woman’s love for a man. The cycle was written in 1840, Schumann’s so-called ‘year of song’ in which he wrote numerous songs and his four greatest song cycles. Pianist Joseph Middleton regularly collaborates with some of the UK’s finest singers. Described by BBC Music Magazine as ‘one of the brightest stars in the world of song and Lieder’ he is artistic director of Leeds Lieder.

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

PRO MENA DING W ITH MR EDWA R D MILNER FE S T I VA L WA L K Fri 16 July 11.30am – 1pm Meet outside Buxton Opera House £15 Also on Friday 23 July 3.30pm Strictly limited to 15 people

The Victorian and early Edwardian visitors to Buxton required more than the Buxton water to enliven their spirits. The Pavilion Gardens and the Buxton Opera House were just the tonic needed. The year 2021 marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Gardens. Mr Edward Milner was the landscape architect responsible for this masterpiece – an Alice-in-Wonderland-creation of lawns, arbours, shrubberies, streamlets, cascades, lakes and jutting crags, to delight the eye and lead from one sublime vista to the next.

FREDDY K EMPF PIANO Fri 16 July 3pm – 4pm and 5.30pm – 6.30pm St John’s Church £25 J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in F minor F Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 1 in C major S Rachmaninoff Études-Tableaux Op. 39 No. 8 P Tchaikovsky Dumka Op. 59 R Schumann Carnaval Op. 9 Exceptionally gifted with an unusually broad repertoire, Freddy Kempf has built a unique reputation as an explosive and physical performer who is not afraid to take risks as well as a serious, sensitive and profoundly musical artist. He is one of today’s most successful pianists performing to sell-out audiences all over the world. ‘In 2019, for the very first time in my life, I sat on a piano competition jury: none other than the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. My programme for Buxton was inspired by the challenging compulsory works set in the solo rounds. Almost everyone starts off with a Bach Prelude and Fugue, something I’ve not performed since competing there. I’ve picked my favourite, which is also the very first one I ever learned, aged 5. The Dumka is incredibly beautiful, and I’m delighted that people will, for once, hear this work NOT in the Tchaikovsky Competition.’ FREDDY KEMPF 48

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FRIDAY 16 J ULY

REBECC A WR AGG S Y K E S Fri 16 July 4pm – 5pm The Assembly Rooms £12 Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art Since their discovery more than 160 years ago, Neanderthals have metamorphosed from the losers of the human family tree to A-list hominins. Using her experience at the cutting-edge of Palaeolithic research, Rebecca casts aside clichés of rag-clad brutes in an icy wasteland. She reveals them to be curious, clever connoisseurs of their world, technologically inventive and ecologically adaptable over 300,000 of massive climate change. Rebecca is co-founder of the influential Trowelblazers project, which highlights women in archaeology, palaeontology and geology.

ZOR A DA TEM MINGH P H A N TO M O F T H E O P E R A (19 2 5 ) Fri 16 July 8.45pm – 10.15pm St John’s Church £20 After the success of her musical improvisation on the film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), Zorada Temmingh returns to the Festival with Phantom of the Opera. The 1925 American silent horror film is an adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney in the title role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House. Temmingh’s organ accompaniment of the film is based on music from the 19 century opera and ballet repertoire and uses well-known operatic motifs to depict themes and characters in the film. One of South Africa’s foremost organists, Temmingh pulls out all the stops to portray the emotional intensity of this black and white classic. 49

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

SA MIR PURI Sat 17 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £12 The Great Imperial Hangover: How Empires Have Shaped the World For the first time in millennia we live without formal empires. But that doesn’t mean we don’t feel their presence rumbling through history. The Great Imperial Hangover examines how the world’s imperial legacies are still shaping the thorniest issues we face today – from Russia’s incursions in the Ukraine to Brexit; from Trump’s ‘America-first’ policy to China’s forays into Africa; and from Modi’s India to the hotbed of the Middle East. Samir Puri is Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore and frequently appears on news programmes for Al Jazeera, the BBC and Sky.

M A X H A S TINGS Sat 17 July 12pm – 1pm Buxton Opera House £12 Operation Pedestal: The Fleet that Battled to Malta in 1942 In 1942, the Luftwaffe had a stranglehold on Malta. In the months of April and May, they dropped more bombs on the island than on London in the entire Blitz. British attempts to bring in supplies and reinforcements were failing with heavy losses, and the people on Malta were close to starvation. Operation Pedestal saw an armada of fifty British ships, painstakingly loaded with food and medical supplies, ammunition and fuel, attempt to fight its way in THE convoy to the island. Max ENCHANTED Hastings brings to life in his PIG trademark thrilling narrative this little-known yet epic and Sat 17 July 2pm pivotal naval battle. See p.26

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SATUR DAY 17 J ULY

RO DERICK W ILLIA MS AN D SUSIE A LL A N B A R I TO N E A N D P I A N O Sat 17 July 12pm – 1pm St John’s Church £30 G Butterworth Six songs from A Shropshire Lad J Ireland Summer Schemes, Sea Fever, Great Things I Gurney Desire in Spring, Walking Song, Severn Meadows, Captain Stratton’s Fancy B Britten Folksong arrangements R Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel

DIDO’S GHOST Sat 17 July 7.15pm See p.16

Roderick Williams and Susie Allan met as students and first worked together at the Kathleen Ferrier awards in the 1990s. They learned their trade touring Britain as winners of a National Federation of Music Societies (NFMS) award. Since then they have performed far and wide and have recorded several albums of English song. This countryside of Great Britain has inspired so many poets and composers to put pen to paper that the term ‘pastoral’ has been coined to describe a certain mode of English expression. This recital programme celebrates some of the very best British music, seeped in rural folk song and tradition. Roderick Williams is one of the most sought after baritones of his generation and enjoys relationships with all the major UK and European opera houses. In 2016 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Singer award and the prize for best choral composition at the British Composer Awards. Educated at Worcester College, Oxford, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, pianist Susie Allan has recently been appointed as a Repertoire Coach at the Royal Academy of Music.

