Lucrezia Borgia won the Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Opera last Tuesday, making a hat trick of Donizetti awards for the Festival – previous winners were Maria Padilla (2003) and Roberto Devereux (2007).

Mary Plazas, Stephen Medcalf and I pitched up at midday for the Awards Ceremony at the Midland Hotel, quaffed a glass of champagne in the foyer while slightly nervously looking around to see if we could see any big stars, and wondered what our chances were.

The thing about these occasions is, you really don’t know. In retrospect, I realise the vibes were good – warm greetings from the MEN opera critics Robert Beale and Philip Radcliffe, etc, but at the time you think anything could happen. It didn’t help the nerves to see that the opera category was first on the agenda after lunch, either. Not too much wine with the meal in case you had to stumble up to the platform, and no chance to learn by the mistakes of others when accepting the award.

Anyway, lunch was served (Thyme Pot Roasted Chicken, since you asked), Dianne Oxberry set the ball rolling, and in an alarmingly short time the opera nominations were being read out. ‘And the winner is…’Lucrezia Borgia’.  Blow me down. All three of us trotted up, received the (rather handsome) trophy, smiled for the cameras, and I stammered out a few words. Out into the foyer, more photos, a brief video interview (Stephen did the talking this time), then back into the hall to relax, enjoy another drink, and watch the rest of the presentations.

There was Aled Jones, presenting the Best Musical award (to ‘Mary Poppins’) and threatening to sing ‘Walking in the Air’. That young Manchester comedian Jason Manford (very successful these days – ‘I did the Royal Variety show last night’)  presented something else and was very funny, while Tim Healy was a very popular and amusing winner of  Best Actor. Lots of Corrie stars around, apparently, though the three of us agreed that these days we wouldn’t easily recognise them – we’re more of the Julie Goodyear/Roy Barraclough generation. And there was a treasurably tearful acceptance speech in the Gwyneth Paltrow mode from the young actress who won the Best Newcomer category – no awards ceremony is complete without one.

So, a jolly time was had by all, and it was good to read in the judges’ comments (on the MEN website) that ‘Lucrezia’ won because it was ‘a complete knockout’. Donizetti and the Buxton Festival are obviously made for each other!

I’m very excited that we’ve been nominated again, for the third year running, in the Opera category of the Manchester Evening News Theatre awards. Two years ago we won the award with Roberto Devereux , much to our astonishment, because a strong field included Opera North’s fine Peter Grimes. They had their revenge last year when one of their shows (I’m embarassed to have forgotten which – was it Macbeth?) pipped our Samson to the post. This year Lucrezia Borgia has been nominated; the other three contenders are RNCM’s Die Fledermaus, Clonter Opera’s Rigoletto, and ETO’s Magic Flute (as seen at the Buxton Opera House). What are our chances? Who knows!

It would be nice to win and make it a Donizetti hat-trick – we also have an award for Maria Padilla in 2003. Whatever happens, it does illustrate how well these operas work in the Buxton Opera House, when performed with lots of passion and commitment. Admittedly, with the nominations limited to shows performed in the Manchester area, the competition is not as great as, say, the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards. But just think of what has NOT been nominated! (a very expensive production of a new opera by a very famous American singer/songwriter springs to mind…)

Neither is the awards ceremony exactly the Oscars in the glamour stakes; but on December 8th, Mary Plazas and I will enjoy a good lunch at the Midland Hotel, do a bit of celeb spotting (there are usually a good few well-known actors and Corrie stars around), and, well, you never know. Keep your fingers crossed!

Andrew Greenwood, Artistic Director

Buxton Poetry Competition 2010 now officially open!

The Festival’s  2010 poetry competition, run in partnership with the University of Derby, is now open!  This year’s  theme is A Breath of Fresh Air - entrants are encouraged to interpret this as creatively as possible.  Poems could be inspired by a person,  place,  event, a life changing moment, struggling for breath - the possibilities are endless!

This competition is open to poets of all ages and levels of experience so download an entry pack here to get started!  For more information contact Claire Rhodes on 01298 70395 or claire@buxtonfestival.co.uk. You can also visit the competition website at www.derby.ac.uk/buxtonpoetrycompetition.

For 2010 we are delighted to welcome a new panel of judges, husband and wife team Peter and Ann Sansom.  They are based just over the hills in Sheffield and between them have experience of almost every aspect of the poetry world - writing, teaching, publishing and live poetry events. 

Shortlisted entrants will see their works displayed in a unique exhibition in the stunning Devonshire Dome where poems will be displayed between pillars alongside winning images from this year’s Peak Photography competition. Watch this space for more info about the photo comp – more to follow soon…

Happy writing!

Claire

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.

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

David Denton at the Yorkshire Post on Veronique and Lucrezia…

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,

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

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…

Of Lucrezia Borgia, Veronique and Camacho’s Wedding.