Sadly due to covid-19 the Buxton Festival has had to be cancelled for this year. We hope to be back in 2021
Buxton International Festival celebrates its 42nd season this summer and we are delighted to be able to offer a three-night break including opera (old & new), musical theatre and three of the popular literary talk’s series.
Dubbed “one of Europe’s great little unmissable opera festivals” by the New York Met we stay at the excellent Premier Inn (opened in 2017) situated less than a mile from the beautiful Opera House. This wonderful theatre was designed by the celebrated theatre architect Frank Matcham and opened in 1903. It was completely refurbished for the Centenary Celebrations in 2003.
We will leave from our usual pick-up points in Lancashire, Merseyside, Wirral and Chester mid-morning on Monday 13th July and head to Buxton where we stay three nights with buffet breakfast each morning. We have the use of the coach for all transfers to and from the included performances. For any other transfers during your free time taxis are readily available and cost around £5 from the hotel to the opera house.
This evening we have a pre-performance supper before taking our stalls seats for a new opera Violet (co-commissioned with Aldeburgh Festival & Theater Magdeburg) written by Alice Birch and composed by Tom Coult. In a muddied nightdress, in a country kitchen, Violet finally smiles. For years her tired daily routine has been dictated by the constant chime of the Clock Tower. Tick tock. Take your tablets. Tick tock. Husband will be home soon. Until the night she feels time quicken. An hour disappears. Every day. And she’s never felt more alive
You can see Tom & Alice talking about their new opera by following this link:
https://youtu.be/xGWheSwsIWU
Tuesday morning, we will depart for a morning at Chatsworth House and Gardens. Chatsworth reopened in 2018 after the biggest restoration of the house, garden and park since 1820. Our tour is followed by a light lunch.
We return to Buxton mid-afternoon with the opportunity to attend a late afternoon talk (part of the Crescent Salon series) with writer Laura Thompson (author of Take Six Girls - the Lives of the Mitford Sisters) from 4 - 530pm.
We then continue at 7pm with dinner and an evening of Musical Theatre in the Dome. 915pm approx. transfer back to the hotel.
On Wednesday 15th July the morning is free before our second literary talk of the festival (12 - 1pm) with author William Dalrymple talking about his book (which you may have heard serialised on BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week) The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company
After free time for lunch today we meet again at 4pm for our third one-hour literary talk, Andrew Lownie, historian and author of Sunday Times Top Ten Reads The Mountbattens: Their Lives & Loves.
We have a two-course pre-performance meal from 5 - 630pm before tonight's performance of Gioachino Rossini's La donna del lago (based on The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott).
Finally, on Thursday 16th July we check out from the hotel late morning and attend a pre-performance talk (1-130pm) on today’s final opera Handel's Acis & Galatea performed by the Early Opera Company. The performance starts at 2pm and will be finshed by 5pm.
Immediately after the performance we depart from Buxton back to our original pick up points. If you are travelling independently and require an additional night's accommodation, please let us know.