SATUR DAY 17 J ULY

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

NATALIE CLEIN C E L LO Sat 17 July 3pm – 4pm and 5.30pm – 6.30pm St John’s Church £25 J S Bach C major Suite No. 3 for unaccompanied cello Z Kodály Solo cello sonata Op. 8 Described by The Times as ‘mesmerising’ and ‘soaringly passionate’, Natalie Clein OBE has built a distinguished career, regularly performing at major venues and with orchestras worldwide alongside conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Sir Roger Norrington, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and Heinrich Schiff. She records regularly for Hyperion, and her broad ranging discography includes works by Haydn, Saint-Saëns, Bloch, Bruch, Ligeti, Dallapiccola, Vaughan Williams, Frank Bridge and Rebecca Clarke. She is a professor at the Royal College of Music London and Music Academy Rostock and plays the ‘Simpson’ Guadagnini cello of 1777.

FE S TIVAL SALON WITH L AUR A THOMP SON Sat 17 July 4pm – 5.15pm The Palace Hotel £20 Includes a cup of tea Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies We fantasize about what we would do if we inherited a fortune: the house on Cheyne Walk? The Manolo Blahniks? The racehorses? But what would it be like, never to have to dream in that way? In a special pre-publication preview event, Laura Thompson, biographer of the Mitford Sisters, explores the historical phenomenon of the heiress. The Estate Builders; the Patrons; the Party Girls; and the Rebels. A famous heiress once said: ‘Life is less sad with money’. It should be true. But is it? 52

Our musical accompaniment to this event will be works written for the Paris Salon of Winnaretta Singer, inheritor of the sewing-machine fortune, by composers including Ravel and Fauré.

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SUN DAY 18 J ULY

LIZ ZIE BALL AN D MILOŠ MILI VOJ E V IC V I O L I N A N D ACCO R D I O N Sun 18 July 3pm – 4pm and 5.30pm – 6.30pm St John’s Church £25

ACIS AND GAL ATE A Sun 18 July 2pm and 7.15pm See p.18

Following a series of successful performances in recent years at Buxton International Festival, Lizzie Ball returns with an exciting new show, A Musical Portrait of Chanel and Stravinsky, alongside virtuoso accordionist Miloš Milivojevic. Together they will chart the artistic relationship between Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky, and their contemporaries through music and song. Lizzie Ball has been awarded an honorary degree from the University of Derby for her services and contribution to classical music and was named as one of the 50 most inspirational women of 2018 by The Daily Mail ‘Femail at 50’ feature.

HELENA AT TLEE

ISA BEL HAR DM AN

Sun 18 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £12

Sun 18 July 4pm – 5pm Pavilion Arts Centre £12 The Natural Health Service

Lev’s Violin: An Italian Adventure From the moment she hears Lev’s violin for the first time, Helena Attlee is captivated. She is told that it is an Italian instrument, named after its former Russian owner. Making its way from dusty workshops, through Alpine forests, cool Venetian churches, glittering Florentine courts, and far-flung Russian flea markets, Lev’s Violin takes us from the heart of Italian culture to its very furthest reaches. Helena is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and the acclaimed author of The Land Where Lemons Grow.

Never has a book been more timely. In The Natural Health Service, Isabel Hardman advocates the enormous benefits of living life in the great outdoors and reveals how fresh air and activity have proved the perfect tonic for her battles with depression and anxiety. Drawing on her own personal experience, interviews with mental illness sufferers and psychologists, and the latest research to examine what role wildlife and fresh air can play in helping anyone cope with mental illness.

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

PERSPEC TIVE S B R E X I T: O P E N I N G A N E W C H A P T E R Mon 19 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £15

Organised in partnership with the British Academy

Perspectives brings together Britain’s foremost thinkers and commentators to discuss some of the defining issues of our age More than four years after the referendum vote, Brexit is finally done. With a post-Brexit trade deal drawing a line under Britain’s tumultuous 47-year membership of the EU, focus has now shifted to the ‘new chapter’. So, what happens next, and how will the story unfold alongside other world events? From wrangling over details of the deal to rebuilding our position on the global stage, we ask leading political experts Vernon Bogdanor and Isabel Hardman to reflect on the first six months and future challenges. Professor Vernon Bogdanor FBA Professor of Government at the Institute of Contemporary British History, King’s College London Isabel Hardman Assistant Editor, The Spectator Chair: Professor David Reynolds FBA Emeritus Professor of International History and a Fellow of Christ’s College, University of Cambridge

K LE ZMER- ISH Mon 19 July 12pm – 1pm St John’s Church £25 Meet Klezmer-ish, four incredibly outwardlooking classically trained musicians who met whilst playing with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Drawing inspiration from the music of bygone travellers, the quartet explore the music of immigrants from various cultural backgrounds who left their homelands

in pursuit of a different life. From rip-roaring klezmer and dynamic tango to their self-penned gypsy jazz, Klezmer-ish bring a trademark twist to whatever genre takes their fancy on a seamless musical journey, always on the move.

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MON DAY 19 J ULY

FE S TIVAL SALON WITH WENDY MOORE Mon 19 July 4pm – 5.15pm The Assembly Rooms £20 Includes a cup of tea Endell Street: The Suffragette Surgeons of World War One

CONSONE QUAR TE T Mon 19 July 3pm – 4pm and 5.30pm – 6.30pm St John’s Church £25 J Haydn B flat major Op. 33 No. 4 F Mendelssohn String Quartet in E flat major (1823) The Consone Quartet is dedicated to exploring and recreating the sound world of the Classical and early Romantic repertoire on period instruments. Winner of the 2016 Royal Overseas League Ensemble Prize, the quartet are BBC New Generation Artists for the 2019-2021 season, making them the first and only period string quartet to have been accepted onto the scheme in its history.

When the First World War broke out, the suffragettes suspended their campaigning and joined the war effort. Wendy Moore, best-selling author of Wedlock and The Mesmerist, recounts the astonishing story of pioneering doctors, suffragettes and life partners, Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson. Against fierce opposition, the two women set up a 573-bed hospital staffed by female surgeons, doctors and nurses receiving 26 000 casualties over the next four years and creating such a caring atmosphere that soldiers begged to be sent to Endell Street. Our musical accompaniment to this event will explore the music of suffragette composer Ethel Smythe.

V ER A BRIT TA IN A N D BUX TON IN THE FIR S T WORL D WA R FE S T I VA L WA L K Mon 19 July 11.30am – 1pm Meet outside Buxton Opera House £15 Also on Thursday 15 July 3.30pm Strictly limited to 15 people See p.45 for information about this event 55

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

SUSAN OWENS Tue 20 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £12

BIF CHA MBER ENSEMBLE 2021: CO R R A N Q UA R T E T Tue 20 July 12pm – 1pm St John’s Church £20 L van Beethoven String quartet No. 131 in C sharp minor A Webern Langsamer Satz The string quartet is a musical conversation between four people, four instruments and four hearts.

