One of the country’s top children’s choirs, and five times former BBC Choir of the Year finalists, the Kinder Children’s Choirs return to grace the Opera House stage with their timeless blend of music for everyone. As a finale the choirs will be performing The Champagne Chorus from Die Fledermaus augmented by fifty former choristers who recently took part in a gala concert for Choir Director Joyce Ellis.

Don’t miss the 100 young singing stars of the Kinder Choirs as they once again enchant a summer night at the Opera House with their youthful vitality and vocal skills.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
A walk around the centre of Buxton with Chris Simpson and Christine Gould of the Well Dressing Committee, highlighting the link between the development of Buxton and its unique thermal water, with a visit to the Well Dressing at St Ann’s Well to see how it is made. 1.5 hour duration.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Take 15 young musicians add 1 professional music company, then mix electric guitars with classical instruments. Told in words and music this must-see performance will rock you.

Buxton Festival 2008
Schumann – Dichterliebe, and songs by Brahms, Dvorák and Arthur Somervell
Sir Thomas Allen is an established star of the great opera houses of the world and has been a friend of this Festival for almost 30 years, first making his mark here in the oft-remembered Hamlet of 1980. At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden he has sung over 40 roles and recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.

Equally renowned on the concert platform he performs in recital throughout Europe, Australia and America and has recently enjoyed further success with the Sage, Gateshead, Arizona Opera and Scottish Opera.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
A walk around the centre of Buxton with Chris Simpson and Christine Gould of the Well Dressing Committee, highlighting the link between the development of Buxton and its unique thermal water, with a visit to the Well Dressing at St Ann’s Well to see how it is made. 1.5 hour duration.

Buxton Festival 2008
A Child of our Time
Tessa Livingstone is the executive producer of the successful BBC series A Child of Our Time, which is following the lives of 25 children from their birth in 2000 until they are 20. With video clips from the series Dr Livingstone discusses insights she has gathered by watching these children as they grow. How has their environment affected them? Is family life in the 21st century really as unhappy as the media makes out? And how can this project throw light on what makes all of us who we are?

Buxton Festival 2008
An exceptional opportunity for members of the Festival Company to work with Sir Thomas on opera and recital material.

Buxton Festival 2008
Lizzie Ball (Violin), Bernard Gregor-Smith (Cello), Nicholas Meier (Guitar), Pete Oxley (Guitar)
Heralded as ‘a marvellous re-invigoration of the string quartet’, Eclectica! is a refreshing and exciting new ensemble, comprising some of the UK’s leading jazz and classical artists, already gaining quite a reputation. Eclectica! performs a unique mix of music ranging from classical to jazz and Latin, from Kodály to Piazzolla, via traditional Latin American folk songs and tangos.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Take 15 young musicians add 1 professional music company, then mix electric guitars with classical instruments. Told in words and music this must-see performance will rock you.

Buxton Festival 2008
A comic opera in three acts
A Buxton Festival production, with the Northern Chamber Orchestra, Festival Chorus and members of the Kinder Children’s Choir.
The Poacher is from that ‘quiet’ period of German opera, between Weber and the emergence of Wagner. Lortzing, a true man of the theatre, looks back to the classical balance of his hero Mozart, seen through the amiable eyes of German folk romanticism. Although regularly performed in his home country, his operas remain woefully neglected elsewhere.

Baculus, the village teacher poaches one of the Count’s deer to provide venison for his engagement party, but he’s caught and dismissed from his post. Encouraged by a visiting student (the Baroness in disguise) he heads for the castle with the ‘student’ now disguised as Gretchen, his fiancée, to try and win back his job. But both the Count and Baron are immediately attracted to ‘Gretchen’, setting in motion a comic web of misunderstandings.

This is Lortzing’s masterpiece, with refined contemporary satire, a magnificent central billiards scene and increasingly complex comedy of Mozartian panache! Andrew Greenwood conducts an outstanding cast in a new English version by director Patrick Mason.

Buxton Festival 2008
From Mary Queen of Scots to Louis XIV with Love
Antonia Fraser has many prize-winning historical works to her credit which have become international bestsellers, including The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Marie Antoinette: A Journey. In her talk From Mary Queen of Scots to Louis XIV with Love, she explores the fascinating journey of her career as a biographer. She considers the pleasures and pitfalls of this most fascinating genre and why she believes biography is so valuable.

