Buxton International Festival is set to turn music lovers into time travellers this summer, with a programme which swings through 500 years of opera classics before hitching a ride with a galaxy of stars of the future.
The Festival’s founder, the late Malcolm Fraser, carved out Buxton’s niche as the place to see overlooked masterpieces and, in a tribute to his vision, 2025 will see the return of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet, last produced by Malcolm himself in 1980, the season after BIF’s opening year.
Continuing its collaboration with Norwich Theatre, the programme includes a joint double bill of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and Poulenc’s La voix humaine, while Opera Zuid of the Netherlands bring Mozart’s The Impresario and Vache Baroque make their Buxton debut with Charpentier’s Orphée.
Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and Poulenc’s La voix humaine is new for 2025 Photo: BIF And the Festival, whose pioneering creators gave the town’s magnificent Opera House a new lease of life 46 years ago, has commissioned Shorts, a series of four new works by writers and composers who are hoping to do the same for the opera world of tomorrow.
‘We’re showcasing no fewer than nine operas spanning the course of five centuries, and all you have to do show up!’ says BIF chief executive Michael Williams, whose dedicated team were last year nominated for an International Opera Award as one of the Best Festivals and are back with another exciting programme of classical music, jazz and books.
Meanwhile, celebrated baritone Donald Maxwell has been reminiscing about his role in the 1980 production of Hamlet, which coincided with both the early days of his career and those of the Festival itself.
‘I was the Ghost of Hamlet’s Father and also First Gravedigger, so they got two for the price of one!’ he says with a smile.
‘It was quite early in my career and it was something new to sing in a new festival. I’d also sung cabaret in the first Festival in 1979, so my connection with Buxton runs deep.’
Anyone expecting straight Shakespeare with music added will be in for a surprise.
‘Ambroise Thomas tried to make Hamlet somewhat more vigorous so they gave him a drinking song, so there’s more to the character,’ continues Donald. ‘It’s important to remember the play and opera are different beasts.’
The Impresario was written by Mozart for a party hosted by the Austrian Emperor Joseph II, but its plot, with a last-minute headline act, a tenor trying to seduce the soprano, warring divas and a director with an idiotic concept, feels very up to date.
Fast-forwarding to the 20th century, an opera double bill delves into the human psyche with modern technology as a medium and metaphor for lost love: Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and Francis Poulenc’s La voix humaine.
The Tahiti in question is a romantic film into which a discontented suburban housewife drifts in her imagination as an escape from the wreckage of her seemingly idyllic marriage.
La voix humaine is based on Jean Cocteau’s ground-breaking, heart-breaking final phone call between a woman and her soon-to-be-ex lover, with Poulenc’s expressive score weaving through every shifting emotion.
‘I always enjoy exploring the operas of the 20th century which tend to reflect the increasing influence of technology, and where other musical styles, especially jazz, start to influence the writing,’ reveals Adrian.
‘There’s something about the 1950s that holds a particular fascination. These two pieces, although in different languages and from different continents, tell stories that make sense together.’
By contrast, the four operas which make up Shorts are a glimpse of the future—right up to doomsday…
‘While opera is an art form rich in history, it is vital that we invest in its future,’ continues Adrian. ‘Here in Buxton, we are committed to offering opportunities to the next generation.’
Martin Green uses his 20 minutes to compress 20 years of a relationship into Life Gets Stretched, while Inevitable by Carmel Smickersgill, an Ivor Novellor nominee, asks: what do you do in the run-up to the end of the world?
Jasper Dommett, another Novello nominee, takes us back to London in the Roaring Twenties, when a police raid on his Disorderly House interrupts a sizzling Salome’s dance of the seven veils.
And calming the audience after all this excitement will be BBC Proms veteran Thandanani Gumede, who has composed Tears Are Not Meant To Stay Inside, an ancestral ritual of healing and release written by Zodwa Nyoni, a contributor to the BBC, Channel Four and Netflix.
Eight Weeks: Looking Backwards, Moving Forwards, Defying the Odds is a memoir by Baroness Lola Young, who grew up in care and won a seat in the House of Lords for her work in the arts and academia.
She is just one of the Champion Women book director Victoria Dawson has lined up to bring their life experiences, insights and experiences to Buxton.
A week is a long time in politics, so Dianne Abbott, whose 48-year career as the current longest-serving MP has earned her the title Mother of the House, will have plenty to draw on when she discusses her memoir, A Woman Like Me.