Spirit of Place: Artists, Writers and the British Landscape British landscape painting is often said to be an invention of the eighteenth century. Yet when we look for representations of the country in British art and literature, we find a story that begins with Old English poetry and continues its winding path up to the present day. Spirit of Place offers a panoramic view of the British landscape as seen through the eyes of writers and artists from Bede and the Gawain poet to Gainsborough, Austen, WG Sebald and Barbara Hepworth.

The Buxton International Festival is proud to launch its inaugural BIF Chamber Ensemble initiative at this year’s summer festival. The BIF Chamber Ensemble is a platform to provide mentoring, engagement, and performance opportunities to talented chamber ensembles working in the United Kingdom. There has never been a more important time to support emerging professional musicians, many of whom have been badly affected by the pandemic. The project will provide the ensemble with five concerts, two at the festival and three more throughout the year in local National Trust properties. Our very first BIF Chamber Ensemble for 2021 is the multi-talented Corran Quartet. The quartet studied with James Boyd and Catherine Manson through ‘MusicWorks’ and performed live on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’. Supported by Granada Foundation

WIL DLIFE WA LK WITH M A RK COCK ER FE S T I VA L WA L K Tue 20 July 11.30am – 1pm Meet at the corner of Corbar Road and Lightwood Road £20 Also on Friday 9 July 11.30am; Monday 12 July 3.30pm Strictly limited to 20 people See p.30 for information about this event 56

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TUE SDAY 20 J ULY

The Habsburgs: To Rule the World In a Sunday Times, Financial Times, TLS and Daily Telegraph Book of the Year 2020, Martyn Rady tells an epic story of a dynasty and the world it built – and then lost – over nearly a millennium. From modest origins, the Habsburgs grew in power to gain control of the Holy Roman Empire. Then, in just a few decades, their possessions rapidly expanded to take in a large part of Europe stretching from Hungary to Spain, and from the Far East to the New World. The Habsburgs were a remarkable dynasty that, for better or for worse, shaped Europe and the World.

M A R T Y N R A DY Tue 20 July 4pm – 5pm The Assembly Rooms £12

ACIS AND GAL ATE A Tue 20 July 2pm and 7.15pm See p.18

CR E ATING C A R MEN Tue 20 July 5.30pm – 6.30pm Pavilion Arts Centre £25 Prosper Mérimée is struggling with his latest novella, when his leading character, Carmen, appears in his study, larger than life, with a band of musicians in tow and chaos in her wake. Who is in control of the narrative? And what happens when Carmen discovers the tragic ending Mérimée has planned for her? Clare Norburn’s latest work, Creating Carmen, focuses on the struggle of the iconoclastic writer Prosper Mérimée as he struggles to write a work

in a new genre, the novella Carmen, upon which Georges Bizet’s opera would later be based. Expect a fun-filled evening of fantasy, comedy, drama and music arranged from Bizet’s Carmen and Spanish-inspired music by Luigi Boccherini, Manuel de Falla, Federico García Lorca, Enrique Granados, Maurice Ravel and Isaac Albéniz, arranged for an ensemble of guitars, flute and voice. Nicholas Renton directs.

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

RICHAR D FOR TE Y IN CONVERSATION WITH MARK COCKER Wed 21 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £12 A Curious Boy: The Making of a Scientist Richard Fortey retired from his position as senior palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in 2006. In his memoir, Richard tells the story of how as a young boy he became fascinated with the natural world, leading to a long life exploring its secrets. A great brown trout caught by his father opens up the world of fish, streams and rivers. A blue thrush’s egg takes us out tramping through water meadows and into the social world of birds and trees. Richard takes us back to his past as a small boy who was allowed a little shed at the bottom of the garden in which to play chemist.

A N DRE W M A R R Wed 21 July 12pm – 1pm Buxton Opera House £15 The Elizabethans: How Modern Britain Was Forged When the Queen stepped up to receive her crown in 1953 at the age of twenty-five, Britain was a very different nation. Broadcaster Andrew Marr tells the story of modern Britain through the people who shaped it: from Sylvia Plath to Elvis Costello, Frank Critchlow to Bob Geldof, Zaha Hadid to James Dyson, David Attenborough to the Beatles. How did our activists, our innovators, our artists, our every-kind-of-mover-and-shaker define and progress this new Elizabethan era over the last seven decades? And how does that shape our understanding of what it means to be a Briton today?

Opera

Music

Books

FLEUR BA RRON AN D A DRIA N K ELLY M E Z ZO - S O P R A N O A N D P I A N O Wed 21 July 12pm – 1pm St John’s Church £20

Walks

WEDNE SDAY 21 J ULY

R Schumann Himmel und Erde C Ives The Light that is Felt, At the River Chinese Folksong, Northeast Lullaby J Brahms Gang zum Liebchen, Auf dem Kirchhofe, Unbewegte laue Luft F Price The Heart of a Woman E Korngold In meine innige Nacht, Op.18 Chen Yi Monologue from Meditation, Bright Moonlight F Schubert Tiefes Leid, Totengräbers Heimweh Huang Tzu Flower in the Mist H Dutilleux Il n’y avait que des troncs déchirés G Fauré La mer est infinie (from L’horizon chimerique) C Schumann Liebst du um Schönheit Li Yinghai Spring Dawn Singaporean-British mezzo Fleur Barron has been hailed in The Times as ‘a knockout performer’. Recent highlights have included her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic as well as the title role in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover, and Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress at La Monnaie and Aldeburgh Festival. She curates and performs a series of recitals at the Aix-en-Provence Festival on the theme of Empire/colonialism and has given recitals at Het Concertgebouw, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Oxford Lieder.

