Of course, I fully intended to post more blogs during the final rehearsals leading up to the opening of the Festival, and during the Festival itself. But, to be perfectly honest, by then sleep was more of a priority! Still, now the dust has just about settled on 2009, here are a few thoughts on this year’s Festival.
First of all, we’re all delighted that the ticket sales comfortably exceeded our targets, and in a recession, too. Just goes to show that if you’re offering a really interesting, quality programme, people will respond. This means that we can plan ahead for future festivals with confidence – thank you.
It has been fairly exhausting, I have to admit; this year I had to rehearse the concert performance of the Mendelssohn straight after the opening of ‘Lucrezia’, then the Art of Bel Canto recital with Mary Plazas, and finally the Rossini ‘Petite Messe’ with the Festival Chorus. Not as much playing this year, but 9 conducting stints, plus the recital. And there are always the Opera Talks….!
As a result, I reluctantly had to miss many of the Literary talks this year, and some concerts I really wanted to attend, such as Freddy Kempf, Sue Gritton’s Darwin recital and the NCO concert. And I didn’t get to a Festival Mass, let alone sing in one! Unfortunately, you can’t be in two places at once. I still heard some marvellous concerts; Soojin Han, O Duo (the percussion ensemble in St John’s, which unlike most concerts this year could have had a bigger audience), Barbirolli Quartet, Jonathan Lemalu, and my favourite this year, the Russian two-piano duo of Alexeev and Demidenko – absolutely stunning playing. I have to say that the Chorus’ ‘Petite Messe’ was really enjoyable; they produced a fantastic range of sound, and some first-rate solo contributions. I hope we can repeat the success of this concert with something similar next year.
Ah, and the operas. The two Festival staged operas, ‘Lucrezia’ and ‘Veronique’ certainly more than fulfilled my hopes and expectations. The Donizetti had a great cast who were so easy to work with, Stephen did a wonderful job on the production, and it looked really good thanks to Francis’ sets and costumes and John’s lighting. Mary P gave us a few worrying moments when she contracted a sinus infection just before the dress rehearsal, but I don’t think there was ever a real danger that she would cancel (despite the stories in the press); and she gave 6 stonking performances. What an artist she is! I loved ‘Veronique’; even now, I can’t stop listening to it and humming the tunes (much to the irritation of my nearest). Again, a great team, Wyn, Giles, Vicky, Mark, Donald, Yvonne etc etc. A joy – and many, many people loved it too, including such distinguished visitors as Sir Brian McMaster and David Dimbleby! ‘Camacho’ was great fun, too; interesting to do a concert performance in the BOH, not ideal, (eg, it’s difficult to position the chorus), but most people seemed to think it was well worth doing, and I think it is an experiment we will repeat in the future.
Of the visiting operas I think ‘Orlando’ and ‘The Lighthouse’ were excellent, and fulfilled expectations. Just a pity that ‘Mitridate’ turned out to be rather disappointing. The playing was very good, the singing mostly OK and often better than that (although Mozart’s early opera seria do demand stunning virtuosity), but the production, with its big screens and cameras focussing (sometimes) on the singers in close-up, had for me the opposite effect to that intended. The idea was to draw you in to the singer’s facial expression, hands, etc, whereas I found the technique had the opposite effect, dissipating the focus and destroying the link between the listener and the singer. The effect is rather like that of sur/subtitles…..oops, but that is a discussion for another day!
Please let us have your comments on the Festival, good and bad, likes and dislikes. As for me, I’ll soon be rehearsing ‘La Traviata’ for WNO – although they have given me a week off (compassionate leave) to veg out in southern Spain. I gather that the climatic contrast with Buxton could hardly be greater…..
Andrew Greenwood
Artistic director
Hi,