Buxton Festival 2008
In partnership with the University of Derby, the Festival has launched the inaugural Buxton Poetry Competition, with entries from across the country. One of the eminent judges, nationally acclaimed poet Fleur Adcock, reads from her own work. There’s also a chance to take in our Poetry and Photography exhibitions.

Buxton Festival 2008
The Pain and the Privilege
Ffion Hague, as wife of the former Conservative leader, is perfectly placed to discuss the role of the politician’s wife. In this talk she discusses her book The Pain and the Privilege: Women in Lloyd George’s Life and discusses the intriguing relationships of the eminent Prime Minister David Lloyd George who employed the greatest skills of diplomacy to balance two wives for over 30 years.

Buxton Festival 2008
La Colombe (from The Preludes, 1929), Morceau de lecture à vue (1934), Le Tombeau de Paul Dukas (1935), Cloches d’angoisse et larmes d’adieu, from The Preludes, Excerpts from Catalogue d’oiseaux (1956-58)
The New York Times described Peter Hill’s complete recording of Messiaen’s solo piano works, made with the composer’s help and encouragement, as ‘one of the most important recording projects of recent years’.

Peter’s programme begins with three early pieces. La Colombe was written whilst still a student. Le Tombeau is dedicated to his teacher, Dukas, whilst the Morceau is a sight-reading test, a powerful miniature that transcends its utilitarian purpose. The Catalogue d’oiseaux, some of the last century’s richest and most original piano writing, is a worthy successor to the masterpieces of Debussy and Ravel. Two of the pieces, Le Merle bleu and Le Traquet stapazin, depict the birds and scenery of the Mediterranean coastline and the concert ends with one of Messiaen’s most atmospheric evocations of nature, L’Alouette lulu.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Jim opens with a cracking number. A great singer of taste and distinction; Jim re-acquaints us with those traditional Celtic songs that involve an audience. ‘Jim’s performance is dynamite’. Jim MacCool is the leading exponent of Dramatic Poetry working in Britain today.

Buxton Festival 2008
Directed by Benedict Holland
Wagner – Siegfried Idyll, Wagner – Wesendonck Lieder, Françaix -Octet – A huit, Britten – Sinfonietta, opus 1.
A game of two halves – showing the chamber forces of sinfonia ViVA at their most versatile. A sumptuous pairing of Wagner presents Ann Murray, one of the UK’s best-loved mezzos, in a wistful and ravishing song-cycle. We come closer to home after the interval with the charm, elegance and bucolic wit of the quintessentially French Jean Françaix, coupled with the already mature and unmistakable voice of Britten’s ‘opus 1’.

Buxton Festival 2008
The great dome of the Devonshire is a distinctive feature of the Buxton skyline. This tour traces the building’s remarkable history from the 18th-century stables, through the 19th and 20th-century hospital, to its current 21st-century award-winning restoration, creating one of Britain’s grandest University buildings. There’s also a chance to take in our Poetry and Photography exhibitions.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Take 15 young musicians add 1 professional music company, then mix electric guitars with classical instruments. Told in words and music this must-see performance will rock you.

Buxton Festival 2008
A dramatic oratorio in three acts. A Buxton Festival production, with the Orchestra of The Sixteen and Festival Chorus.
Though an oratorio, Samson is among Handel’s finest dramatic works. Created within weeks of Messiah, contemporary audiences believed it to rank alongside his greatest achievements. Filled with glorious melodies and stirring choruses, its finale Let the bright Seraphim is widely considered to be one of the most famous arias Handel ever composed.

In Gaza, an Israelite called Samson is taken hostage by the Philistines. Shorn of his hair and strength, he is blinded and tortured. In revenge, as 3,000 of his enemies feast and celebrate, he brings down the pillars of their temple, killing himself and everyone inside.
Daniel Slater directs a first rate cast led by Tom Randle in the title role and Rebecca Bottone as the seductive and scheming Dalila. Harry Christophers returns to conduct his celebrated period-instrument orchestra.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
The Opposite of Claustrophobic: an unhappy housewife’s brief, axe-filled encounter with a would-be burglar. Plus Now Breathe Out: a young man’s surreal journey through the perils and pitfalls of finding an unexpected lump in his undies. New comic-drama by Rob Johnston.