MICHAEL SPIT ZER Wed 21 July 4pm – 5pm Pavilion Arts Centre £12 The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth 165 million years ago saw the birth of rhythm. 66 million years ago was the first melody. 40 thousand years ago Homo sapiens created the first musical instrument. Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet music remains an overlooked

part of our origin story. Renowned musicologist Michael Spitzer boldly makes the case that music is the most important thing we ever did; it is a fundamental part of what makes us human. 59

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

WEDNE SDAY 21 J ULY

FIT Z W ILLIA M S TRING QUAR TE T Wed 21 July 3pm – 4pm and 5.30pm – 6.30pm St John’s Church £25 J Haydn String quartet Op. 77 No. 2 in F major L van Beethoven String quartet No. 135 in F major The Fitzwilliam Quartet recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Quartet has established an outstanding reputation across the world, gaining particular recognition for championing the works of Dmitri Shostakovich, who entrusted them with the world premières of his last three quartets. They are committed to commissioning new works and host their own Chamber Music Festival at Hay-on-Wye. Their programme this year is a clever juxtaposition of both Haydn’s and Beethoven’s last quartets, that both happen to be in F major.

S TRIC TLY MUSIC AL A C H A R I T Y G A L A CO N C E R T Wed 21 July 8pm with interval Buxton Opera House £15 – £30 Buxton Opera House and Buxton International Festival proudly present a tribute to the music of Rogers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. Join us for an unforgettable night of song and music from the maestros of musical theatre performed by the stars from the cast of A Little Night Music and the BIF Company. Hosted by celebrity guests and directed by Paul Kerryson, featuring Wyn Davies and Iwan Davies at the grand piano. Proceeds will support the ongoing work of Buxton Opera House and Buxton International Festival.

Friends’ Day Opera

Music

Books

Walks

THUR SDAY 22 J ULY

DR WA HEED A RIA N

In the Wars: A Story of Conflict, Survival and Saving Lives

Thurs 22 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £12

Born in war-torn Afghanistan, Waheed Arian’s earliest memories are of bombs. Fleeing the conflict with his family, he spent much of his childhood in refugee camps in Pakistan, living sometimes ten to a room without basic sanitation or access to education. But how does a boy with nothing, hope to become a doctor? Dr Arian has written an extraordinary memoir of a boy who recognized the power of education and dreamed about helping others and created a tale of courage, ambition and unwavering resilience.

THE FIBONACCI SEQUENCE Thurs 22 July Triple Bill St John’s Church 10.30am – 11.30am £25 J S Bach Sonata in G minor BWV 1020 (violin & harp) C Saint-Saëns Fantasie Op. 124 (violin & harp) J Turina Ciclo Plateresco, Theme and Variations Op. 100 (harp & piano) J Guridi Viejo Zorticofor (harp solo) R Clarke Midsummer Moon (violin & piano) J S Bach Arioso from Piano concerto in F minor (violin & harp)

2.30pm – 3.30pm £25 L van Beethoven Quintet Op. 16 (oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn & piano) J Ibert Cinq Piècesen en Trio (oboe, clarinet & bassoon) J Brahms Horn Trio (violin, horn and piano)

5.30pm – 6.30pm £25 L van Beethoven Quartet Op. 16 (violin, viola, cello & piano) J Sibelius Andante con Moto from Suite in A for string trio E von Dohnányi Sextet (clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello and piano)

Andrew Marriner clarinet Richard Skinner bassoon Stephen Stirling horn Robert Salter violin Yuko Inoue viola Ashok Klouda cello Kathron Sturrock piano Gillian Tingay harp Every performance by the ‘Fibs’ includes programming that juxtaposes specific chamber music repertoires. These programmes are the brainchild of Kathron Sturrock, whose instinctive and inspired approach often includes less wellknown works of the great composers. This year The Fibonacci Sequence perform both versions of Beethoven’s Opus 16, the original quartet for piano and string trio, and the version Beethoven made soon afterwards for piano and four winds. In the first concert, there is a particular focus on repertoire for harp and the second concert features the marvellous Horn Trio by Brahms. 61

THUR SDAY 22 J ULY

Friends’ Day

NEIL OLI V ER Thurs 22 July 12pm – 1pm Buxton Opera House £15

FE S TIVAL SALON WITH SAR AH A SPINALL Thurs 22 July 4pm – 5.15pm The Assembly Rooms £20 Includes a cup of tea Diamonds at the Lost and Found: A Memoir in Search of My Mother Sarah Aspinall grew up in the glittering wake of her irrepressible mother Audrey. Born into poverty in 1930s Liverpool, Audrey had always known that she was destined for better things and was determined to shape that destiny for herself. From the fading seaside glamour of Southport, to New York and Hollywood, to post-war London and the stately homes of the English aristocracy, Audrey stylishly kicked down every door she encountered, on a ceaseless quest for excitement – and for love.

Wisdom of the Ancients: Life Lessons from our Distant Past For all we have gained in the modern world, simple peace of mind is hard to find. Neil Oliver takes us back in time, to consider the ideas buried in forgotten cultures and early civilizations. From Laetoli footprints in Tanzania to Keralan rituals, stone circles and cave paintings, Oliver takes us on a global journey through antiquity. He distils this wisdom into twelve messages that have endured the test of time, inviting us to reflect upon how they might apply to our lives today.

GOSSIPING W ITH THE GEORGIANS FE S T I VA L WA L K Thurs 22 July 3.30pm – 5pm Meet outside Buxton Opera House £15 Also on Wednesday 14 July at 11.30am Strictly limited to 15 people See p.41 for information about this event 62

Our musical accompaniment to this event will transport us to some of the locations of Audrey’s flamboyant story.

THE DANCING MASTER Thurs 22 July 7.15pm See p.20

Opera

Music

Books

Walks

FRIDAY 23 J ULY

N A ZIR AF Z AL Fri 23 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £12 The Prosecutor Nazir Afzal knows a thing or two about justice. As a Chief Prosecutor, it was his job to make sure the most complex, violent and harrowing crimes made it to court, and that their perpetrators were convicted. From the Rochdale sex ring to the earliest prosecutions for honour killing and modern slavery. His story begins in 1960s Birmingham as a young boy facing racist violence and the tragic death of a young family member. This sets him on the path to his ground-breaking career, enabling him to help communities that the conventional justice system ignores and giving a voice to the voiceless.