The first Black woman MP, she has been a unique figure in British politics, dividing opinion as she championed causes from education to opposition to the Iraq war — and often suffering intolerable abuse as a result.
The future is former Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt’s theme as he will be discussing Britain’s place in the brave new world of tomorrow in a way which he promises will be neither ‘tub-thumpingly nationalistic’ or pessimistic about the UK’s decline from its Great Power status.
Another ‘Big Dog’ of the Westminster scene who will be telling tales about his years in Downing Street is Herbie the Hound, ably assisted by his owner and amanuensis John Crace, political sketch writer for The Guardian.
John has faithfully recorded Herbie’s satirical reminiscences in Taking the Lead: A Dog at Number Ten as Pet in Residence to various PMs, including the time when he scooped the royal corgis by being privy to the last words between the late Queen and Liz Truss!
BBC Radio 3’s Petroc Trelawney hosted the opera awards which saw Buxton nominated as one of the Best Festivals last year, and he’s back onstage with BIF this year to talk about something which ought to earn him his own award for the Most Nominative Determined Book of the Year.
In his Trelawney’s Cornwall: A Journey Through Western Lands, he points out that his name is a combination of Cornwall’s most celebrated saint, and its national anthem!
The much-loved music presenter wrote it after going on a pilgrimage through the land of his youth to see how the past has forged Cornwall’s identity.
From the West of England to the North of absolutely everywhere, two books tackle the Arctic. James Rebanks was witness to the last season of a fierce and otherworldly Norwegian woman who had spent her life in the cold but keeping others warm, thanks to the Eider ducks whose down she harvested on a tiny rocky outcrop in what his book calls The Place of Tides.
Otherworldly is also a fitting description for the landscape Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge loves. He is making a special trip to Buxton to talk about his expeditions to the North Pole, including his 1990 journey there without dogs, depots or motorised aids.
The title of his book, The North Pole: The History of an Obsession sums it up, and he uses his passion for the North to create a profound meditation on nature and our place within it.
A landscape which has changed dramatically in the UK is explored by Peter Parker in Some Men in London: Queer Life 1960-67, the second volume of his history of homosexuality covering the years when it ceased to be a crime and brought a flowering of creativity in the shape of Joe Orton, Francis Bacon and Kenneth Williams among others.
The Reverend Richard Coles, who memoir The Madness of Grief chronicled the effect of the death of his partner David, has been a pop star, a broadcaster a priest… and now a best-selling murder mystery writer. He will be talking about his latest Canon Clement novel, Death on Location, which no doubt draws on his experiences on Celebrity Mastermind, Christmas Masterchef and Have I Got News For You.
Timelessness is Buxton’s trademark and Latin For Lovers celebrates the best of Bossa Nova, one of the era-defining styles of the 1960s.
Based on the hits of Frank Sinatra and Doris Day, the show features Clare Teal, Denny Ilett and the Orchestra of Opera North for a run through songs such as The Girl From Ipanema, Fly Me To The Moon and Change Partners. Special guests will be violinist and vocalist Lizzie Ball, a Buxton favourite.
BIF continues to attract top musicians from all over the world for its classical programme, and music lovers who want a crash course in the variety on offer can do no better than start with The Elements, a programme of four separate events featuring the greatest composers’ inspirations drawn from fire, earth, air and water.
Mezzo-Soprano and BBC New Generation Artist award-winner Niamh O’Sullivan is on Fire as she uses her bewitchingly beautiful voice to bring works by Schubert, Bizet, Brahms and others to life.
Seas, rivers, mermaids and spirits abound in Water with Mary Bevan MBE singing Debussy, Gounod, Berlioz and Haydn and more.
Royal Opera House veteran Toby Spence takes to the Air with songs such as Britten’s The Birds and Fauré’s Fleur Jetée while the incomparable Roderick Williams, reckoned to be our greatest living baritone, grounds the series with Earth, featuring works by Finzi, Britten and many more.
All The Elements performances are accompanied by pianist Joseph Middleton who has curated the series.
Buxton International Festival runs from July 10 to 27. For the full programme and how to book, go to buxtonfestival.co.uk or call the Box Office on 01298 72190.
Don’t miss The Tallis Scholars, described by The New York Times as ‘The rock stars of Renaissance vocal music’ who have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world through their recordings and concert performances. As part of the Festival, they will perform at The Octagon on July 23.
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