Buxton Festival 2008
A Life in Politics
Shirley Williams has been a central figure in British politics for over 40 years and is the co-founder of the Social Democratic Party, which was later to merge to become the Liberal Democrats. In this fascinating talk she discusses her new autobiography giving an insight into her life and the world of politics.

Buxton Festival 2008
Extra performance added due to popular demand
Following Shirley Williams’ morning talk, Rohan McCullough performs her remarkable tour de force about Shirley’s mother and one of Buxton’s most famous daughters. A dramatisation of Vera Brittain’s haunting autobiography, it is a vivid and passionate record of the early twentieth century. Testament to Youth is a revealing and stimulating tribute to the distinguished British writer, a feminist and pacifist with strong links to Buxton and the local area.

Buxton Festival 2008
With Patrick Mason, Andrew Greenwood and the Festival Company
The journey from first rehearsal to opening night can be long and surprising, with a number of key decisions taken directly influencing the resulting production. On July 12 Patrick Mason examines the contentious topic of Opera: Concept or Drama? whilst on July 19 the Festival’s Artistic Director, Andrew Greenwood, asks Prima le parole e poi la musica – or vice versa? exploring the relative importance of words and music in opera. Willing victims from the Company are their guinea-pigs.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Jim opens with a cracking number. A great singer of taste and distinction; Jim re-acquaints us with those traditional Celtic songs that involve an audience. ‘Jim’s performance is dynamite’. Jim MacCool is the leading exponent of Dramatic Poetry working in Britain today.

Buxton Festival 2008
Bach – Sonata in E major, Alwyn – Crépuscule, Donizetti – Sonata, Bax – Sonata, Debussy – Syrinx, Ravel – Pavane pour une infante défunte,
Saint-Saëns – Romance, Alwyn – Naiades

King Sterndale is a tiny hamlet three miles from Buxton, set in typical Peak District rolling hills. The tiny and welcoming historic church is the venue for this intimate recital. Lucy Wakeford, principal harpist of the Philharmonia and Nash Ensemble, is a brilliant exponent of an instrument rarely seen at close quarters. She is joined by one of the country’s foremost flautists in a delightful and varied programme.

Buxton Festival 2008
Extra performance added due to popular demand
Following Shirley Williams’ morning talk, Rohan McCullough performs her remarkable tour de force about Shirley’s mother and one of Buxton’s most famous daughters. A dramatisation of Vera Brittain’s haunting autobiography, it is a vivid and passionate record of the early twentieth century. Testament to Youth is a revealing and stimulating tribute to the distinguished British writer, a feminist and pacifist with strong links to Buxton and the local area.

Buxton Festival 2008
The Festival’s Triple Bill includes rarely seen works by Vaughan Williams and Holst, and our programme includes several other works putting these friends’ operas into context. Few people know more about English music of this period, and these composers in particular, than Michael Kennedy, RVW’s biographer. In this extended discussion with Andrew Greenwood he gives a personal insight into these operas and a fascinating era.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Set in the city of Venice, a group of people are stranded on the island before it disappears forever. An absurdist journey that will challenge the delicate balance of life. The remaining individuals have to face the prospect that they have no future, only a past to reflect upon.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Frustrated with just existing, Joe decides to become an anarchist. He plans a revolution to stand up against the Government, to make history and all from the comfort of his sofa! A witty insight into the world of a man struggling to accept the normality of life.

Buxton Festival 2008
Savitri, Riders To The Sea and The Wandering Scholar
A Buxton Festival production, with the Northern Chamber Orchestra and members of the Mad Hatters Youth Choir
We celebrate our thirtieth Festival with three short operas exploring lives that have been ruined by romance, seduction, betrayal and tragic departure. Michael Barry and Nigel Hook are reunited after success here in Noye’s Fludde and Tobias and the Angel. Oliver Gooch conducts a distinguished cast including Indian dancer Kalithasan Chandrasegaram.

Savitri
by Gustav Holst (1874-1934). Libretto by the composer, after an episode from the Mahabharata
Holst’s haunting chamber opera tells a simple and timeless Indian tale in a style influenced by English folk-song and given universal significance. Savitri, a woodcutter’s wife, sets out to wrest her beloved husband from the grasp of Death. She is granted any gift, except for her husband’s life, but cleverly outwits Death. Holst, with beautiful feeling for atmosphere in a most restrained setting, brings out the profoundly human concerns of life, death and love. His delicate score includes a wordless female choir, a device to which he would return in The Planets.