ROSL PRE SENT S K RIS GA RFIT T W ITH SERI DA N TROMBONE AND PIANO Fri 23 July 12pm – 1pm The Assembly Rooms £15

E Bozza Ballade L Berio Trombone Sequenza V C M von Weber Romance A Guilmant Morceau Symphonique E Crespo Improvisation F Martin Ballade J G Albrechtsberger Alto Trombone Concerto Winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Gold Medal in 2019 and the 2018 International Tenor and Bass Trombone Competition in Budapest, Kris Garfitt is a member of the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. He performs regular duo concerts with the exceptional Korean pianist, Seri Dan. Since 2018 they have performed in Lithuania, China, Korea and have toured in England and Germany. This programme is a tour de force of the trombone repertoire, from the stunning lyricism of Eugene Bozza’s Ballade and Weber’s Romance to the unique Improvisation of Enrique Crespo, demonstrating the true range of which the trombone is capable.

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

SIMON HEFFER

Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1): 1918-38

Fri 23 July 12pm – 1pm Buxton Opera House £15

Born in Chicago in 1897, ‘Chips’ Channon settled in England after the Great War, married into the immensely wealthy Guinness family, and served as Conservative MP for Southend-on-Sea from 1935 until his death in 1958. His career was unremarkable. His diaries are quite the opposite. Elegant, gossipy and bitchy by turns, they are the unfettered observations of a man who went everywhere and who knew everybody. A heavily abridged and censored edition of the diaries was published in 1967. Only now, sixty years after Chips’s death, can the original text be shared.

THE ENGLISH CONCER T

The English Concert is an outstanding orchestra: exceptional, in the world-renowned quality, ambition and variety of its live and recorded output; unique, in the zeal of its players for working and performing together; unwavering, in its desire to connect with its audience throughout the world.

Fri 23 July 3pm – 4.45pm with interval St John’s Church £30

Their programme for 2021 showcases the exquisite soprano voice of Elizabeth Watts, as well as some of the groups virtuosic string players in an allItalian programme of operatic arias by Alessandro Scarlatti and short concertos from Antonio Vivaldi’s seminal work, L’estro armonico.

Supported by

Opera

Music

Books

Walks

FRIDAY 23 J ULY

SIR JOHN TOMLINSON A N D ROZ ANNA M A DY LUS B A S S A N D M E Z ZO - S O P R A N O Fri 23 July 7.15pm – 9.15pm with interval Buxton Opera House £30 - £50 The Shackled King written by John Casken Brünnhilde’s Dream music by various composers

MICH A EL TAY LOR Fri 23 July 4pm – 5pm Pavilion Arts Centre £12 The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery In 1807, Parliament outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire, but for the next quarter of a century, despite heroic and bloody rebellions, more than 700 000 people in the British colonies remained enslaved. And when a renewed abolitionist campaign was mounted, making slave ownership the defining political and moral issue of the day, emancipation was fiercely resisted by the powerful ‘West India Interest’. When abolition came at last, compensation worth billions in today’s money was given not to the enslaved but to the slaveholders, entrenching the power of their families to shape modern Britain to this day.

Sir John Tomlinson, who has been striding the world’s opera stages for several decades, notably in the role of Wotan in Wagner’s Ring, has long been contemplating the central role of Shakespeare’s King Lear and sees parallels between the two characters. This new musical drama written by John Casken affords him the opportunity to incarnate the aging, delusional king in a musical setting that incorporates Shakespeare’s text in the form of speech, sprechstimme and singing. Rozanna Madylus takes the parts of the Fool, Cordelia and her sisters. She is also the soloist in Brünnhilde’s Dream, a sequence of words and music imagining the state of mind of Wotan’s favourite Valkyrie daughter as she lies on the rock, surrounded by fire, after the end of Die Walküre. Music by R Wagner, F Mendelssohn, F Schubert, R Schumann, A von Zemlinsky, A Berg, K Szymanowski, H W Henze and J Müller-Hermann.

PRO MENA DING W ITH MR EDWA R D MILNER FE S T I VA L WA L K Fri 23 July 3.30pm – 5pm Meet outside Buxton Opera House £15 Also on Friday 16 July 11.30am Strictly limited to 15 people See p.48 for information about this event 65

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

PE TROC TREL AWN Y AND SIMON HEFFER Sat 24 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £15 A Land Without Music? After our final performance of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master, journalist, writer and music-lover Simon Heffer makes the case for English music. Why do we neglect our own musical history? Have we been conditioned to believe that music from the European mainland is simply better? In what promises to be a lively conversation with Radio 3 presenter Petroc Trelawny, Simon Heffer will reflect on the lives of composers including Arnold, George Lloyd and John Foulds, and recommend to audience members three forgotten works that deserve their attention.

JA M AL ALI Y E V AN D M A K SIM Š T ŠUR A C E L LO A N D P I A N O Sat 24 July 12pm – 1pm St John’s Church £20 R Schumann Drei Fantasiestucke Op. 73 P Tchaikovsky Nocturne, Op. 19 No. 4 C Franck Sonata in A N Paganini Moses Variations Rising Star Jamal Aliyev won a Concert Artists Guild Prize in New York. Recent highlights include his debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the St. Magnus Festival broadcast by Radio 3. In 2017 Jamal made his BBC Proms debut, won the Arts Club – Sir Karl Jenkins Music Award and was a prize winner at the YCAT International Auditions in London. His debut CD Russian Masters was released by Champs Hill Records to critical acclaim. 66

Opera

Music

Books

SATUR DAY 24 J ULY

Walks

FE S TIVAL SALON WITH IAN BR A DLE Y Sat 24 July 4pm – 5.15pm The Palace Hotel £20 Includes a cup of tea Health, Hedonism and Hypochondria: A Hidden History of Spas From Romans to royalty and hypochondriacs to holiday-makers, natural water spas have been a common feature in society since the first century. In their heyday, Europe’s spas, including Buxton, were the main meeting places for aristocracy, politicians and cultural elites. They were the centres of political and diplomatic intrigue, and were fertile sources of artistic, literary and musical inspiration. Our musical accompaniment for this event will be a short programme of operetta with a spa connection.

CENDRILLON Sat 24 July 2pm See p.22

E X C ATHEDR A Sat 24 July 5pm – 6.15pm and 8.45pm – 10pm St John’s Church £25 Summer Music by Candlelight Jeffrey Skidmore’s choir is known for its passion for seeking out the best, the unfamiliar and the unexpected in the choral repertoire, and for giving dynamic performances underpinned by detailed research. We welcome back this festival favourite, who had sold-out concerts in 2018 and 2019, to perform by the glow of candles in St John’s church for another magical midsummer evening.

