
The programme for this year’s Buxton Festival has been announced, with a great line-up of opera, music, literature, family and free events as well as some unexpected surprises. The 17 day festival takes place from the 5th to the 21st July.
The Festival’s opera productions are a Double Bill of two sparkling French romances, Saint-Saens’ La Princesse Jaune and Gounod’s La Colombe and La finta giardiniera, the story of a couple reunited a year after apparent death, written by Mozart at the age of 17. There are also a number of visiting opera performances – the acclaimed Grange Park Opera with Fortunio, Music Theatre Wales with the UK premiere of Sciarrino’s modern classic The Killing Flower, and La Serenissima with Vivaldi’s Ottonein villa. There’s also a rare opportunity to experience all three of Benjamin Britten’s haunting Church Parables in the unique setting of St John’s Church and an Opera Gala concert starring celebrated singers Claire Rutter and Stephen Gadd.
In the Music series, there’s a packed programme of concerts by renowned ensembles and soloists including piano duo Worbey & Farrell, the Prince of Wales’ official harpist Claire Jones, singers James Gilchrist, Kate Ladner and Anne Sophie Duprels, pianists Pascal and Ami Rogé, and celebrated ensembles The Sacconi Quartet and The Fibonacci Sequence. There’s also a number of concerts featuring up-and-coming talent from the Festival’s Young Artists Programme, and late-night jazz from actor John Standing, The Alex Yellowlees Hot Club Jazz Quartet and Ronnie Scott’s house band The James Pearson Trio, featuring violinist and vocalist Lizzie Ball.