The Wandering Scholar
by Gustav Holst. Libretto by Clifford Bax
Holst’s late comedy is set in a rural French farmhouse. A young scholar begs for food at the farm, but unluckily arrives just as the farmer’s wife is about to take advantage of her husband’s absence at market to enjoy some hanky-panky with the local priest. The priest hides from the returning farmer but will the traveler reveal all or keep his secret? With sparse orchestral forces, no set-pieces or overture Holst tells this simple country tale with original and effective music, avoiding any tendency towards sentimentality, suffused with influences of folk music.

Riders to the Sea
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). Libretto from John Synge’s play
Vaughan Williams draws on a poignant Irish story, revealing the sea as a cruelly dispassionate arbiter of human fate. Riders to the Sea, the composer’s most successful opera, is a masterly setting of Synge’s play about Aran fisherfolk, of an Irishwoman’s loss of her sons to the ocean. The surge of the orchestra threatens to overwhelm the singers just as the sea threatens to engulf the family in the story – a tale of stoic resignation in the face of implacable nature.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
An evening of piano music by Rachmaninov, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy and other favourites played by Christopher Ellis.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
The Opposite of Claustrophobic: an unhappy housewife’s brief, axe-filled encounter with a would-be burglar. Plus Now Breathe Out: a young man’s surreal journey through the perils and pitfalls of finding an unexpected lump in his undies. New comic-drama by Rob Johnston.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Set in the city of Venice, a group of people are stranded on the island before it disappears forever. An absurdist journey that will challenge the delicate balance of life. The remaining individuals have to face the prospect that they have no future, only a past to reflect upon.

Buxton Festival 2008
You Have A Point There
Lynne Truss, the celebrated author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves examines how being a punctuation pedant does not make you a bad person. Presenting Cutting a Dash for Radio 4 led to the writing of Eats, Shoots & Leaves which sold over three million copies worldwide and was Book of the Year in 2004.

Buxton Festival 2008
The fame of Buxton as a spa derives from its unique thermal mineral water which emerges from springs at a constant temperature of 27.5°C. This walk stays in the lower town and visits the sites of all the baths, pumps and pump rooms to tell the spa story from pre-Roman to Medieval, Georgian, Victorian and modern times.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
A performance of his latest poetry with some piano music. An eclectic mixture of free verse, sonnets, ballads, haiku and rhyming poetry. Descriptive, reflective, tragic, comic, dramatic – some even in authentic Derbyshire dialect! Fifth year at the Buxton Fringe – incurable, and still loving it!

Buxton Festival 2008
Rohan McCullough has toured the world with this beautifully observed and sensitively constructed play. Her mother was Beatrix Potter’s cousin and this family connection casts a revealing light on an enchanting journey through the storyteller’s life, beginning in the high summer of Victorian England and ending as Hitler’s bombs rained on London. She escaped into her imagination, fleeing from the constraints of a well-to-do family, only finding true happiness in love in her middle years.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Vocal music featuring lunatics and lovers with works by Purcell, Schubert and contemporary British composers. Having recently graduated as a choral and organ scholars from The Queen’s College, Oxford, young professionals Rebecca Lea and Tom Wilkinson present an innovative lunchtime programme.

Buxton Festival 2008
Starring Timothy West (as Casanova) and Sophie Yates (harpsichord)
So famous a womaniser was the Italian-born Casanova, that, two centuries after his death, his name remains synonymous with the art of seduction. Known variously as priest, escaped prisoner, violinist, practitioner of the dark arts, spy and exile, he enjoyed society in Paris, London and Venice, in the company of eminent composers, performers and patrons. His colourful and witty memoirs reveal much more of his character than the lothario of popular consciousness. His adventurous spirit, gregarious nature and inquiring mind make him a unique chronicler of life.
Leading harpsichordist Sophie Yates contrasts readings by Timothy West with contemporary music by Vivaldi, Couperin, Rameau and Mozart.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Set in the city of Venice, a group of people are stranded on the island before it disappears forever. An absurdist journey that will challenge the delicate balance of life. The remaining individuals have to face the prospect that they have no future, only a past to reflect upon.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Frustrated with just existing, Joe decides to become an anarchist. He plans a revolution to stand up against the Government, to make history and all from the comfort of his sofa! A witty insight into the world of a man struggling to accept the normality of life.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Set in the city of Venice, a group of people are stranded on the island before it disappears forever. An absurdist journey that will challenge the delicate balance of life. The remaining individuals have to face the prospect that they have no future, only a past to reflect upon.