A LIT TLE NIGHT MUSIC Sat 24 July 2pm and 7.15pm

The atmospheric compilation of words and music is inspired by four centuries of seasonal pieces including hidden gems, stunning new arrangements and some well-known favourites. Early booking is recommended.

See p.24 67

Opera

Music

Books

Walks

SUN DAY 25 J ULY

SELINA TO DD Sun 25 July 10am – 11am Pavilion Arts Centre £12 Snakes and Ladders: The Great British Social Mobility Myth From servants’ children who became clerks in Victorian Britain, to managers made redundant by the 2008 financial crash, travelling up or down the social ladder has been a fact of British life for more than a century. Snakes and Ladders shows how a powerful elite on the top rungs have clung to their perch and prevented others ascending. It also introduces the unsung heroes who created more room at the top – among them adult educators, feminists and trade unionists, whose achievements unleashed the hidden talents of thousands of people.

The Value of Friendship

We wouldn’t be here without you…

Even in a year without a festival, the Friends of Buxton International Festival have played a key role supporting the BIF team and ensuring we have the glorious mix of opera, music and book events you are holding in your hands right now. Without the Friends there would be no ‘Buxton Buzz’ every summer. As a Friend, you are first to receive news about the festival, are invited to events throughout the year, can access exclusive deals on music holidays and benefit from the pick of the seats during the festival with your priority booking access. This year we are pleased to have launched a ‘Next Generation’ level of Friends’ membership for those under 35 – with tickets of only £10 for any performance. With reduced capacity due to social distancing potentially still in place in July, many performances are likely to sell out before public booking opens. Become a Friend today to book your place as live performance returns to Buxton.

The fact that there is a festival this year is down to your incredible support and generosity. We cannot thank you enough for seeing us through such difficult and uncertain times, be it with donations, advice or words of encouragement and hope. This year’s festival is for you, enjoy it – you’ve all played a part in making it happen!

Michael Williams CEO, Buxton International Festival Pete Spriggs Chair, Friends of Buxton International Festival To join, search ‘Friends’ on B U X T O N F E S T I VA L .CO.U K

Annual Membership starts from £33

FRIENDS E VENT S As a special thanks to our Friends this year we will have two free Friends-only performances in St John’s Church BIF CHAMBER ENSEMBLE Sun 11 July at 5.30pm

YO U N G A R T I S T S L E D BY O U R A R T I S T I C D I R E C TO R A D R I A N K E L LY Tue 20 July at 3pm

Please indicate your preferred recital when booking. We can offer one ticket per Friend (two for Joint Friends). If the events are full when you try to book we will make a note and offer another ‘thank you’ in 2022.

For more details see buxtonfestival.co.uk/friends 69

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

CO M P TO N GUEST HOUSE

GRENDON BED & B R E A K FA S T

QUEEN’S HE AD HOTEL

Beautiful Victorian Guest house with all its original features. We are a family business that is trying to create a warm homely feeling on a warmly low price. We are in the heart of Buxton with close walking distance to the Opera House and other attractions. We have a large patio area where you can sit and relax.

Grendon, a stunning Edwardian property, is situated on a quiet road within walking distance of Buxton town centre. With recently refurbished bedrooms and ensuite bathrooms, we offer luxury B&B for those looking for high class accommodation with a homely, personal touch.

B&B in our newly built accommodation rooms and converted stable block. All 13 of our rooms have central heating, en suite bathrooms, tea/coffee making facilities and Sky’s ‘inroom’ television service. Larger groups requiring accommodation are welcome but it’s best to call with your requirements.

07484 200 254 4 Compton Road Buxton SK17 9DN comptonguesthouse.co.uk

01298 436259 Bishops Lane Buxton SK17 6UN stay@grendonbnb.co.uk

01298 23841 High Street Buxton SK17 6EU queensbuxton.co.uk

ROSELEIGH GUEST HOUSE

T H E PA L AC E H O T E L B U X T O N & S PA

OLD HALL HOTEL

Just five minutes’ walk from Buxton Opera House, this Victorian 13-bedroom, family run, non-smoking guest house built in 1871 overlooks the Pavilion Gardens. Free parking for up to 9 cars. B&B from £39pp based on two people sharing en suite. Visit our website for a virtual tour.

Set in five acres of landscaped gardens and centrally located, we offer 186 en suite rooms. We have a Beauty Salon, bars and leisure facilities including a 14-metre indoor pool. Pre-theatre dinners are available in our Dovedale Restaurant from 6pm.

Situated across the square from the Opera House we are the ideal base for your Festival visit. We have 38 individually decorated bedrooms, from single to four poster, all with en suite and free wifi. Choose between our restaurant and wine bar. B&B, and Dinner B&B rates available.

01298 24904 19 Broad Walk Buxton SK17 6JR enquiries@roseleighhotel.co.uk roseleighhotel.co.uk

01298 22001 Palace Road Buxton SK17 6AG britanniahotels.com/hotels/ palace-hotel-buxton

01298 22841 The Square Buxton SK17 6TQ reception@oldhallhotelbuxton.co.uk oldhallhotelbuxton.co.uk

WHERE TO S TAY

C AV E N D I S H H O T E L , B A S LO W Based on the Chatsworth Estate, we are a short walk from Chatsworth House itself. Absorb stunning views of unspoilt beauty, captured effortlessly from your bedroom window. Highly acclaimed food, luxury accommodation and a perfect base to take in the sights of the Peak District and surrounding area. 01246 582311 Baslow, Derbyshire DE45 1SP reception@cavendishbaslow.co.uk cavendishbaslow.co.uk

LEE WOOD HOTEL Set in its own mature grounds, this elegant Georgian hotel is situated only a few moments’ walk from the centre of the spa town and its famous opera house. Family owned for 56 years, our 4-star hotel offers high quality accommodation and award-winning dining. 01298 23002 The Park Buxton SK17 6TQ leewoodhotel.co.uk

WHEELDON T R E E S FA R M

T H E S E R VA N T S’ Q UA R T E R S

Nine award-winning self-catering holiday cottages in Derbyshire, in a spectacular location close to Buxton and Bakewell.

This award-winning self-catering cottage comfortably sleeps 4. The well-equipped, light and airy accommodation includes two double bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. Only a 5-minute walk to the Opera House.

