Posted by: buxtonfestival | November 2, 2009

Festival operas 2010 – what are your views?

Opera House (Pure)

Credit: Pure Buxton

We have just released some details about the Festival opera productions for next summer, and more will soon follow. Check our website for the latest news.

This week auditions for chorus members take place at the National Opera Studio in Wandsworth. It will be the biggest team yet – 20 singers rather than the usual 16.

And contracts for all the lead roles are now being finalised…

Luisa Miller – Verdi 
Conductor: Andrew Greenwood
Director: Stephen Medcalf
Designer: Francis O’Connor

The Barber of Baghdad
– Cornelius 
Conductor: Stephen Barlow
Director: Alessandro Talevi
Designer: Madeleine Boyd

Idomeneo – Mozart arr. Richard Strauss
This will be a concert performance – more details to follow!

Of course we are very excited for all next summer has in store [especially if there's a little sun involved!], and we are keen to hear your views on the developments so far. Please add your comments below.

Posted by: clairefestival | October 29, 2009

Buxton Water helps the music flow…

Rubbish orchestra

Rubbish Orchestra

Buxton Natural Mineral Water has confirmed their sponsorship of the Festival for another year.  The Buxton based company will once again be the sponsor of the Festival’s community and education programme which involves around 1,600 people every year in creative arts activity.

2010 will mark the fifth year that Buxton Natural Mineral Water has supported the Festival to coordinate a community and education programme to include local people who would otherwise be excluded from the Festival’s activities.  Some events planned for 2010 include:

  •  A community opera – a chance for local people to work with professional musicians and to perform at Buxton Festival
  • Interactive concerts for children with special needs
  • Concerts in daycare and residential centres for the elderly
  • Poetry and Photography competitions

The Festival will also support Buxton Natural Mineral Water in their campaign to encourage local schools to take part in Project WET (water education for teachers) which give teachers the skills to educate children on the importance of water as a global commodity through fun activities and projects.

Lesley Gooch from Buxton Water said:

‘Buxton Natural Mineral Water are proud to sponsor the Buxton Festival and look forward to working with them in 2010.’

For more information on the Festival’s community and education programme visit www.buxtonfestival.co.uk/community.html

Posted by: buxtonfestival | August 18, 2009

More lovely reviews

David Denton at the Yorkshire Post on Veronique and Lucrezia

Posted by: andrewgreenwood | August 3, 2009

Festival post-script, from the Artistic Director

Andrew Greenwood (Welcome page)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

Posted by: clairefestival | August 3, 2009

A world of music…

Africa ArivesHi,

As part of this year’s world music series the Festival invited youngsters from local youth groups to take part in workshops.  The workshops, led by the musicians from the series, introduced the young people to music of a variety of cultures. 

The first workshop was led by Gamelan Sekar Petak  introducing the mysterious music of the Javanese Gamelan.  Here is a clip of the workshop.

Then another group of youngsters took part in an African Dancing session followed by a performance at the Devonshire Dome .  Here is a clip of the group Frititi performing at Buxton.

The performance also included some amazing acrobatics.

These workshops were made possible by the support of the Derbyshire Community Foundation.  To find out more about the work of this excellent local organisation please visit their website.

Claire

Posted by: buxtonfestival | July 27, 2009

The Observer’s Robert McCrum on the Festival…

Robert McCrum, associate editor of the Observer, was on the panel of a debate run by the Orwell Prize as part of this year’s literary series.This piece appeared yesterday…

Posted by: buxtonfestival | July 27, 2009

Manchester Evening News reviews

Posted by: buxtonfestival | July 23, 2009

More reviews…

The Telegraph…on Lucrezia and Veronique

The Guardian…on Veronique

The Sunday Times…on Lucrezia and Veronique

Posted by: buxtonfestival | July 17, 2009

And more reviews!

The Times…on Lucrezia and Veronique, Orlando and MitridateThe Lighthouse. More to follow!

Posted by: buxtonfestival | July 14, 2009

Financial Times review

I’m hoping to post links to as many reviews as poss on the blog – do have a read and let us know what you think.
Here’s the very first for this year, from the Financial Times…Buxton delivers sparkle on a budget

Was this your experience? Please do add your comments below!

Johanna

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