Buxton Festival 2008
An ‘American opera’ in two acts
Street Scene is a triumphant meeting of Broadway musical and American opera, incorporating a dazzling array of show tunes, arias, blues, jazz and spirituals: a musical melting pot that captures the true diversity of life in 1946 New York. Described by Weill as ‘a simple story of everyday life in a big city, a story of love and passion and greed and death’, the opera follows the inhabitants of a tenement building over one hot summer’s day.

Street Scene is the latest creative collaboration between the Opera Group and Young Vic, produced with a cast of 15, an orchestra of 30 and local young people from Glossop to Bakewell. It confirms Kurt Weill as one of the twentieth century’s most enduring and popular composers.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Medieval and renaissance songs illustrating life at court for a man-at-arms, featuring the very rarely performed Missa L’Homme Armé by Guillaume Faugues.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
The Opposite of Claustrophobic: an unhappy housewife’s brief, axe-filled encounter with a would-be burglar. Plus Now Breathe Out: a young man’s surreal journey through the perils and pitfalls of finding an unexpected lump in his undies. New comic-drama by Rob Johnston.

Buxton Festival 2008
More Wet Shirts
Andrew Davies returns to the Festival stage after a fantastic year of adaptations which has cemented his position as ‘King of the Adapters’. In this illuminating talk he explores the process of adapting the classics for television, with video clips from Sense and Sensibility, Fanny Hill and A Room With A View.

Buxton Festival 2008
Scarlatti – Sonata in F minor, Haydn – Sonata in C major, Chopin – Mazurkas, Scriabin – Mazurkas
Yevgeny Sudbin is recognised as one of the world’s most interesting and exciting young pianists. Recent international concerts and recordings have met with huge success and stellar reviews. After winning his first international competition aged just ten he now performs extensively throughout Europe and the USA with the most distinguished orchestras and partners.

Buxton Festival 2008
Mark Padmore (Tenor), Paul Lewis (Piano)
Schubert’s Die Winterreise is simply one of the greatest song cycles. An intensely emotional journey of a forsaken lover recalling past happiness and anguish against a snow-clad background. Following recitals in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Milan, Moscow, New York and Paris, Mark Padmore returns to Buxton after a too-long gap, joined by Paul Lewis.

Buxton Festival 2008
The great dome of the Devonshire is a distinctive feature of the Buxton skyline. This tour traces the building’s remarkable history from the 18th-century stables, through the 19th and 20th-century hospital, to its current 21st-century award-winning restoration, creating one of Britain’s grandest University buildings. There’s also a chance to take in our Poetry and Photography exhibitions.

Buxton Festival 08
Two recitals by Leon Charles (St John’s College, Cambridge) and Martin Ford (Magdalen College, Oxford) on the four manual Hill organ in the glorious accoustic of St John’s Church.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Spiltmilk Dance present 5 short dances inspired by the life and work of Andy Warhol. The work has a distinctively quirky twist and is intended to be immediately visually appealing to a wide audience.

Buxton Festival 2008
A comic opera in three acts
A Buxton Festival production, with the Northern Chamber Orchestra, Festival Chorus and members of the Kinder Children’s Choir.
The Poacher is from that ‘quiet’ period of German opera, between Weber and the emergence of Wagner. Lortzing, a true man of the theatre, looks back to the classical balance of his hero Mozart, seen through the amiable eyes of German folk romanticism. Although regularly performed in his home country, his operas remain woefully neglected elsewhere.

Baculus, the village teacher poaches one of the Count’s deer to provide venison for his engagement party, but he’s caught and dismissed from his post. Encouraged by a visiting student (the Baroness in disguise) he heads for the castle with the ‘student’ now disguised as Gretchen, his fiancée, to try and win back his job. But both the Count and Baron are immediately attracted to ‘Gretchen’, setting in motion a comic web of misunderstandings.

This is Lortzing’s masterpiece, with refined contemporary satire, a magnificent central billiards scene and increasingly complex comedy of Mozartian panache! Andrew Greenwood conducts an outstanding cast in a new English version by director Patrick Mason.