01298 83219 Earl Sterndale Buxton SK17 0AA stay@wheeldontreesfarm.co.uk wheeldontreesfarm.co.uk

07749 821 438 14 St James Terrace Buxton SK17 6HS stay@theservantsquarters.co.uk theservantsquarters.co.uk

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

BAKEWELL OLD HOUSE MUSEUM So much to explore in this Tudor building, tucked away behind Bakewell Church. An eclectic collection of artefacts in large beamed rooms. Wedding gowns over the ages on display. Timed entry tickets. Please see our website for full information on open hours and times. 01629 813642 Cunningham Place Bakewell DE45 1DD oldhousemuseum.org.uk

P O O L E’ S C AV E R N

WHERE TO V ISIT

BUX TON MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY Explore the geology and archaeology of the Peak District in our Wonders of the Peak Gallery. Art lovers will enjoy a celebration of Brian Nolan’s paintings of Manchester and the Peak District; and an exhibition of Susan Dodd and Penny Kealey’s vibrant works reflecting the rich variety of Derbyshire Heritage. 01629 533540 Terrace Road, Buxton SK17 6DA derbyshire.gov.uk/buxtonmuseum

ISL A FINE ART CARDS & GIFTS

For centuries curious visitors have explored and marvelled at the natural subterranean world that is Poole’s Cavern. Explore today with our expert guides and journey though the beautifully illuminated chambers to discover for yourself the magnificent underground scenery of the Peak District.

Aimed at the discerning customer, we stock a carefully curated range of beautiful and stylish gifts and cards alongside a selection of art by local artists and artisans. If you are looking for something a bit different in Buxton, this is the shop for you.

01298 26978 Green Lane Buxton SK17 9DH info@poolescavern.co.uk poolescavern.co.uk

01298 938492 4b & 5 The Colonnade Buxton SK17 6AL isla@isladirect.co.uk isladirect.co.uk

DAV I D M E L LO R Modern design in the Peak District National Park. Visit the famous David Mellor Cutlery Factory, Design Museum, Café and Shop for the best in modern tableware and kitchenware. The free museum shows Mellor’s historic designs, from teaspoons to traffic lights. 01433 650220 The Round Building Hathersage S32 1BA davidmellordesign.co.uk

CROMFORD MILLS Discover how Sir Richard Arkwright’s Cromford Mills shaped the world from the picturesque Derwent Valley. Built in 1771 to house the first water-powered cotton spinning mill, the site became the birthplace of the modern factory system. Immerse yourself in history and enjoy our quirky shops, canal-side walks and the best scones in Derbyshire! 01629 823256 Mill Lane, Cromford DE4 3RQ info@arkwrightsociety.org.uk cromfordmills.org.uk

WHERE TO E AT

CO LU M B I N E

EVERY THING ROSY INTERIORS & V I N TAG E T E A R O O M S

We are a small independent restaurant 3 minute’s walk from Buxton’s Opera House serving modern British food, cooked to order. We are open for both pre and post theatre suppers by prior reservation.

A range of gorgeous gifts, fashion & home accessories available from our Interiors shop, with ranges such as Powder accessories & Voyage home décor.

01298 78752 7 Hall Bank Buxton SK17 6EW columbinerestaurant.co.uk

01298 78778 4–8 Hardwick Street Buxton SK17 6DH everythingsrosyinteriors.com

H AT T E R S L E Y W I N E S LT D

From our Vintage Tearooms, a variety of sandwiches, paninis, Derbyshire oatcakes & locally baked sweet treats.

JOHN WHIBLEY “ H O L I DAYS W I T H MUSIC”

B U X TO N PUDDING EMPORIUM Home of the Original Buxton Pudding and a huge selection of Fine Foods, Gifts and Homeware. Our Tasting Rooms are open every day for the very finest hand made food. Situated just opposite the Opera House. Open 10am – 5.30pm.

01298 211 288 4 The Square Buxton SK17 6AZ

CENTRAL T E C H N O LO G Y

In selecting our wines, we invest time and effort into knowing about the provenance, so our wines are from small select vineyards with a strong family tradition of winemaking. This is where our passion for wine springs from and we hope to pass this enthusiasm on to you.

We organise a range of holidays from world-renowned festivals to city breaks and small chamber music festivals in Europe, America and the UK. We’ll take you to historically interesting places to listen to some of the world’s best music.

We specialise in IT services which enhance business processes and our unique partnership approach ensures that we create solutions that will grow with businesses through our Managed Services, Cloud and Data Security Solutions. We work with organisations across all sectors in Sheffield and the East Midlands.

01629 815255 Milford Bakewell DE45 1DX hattersleywines.com

01663 746 578 Ash Lea, Longlands Road Derbyshire SK22 3BY whibley.co.uk

01246 266 130 Quantum Point Sheepbridge Works Chesterfield S41 9RX sales@ct.co.uk ct.co.uk 73

DAVID MELLOR Design Museum, Café and Country Shop

Come to the David Mellor Country shop for the best of modern tableware and kitchenware, including the world famous David Mellor cutlery. Visit the Design Museum showing the full historic collection of Mellor designs from tea spoons to traffic lights, and try our café serving lovely local food. The Round Building, Hathersage,

Derbyshire S32 1BA

Telephone 01433 650220 Open Monday to Saturday 10am–5pm, Sunday 11am–5pm davidmellordesign.co.uk

Buxton festival ad.indd 1

Great Dome Art Great Dome & and Design Fair Art Design Fair

18/1/19 10:18:20

Buxton

9th - 11th October 16th–18th July -2021 Fri - 6.30pm 8.30pm

£2

Fri –Sat 6.30pm–8.30pm - 10am - 5pm Sat – 10.00am–6.00pm Sun - 10am - 4.30pm Sun – 10.00am–4.30pm Devonshire Dome, Devonshire Dome,Buxton Buxton,Derbyshire DerbyshireSK17 SK17 6RY 6RY Entry Entry

peakdistrictartisans.co.uk

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

BUX TON OPER A HOUSE Events from 12pm – late See website for opera end times.

Access Information 3 wheelchair spaces available in the Stalls. Accessible toilet at ground floor level. The building is not accessible by motorised scooter. Passive infra-red (PIR) system available for performances with £10 cash deposit.

Seating Plan* Stage Stalls A-N

01298 72190 Water Street, Buxton SK17 6XN

Stalls D-J seats 5-27 Stalls O-Q Dress Circle boxes Dress Circle Sides

Please reserve wheelchair spaces and PIR systems with the Box Office.

