Operas from artists who made history by breaking new ground, smashing glass ceilings and throwing stones through windows come together in July as part of Buxton International Festival’s most ambitious programme yet.
This year sees the highest number of operas ever produced by BIF in one season, with productions of works including those which made Verdi an international sensation; confirmed legendary director Peter Brooke’s reputation as an enfant terrible of the arts world; and led a suffragette to become the first female composer to be made a dame.
BIF made its reputation at the very beginning of its 45-year history ago by producing lesser-known operas, and although many of the composers behind this year’s festival will sound very familiar, some of the productions might not.
That’s keeping faith with the Buxton tradition which has won the Festival so many fans who know they will find hidden gems there, instead of the safety-first programmes of Opera’s Greatest Hits available elsewhere.
‘This year’s programme is in many ways our most ambitious yet,’ argues artistic director Adrian Kelly. ‘Never before has the Festival created five new productions of its own in a single season.’
There must have been a time when even Guiseppe Verdi was unknown, but that changed with his opera Ernani, a tale of vengeance and love which propelled him to world-wide fame but now falls into that lesser-known category of treasures which devotees expect from Buxton.
‘With Ernani, Verdi came into his own,’ says Adrian, who will be conducting the Opera North Orchestra for the production as they make a welcome return to the magnificent Buxton Opera House.
‘The vocal writing demands an intensity that is unmistakably the trademark of the great operas that were to follow, such as La traviata and Rigoletto.’
The British director Peter Brooke, described as a ‘grand old enfant terrible’ when he died aged 97 in 2022, cemented that reputation when he stripped down Bizet’s romantic Carmen to the bare essentials of obsession and jealousy, the focus of the original novella by Prosper Mérimée, which the composer had used as a vehicle for some of the best-loved music in operas.
Mérimée might have been predicting BIF’s role in making the lesser-known better-known, as he once complained to a lover: ‘To you, I am like an old opera, which you are obliged to forget in order to see it again with any pleasure.’
‘La tragédie de Carmen reframes one of the best-known operas with a compelling theatrical perspective,’ suggests Adrian. ‘I expect the atmosphere in the Opera House to be electric.’
Ethel Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate announces its feminist credentials by having her March of the Women in the overture.
Smyth (1858-1944) overcame discrimination to become the first female composer to have an opera performed at the New York Met.
She was also credited with having taught suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst how to throw stones during protests and served a prison sentence for breaking the windows of a politician who defied calls for women to be given the vote.
The Boatswain’s Mate, unsurprisingly then, features a battle of the sexes, in which the protagonist, who many believe to have been based on her friend Emmeline, stands up for herself with smoking gun in hand to prove she has no need for a knight in shining armour, although she’s not completely hardened to the idea of love…
Another masterpiece from the early works of a musical giant which is set to receive an overdue airing at the Festival is Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, or the triumph of time and disillusion, in which Time, Pleasure and Disillusion take human form to battle it out for the soul of Beauty.
As she wrestles with temptation, Beauty must face the inevitability of her own demise and decide whether she can find greater contentment on a more virtuous path.
Composed in 1707, it showed Handel at his most confident, with rousing choruses and beguiling arias.
‘Handel’s early masterpiece includes some of his most expressive writing, continues Adrian. ‘This work fuses allegory with real emotionality.’
In total contrast, Hadyn’s La canterina, or The Singing Girl, is a farce featuring the money-grabbing minx Gasparina, who sets up a scam to exploit her wealthy suitors.
Rent-free living, money and promises of diamonds flow - but can the grasping Gasparina charm her way out at the end?
‘Hadyn’s music is always sparkling with humour,’ Ardian describes. ‘In this short work, he particularly relishes the silliness of the plot.’
Putting on your most ambitious programme of opera at a time of ever-deeper funding cuts for the art form is typical Buxton bravery, plus some deft forward-thinking.
Last year BIF collaborated with Norwich Theatre on its Ivor Novello themed production The Land of Might-Have-Been, and this partnership continues in 2024 with La tragédie de Carmen.
Sharing costs while exploring new audiences for opera is exactly what The Guardian called for in an editorial which said it would be a tragedy if funding cuts reinforced the myth that a varied and vital art form is simply a pastime for the metropolitan elite.
‘I wholeheartedly agree,’ says BIF’s chief executive Michael Williams, whose team of Adrian Kelly, book director Victoria Dawson and jazz director Neil Hughes has built BIF into one of The Times’ top 50 must-see festivals in the world.
‘Research supports the notion of extending opera funding beyond the capital to ensure the continued growth of this art form. Stephen Crocker, the chief executive of Norwich Theatre, shares our commitment to curating a programme designed to attract new audiences to opera.’
And as a taster for people who want a bite-sized bit of opera, there’s an underground version in a venue that is usually all about rock: Pooles Cavern, a show cave which is one of the wonders of the Peak District and one of Buxton’s most popular tourist attractions, owned and run by Buxton Civic Association.
Opera in the Cavern will provide renditions of sensational opera in the cave’s beautifully illuminated water-sculpted rock galleries.
Buxton Festival runs from July 4 to 21, each day packed with talks, walks and music ranging from chamber to jazz.
It’s also the event which brings the Westminster Bubble north of Watford Gap, and this year BBC legends including Martin Sixsmith, Clive Myrie and Jonathan Dimbleby are coming, along with authors writing on the big issues of the day, such as Hannah Barnes whose Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock Gender Service for Children is a true parable for our times.
And jazz fans can get the New Orleans sound and a celebration of the centenary of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue plus a host of big names including Strictly Come Dancing’s Tommy Blaine.
To get the full picture, go to buxtonfestival.co.uk.