Buxton Festival 2008
The music of Cuba is a rich melting pot of influences from Spain, West Africa, France, the United States and Jamaica, and never far from the world of dance. Son de Havana thrills audiences with a lively mix of the traditional and the new with breathtaking virtuosity and vibrant melody.

With stunning professional dance demonstrations of Cuban popular dance music – son, chachacha, bolero, mambo, rumba, guajira and guaracha – let yourself go with that Cuban flow!

Buxton Festival 2008
The Mitford Sisters
Charlotte Mosley is the daughter-in-law of Diana Mitford and Oswald Mosley. In a talk richly illustrated with photographs from the family’s private albums, she brings to life the letters between the six Mitford sisters and explores their turbulent yet enduring relationships. She will be joined for questions by the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, the last surviving Mitford sister.

Buxton Festival 2008
Exploring some of Buxton’s Victorian delights, this walk examines the growth of the town from 1850 through its heyday as an inland medical and pleasure resort. It features the work of Robert Rippon Duke, a very busy townsman and the architect responsible for the earlier Devonshire Hospital extensions, the Octagon Concert Hall of iron and glass and much else.

Buxton Festival 2008
James Rutherford (Baritone), Eugene Asti (Piano)
Butterworth – Six songs from A Shropshire Lad, CW Orr – A Shropshire Lad and songs by Ireland, Somervell, Peel and Bax

Housman’s nostalgic depiction of rural life and young men’s early deaths struck a chord with English readers and became a bestseller. Many composers were inspired by the poems’ folk-song-like simplicity and James Rutherford, taking time off from The Poacher, offers a touching sample.

Buxton Festival 2008
Mozart – Fantasia in C minor, KV475, Ligeti – Musica ricercata, Mozart – Rondo in A minor, KV511, Schubert – Sonata no.18 in G major, D894

Paul Lewis is one of the country’s most distinguished pianists, appearing regularly at the world’s major venues and festivals. His international schedule has included recital and concerto débuts throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan, and Australia, working with leading orchestras from Seattle to Sydney. He is particularly noted for his interpretations of Schubert, whose lyrical Sonata makes the perfect foil to Ligeti’s stark, rhythmic and folk-inspired music in this recital.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
‘If I don’t fight, how will I win?’ Alone in a confined space a woman sits but refuses to wait. Examining the relationship between breath and voice, movement and music, this solo piece explores the potential of human expression.

Buxton Festival 2008
More Glass than Wall celebrates the 400th anniversary of the death of Bess of Hardwick, the wealthiest woman in Elizabethan England. 120 young people from Hague Bar, Thornsett, Whaley Bridge and Chapel-en-le-Frith have worked with nationally acclaimed composer James Redwood and a team of sinfonia ViVA musicians to create music inspired by Bess’s life.

Cathy Grindrod, Derbyshire’s inaugural Poet Laureate, and James Redwood have written More Glass than Wall – a major new work which, along with new material created during the workshops, will be brought to life by young people, vocal soloists, conductor David Lawrence and sinfonia ViVA in the culmination performance.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Spiltmilk Dance present 5 short dances inspired by the life and work of Andy Warhol. The work has a distinctively quirky twist and is intended to be immediately visually appealing to a wide audience.

Buxton Festival 2008
A tragic opera in three acts.
One of the best-loved English operas, by arguably England’s greatest composer, with a brilliant English cast, one of the most eminent of all English directors and a world-famous designer… in a new, full-length version of Dido and Aeneas! This stunning reconstruction of Purcell’s masterpiece recalls the world of 1700 when Dido reappeared as interludes gracing Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Philip Pickett has reconstructed the dramatic score, with added slide-trumpets, kettle-drums, recorders, oboes, bassoon, serpent and double bass. Additional music by Purcell and his contemporaries, originally included in the 1700 performances, has been reinstated to make a full-length opera once again.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Tideswell Male Voice Choir last performed in this splendid church during the 2007 Fringe concert. This concert will feature the choir performing several new pieces, as well as some of those for which they have become famous. Don’t miss the chance to hear this very popular choir.

Buxton Festival 2008
Evelyn Nallen (Recorders), David Gordon (Harpsichord), Oli Hayhurst (Double bass), Tom Hooper (Percussion)
Brilliantly led by David Gordon, harpsichordist of choice for Andrew Manze and Nigel Kennedy, Respectable Groove re-tell the story of the ill-fated lovers using the music of Purcell’s masterpiece, imbued with their secret recipe of colours, sounds, improvisations and atmospheres.
With a unique instrumental line-up, Respectable Groove is renowned for its interpretation of medieval, renaissance and baroque music through a kaleidoscope of jazz and contemporary influences. Expect an exhilarating array of colours, virtuosic solos, inventive compositions and beautiful melody.