Dress Circle centre Upper Circle sides Upper Circle Gallery

Seating plan for A Little Night Music differs. Please see buxtonoperahouse.org.uk for full details.

Dido’s Ghost, The Dancing Master, Acis and Galatea

The Shackled King

Strictly Musical

Dame Sarah Connolly

A Little Night Music*

Stalls A-N

£52

£40

£25

£30

£45

Stalls D-J seats 5-27

£62

£40

£30

£59

Stalls O-Q

£37

£30

£20

£25

£36

Dress Circle sides

£67

£40

£30

£65

Dress Circle centre

£78

£50

£30

£35

£65

Dress Circle boxes

£73

£40

£30

£59

Upper Circle centre

£52

£30

£20

£15

£45

Upper Circle sides

£25

£30

£15

£25

Gallery

£25

£30

£15

£25

V ENUE INFOR M ATION Stage

Stage

Stalls

Ground Floor

Bleacher

Balcony unreserved

Balcony

PAV I L I O N A R T S C E N T R E

ST JOHN’S CHURCH

Events from

10am – 5pm

11am – 10pm

Access Information

2 wheelchair spaces available in the bleachers. Passive infra-red (PIR) system available for performances with £10 cash deposit.

Fully accessible by wheelchair, apart from the Balcony.

22 St John’s Road Buxton SK17 6XN

6 St John’s Road Buxton SK17 6XN

Stage

O C TAG O N AT PAV I L I O N G A R D E N S

T H E A S S E M B LY R O O M S

Events from

7.30pm – 10pm

10am – 5.30pm

Access Information

Fully accessible to all.

Accessible entrance through main doors of Buxton Crescent Hotel. Lift available to upper floors.

St John’s Road Buxton SK17 6BE

01298 808999 Buxton Crescent Hotel Buxton SK17 6BQ

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

BOOK ING INFOR M ATION

PU B L I C B O O K I N G O PE N S 6 M AY B OX O F F I C E Box Office opening times

Changes to programme

Mon - Sat: 10am – 6pm Sun Closed.

We publish any cancellations or changes to the music programme or to the cast of the operas or the musical on the Buxton International Festival website and social media. Refunds will not be given if there is a change to either the musical works performed or if a cast member has to be replaced. Please check before travelling. All information in this brochure is correct at the time of going to press.

Opening times during the Festival Mon – Sat: 10am – 6pm, or 8pm if there is a performance in the Opera House Sun: 12pm – 8pm, or 10am if there is a performance at the Opera House Buxton Opera House Water Street, Buxton SK17 6XN 01298 72190 customerservice@boh.org.uk Book online at buxtonfestival.co.uk

Ticket types Adult Full price Under 35s £10 tickets available to Next Generation Friends (visit buxtonfestival.co.uk/friends-of-BIF to join for FREE). Carer tickets Free tickets for registered carers reserved alongside full price ticket. Please reserve with the box office by email or phone.

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We hope you enjoy the festival!

Refunds Tickets cannot be refunded unless an event is cancelled. We strongly advise you take out ‘Booking Protect’ insurance when you purchase tickets to any of our events. Postage charges are non-refundable. Please see buxtonfestival.co.uk/ booking-information for full details.

Safety information Keeping everyone safe during the Festival is our priority and you may notice a few differences during your visit this year, including social distancing measures and enhanced cleaning. Our COVID-19 policy is available on our website and will be updated in line with government guidance, so please do visit buxtonfestival.co.uk to get the latest information.

SUPP OR TER S Buxton International Festival and artists are grateful for the support of the following FU N D E R S

CO R P O R AT E PA R T N E R S

CO R P O R AT E S U P P O R T E R S

T R U S T S & F O U N DAT I O N S

Hall Bank Trust, Stonehouse Educational Foundation, Andre Bernheim Charitable Trust, Kirby Laing Foundation, Michael Guest Charitable Foundation, Derek Hill Foundation, C & E Cantor Trust

SPECIAL THANKS TO

O U R AWA R D S David Bedford Music Education Award

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

3 1

10 15

KEY BIF VENUES

P C A R PA R K S

1. Buxton Opera House

7. Pavilion Gardens Car Park

2. Pavilion Arts Centre

8. Market Place Car Park

3. St John’s Church

9. South St Car Park

4. The Octagon at Pavilion Gardens

10. The Slopes Car Park

5. Assembly Room at Buxton Crescent Hotel

11. Spring Gardens & Wye St Car Park

6. The Palace Hotel 7. Wildlife Walk with Mark Cocker Festival Walk meeting point

12. Sylvan Car Park 13. BOH Car Park 14. Railway Station Car Park 15. Market Place Car Park

G E T T I N G H ER E BY C A R

BY B U S

1 hour’s drive (approx.) from the M1, M6, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby. There are 1001 car park spaces in Buxton including:

Direct services from Chesterfield, Derby, Glossop, Huddersfield, Macclesfield, Sheffield, Stockport and Stoke.

- 50 pay & display with 2 Blue Badge spaces at Buxton Opera House.

derbysbus.info traveline.info

- 262 pay & display with 15 Blue Badge spaces at Pavilion Gardens.

BY A I R

Please allow extra time

BY R A I L Ditch the car, travel with with your travel partner Avanti West Coast.

Regular national and international flights to Manchester and Nottingham East Midlands airports. Manchester Airport is approximately 50 minutes away by Taxi/Car. Please check gov.uk for travel advice.

Euston to Macclesfield direct in less than 2 hours plus 20 min taxi ride, or change at Stockport for trains to Buxton.

Brochure designed by: somersaultdesign.co.uk

Direct services from Manchester, Preston, Blackpool and Hazel Grove by Northern Rail.

Opera illustrations by: Jeng Hang Edwina Kung

Enhance your visit to the Festival at Pavilion Gardens We serve pre-show meals, afternoon tea, lunch and breakfast in our spacious Tea Rooms overlooking the Promenade and Gardens. Open 9am – 7pm Monday to Sunday Pre-show dining between 5 - 7pm Call 01298 23114 to reserve a table

paviliongardens.co.uk

BIF 2021 8 – 25 ¬uly

FE S T I VA L N OT E S

2021 BIF Brochure

Articles inside

Cendrillon

Martin Edwards, Nicola Upson with Sarah Ward

The Dancing Master