Buxton Festival 2008
Wars and Democracy in the 21st Century
Tariq Ali is a writer, journalist, film maker and political activist. In this captivating talk he discusses his opinions on the current climate of democracy and war, voicing the questions; how are we to understand the world today? The social and economic system is virtually the same in every major zone, but war and hunger remain. Is there a way out? And if not how does it reflect on the democratic system? Do apathy and consumerism equal happiness? Is this the fate of humanity?

Buxton Festival 2008
Susan Bickley (Mezzo), Fiona McSherry (Piano)
Susan Bickley, star of Roberto Devereux last year, is firmly established as one of the most versatile and characterful mezzo-sopranos, equally at home on the opera stage or recital platform. Recent recitals have taken her to Spain, London, the Edinburgh Festival and John F Kennedy Center in Washington. Her recital includes songs by Ravel, Caplet and Reynaldo Hahn, who, although born in Venezuela, became a master in the French classical tradition of the mélodie.

Buxton Festival 2008
Truman, our film maker and hero, is heralded a genius in the reviews. He feels a desperate need to love and, back in his studio, falls in love with his chair. His dog gets jealous and complications ensue… Enjoy this mixture of high romance and absurdism, of respect and irreverence, as A Chair in Love clears some opera cobwebs and provides some fun along the way.

Buxton Festival 2008
Anonymous – Medieval Dances, Boccherini – Quintetto Fandango, opus 50, no 2, Granados – Goyescas, Ravel – Alborada del Grazioso.
Making a very welcome return is the superb Dutch group Calefax, known for its virtuoso performances, innovative programming and engaging concerts. The quintet often performs from memory – and in their hands, all sounds fresh and new. The last year has taken Calefax to China, Norway, Estonia, Sweden, Sicily and Japan. If you’ve not heard these musicians before, we guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Christine O’Malley and Susan Gaukroger present original songs and poetry inspired by changing landscapes and lasting friendship… Christine’s programme of music coincides with the recent release of her debut album, Artemis Grace. Sue’s poetry has been published and broadcast.

Buxton Festival 2008
A dramatic oratorio in three acts. A Buxton Festival production, with the Orchestra of The Sixteen and Festival Chorus.
Though an oratorio, Samson is among Handel’s finest dramatic works. Created within weeks of Messiah, contemporary audiences believed it to rank alongside his greatest achievements. Filled with glorious melodies and stirring choruses, its finale Let the bright Seraphim is widely considered to be one of the most famous arias Handel ever composed.

In Gaza, an Israelite called Samson is taken hostage by the Philistines. Shorn of his hair and strength, he is blinded and tortured. In revenge, as 3,000 of his enemies feast and celebrate, he brings down the pillars of their temple, killing himself and everyone inside.
Daniel Slater directs a first rate cast led by Tom Randle in the title role and Rebecca Bottone as the seductive and scheming Dalila. Harry Christophers returns to conduct his celebrated period-instrument orchestra.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
The Sheffield-based drama group debut with Jane Austen’s classic story of the trials and tribulations of finding the perfect suitor for marriage. Will it be a Bingley, Wickham or Mr Darcy? A delightful piece of theatre for all generations.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Music of England and Europe for voice, lute, theorbo, baroque guitar, viol, recorder, harp and harpsichord. Including music by Monteverdi, Vivialdi, Purcell and Handel.

Buxton Festival 2008
From Fleet Street to Pig Farm
Rosie Boycott, the one-time eminent editor of The Independent and Daily Express, now lives a very different lifestyle on her farm in Somerset. In this captivating conversation with Anthony Howard she discusses her book From Fleet Street to Pig Farm, tracing her journey from the press to porkers.

Buxton Festival 2008
Fiona Slominska (flute), Jeremy Young (piano), Glyn Foley (basson)
JS Bach – Sonata in G minor, Schubert – Theme and Variations on Trockne Blumen, D802, Faure – Morceau de Concours
Fiona Slominska was chosen for the Tillett Trust’s Young Artists Platform scheme in 2007, following study at the RNCM. She is a visiting teacher at Birmingham Conservatoire and works with the country’s leading orchestras. Under the Trust’s auspices she is giving recitals at the Wigmore and Fairfield Halls, in Cambridge and Bristol and many festivals and music clubs around the UK.

Buxton Festival 2008
Independent Ballet Wales presents the greatest love story of all, to the ravishing music of Hector Berlioz, now a distinctive, new, full length classical ballet. Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy is transformed with intense fighting, passionate duets, lyrical choreography and exquisite costumes to create a world of danger and excitement where two lovers are caught in an age-old feud.

Please note: this performance uses recorded music.

Buxton Festival 2008
Mozart’s classic opera is breathtakingly transformed in a spectacular new film version conceived and directed by Kenneth Branagh with a newly-adapted libretto from Stephen Fry. Mozart purists may be outraged by the brilliantly inventive First World War setting, but this is a visually stunning take on Mozart’s masterpiece with an outstanding cast including the Festival’s own Tom Randle.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
‘If I don’t fight, how will I win?’ Alone in a confined space a woman sits but refuses to wait. Examining the relationship between breath and voice, movement and music, this solo piece explores the potential of human expression.

Buxton Festival 2008
Mozart’s classic opera is breathtakingly transformed in a spectacular new film version conceived and directed by Kenneth Branagh with a newly-adapted libretto from Stephen Fry. Mozart purists may be outraged by the brilliantly inventive First World War setting, but this is a visually stunning take on Mozart’s masterpiece with an outstanding cast including the Festival’s own Tom Randle.

Buxton Festival 2008
Savitri, Riders To The Sea and The Wandering Scholar
A Buxton Festival production, with the Northern Chamber Orchestra and members of the Mad Hatters Youth Choir
We celebrate our thirtieth Festival with three short operas exploring lives that have been ruined by romance, seduction, betrayal and tragic departure. Michael Barry and Nigel Hook are reunited after success here in Noye’s Fludde and Tobias and the Angel. Oliver Gooch conducts a distinguished cast including Indian dancer Kalithasan Chandrasegaram.

Savitri
by Gustav Holst (1874-1934). Libretto by the composer, after an episode from the Mahabharata
Holst’s haunting chamber opera tells a simple and timeless Indian tale in a style influenced by English folk-song and given universal significance. Savitri, a woodcutter’s wife, sets out to wrest her beloved husband from the grasp of Death. She is granted any gift, except for her husband’s life, but cleverly outwits Death. Holst, with beautiful feeling for atmosphere in a most restrained setting, brings out the profoundly human concerns of life, death and love. His delicate score includes a wordless female choir, a device to which he would return in The Planets.

The Wandering Scholar
by Gustav Holst. Libretto by Clifford Bax
Holst’s late comedy is set in a rural French farmhouse. A young scholar begs for food at the farm, but unluckily arrives just as the farmer’s wife is about to take advantage of her husband’s absence at market to enjoy some hanky-panky with the local priest. The priest hides from the returning farmer but will the traveler reveal all or keep his secret? With sparse orchestral forces, no set-pieces or overture Holst tells this simple country tale with original and effective music, avoiding any tendency towards sentimentality, suffused with influences of folk music.

Riders to the Sea
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). Libretto from John Synge’s play
Vaughan Williams draws on a poignant Irish story, revealing the sea as a cruelly dispassionate arbiter of human fate. Riders to the Sea, the composer’s most successful opera, is a masterly setting of Synge’s play about Aran fisherfolk, of an Irishwoman’s loss of her sons to the ocean. The surge of the orchestra threatens to overwhelm the singers just as the sea threatens to engulf the family in the story – a tale of stoic resignation in the face of implacable nature.

Buxton Festival Fringe 2008
The Sheffield-based drama group debut with Jane Austen’s classic story of the trials and tribulations of finding the perfect suitor for marriage. Will it be a Bingley, Wickham or Mr Darcy? A delightful piece of theatre for all generations.

Buxton Festival 2008
Purbayan Chatterjee (Sitar), Subhankar Banerjee (Tabla)
Few sounds are as evocative as the music of the sitar. A renowned master of the instrument, Purbayan Chatterjee is recognised as one of the great exponents of Indian classical music. He has represented India in all the major Indian festivals and at venues and festivals from London’s South Bank to Sydney Opera House, including concerts in Europe, the Middle East and America.