buxton festival friends newsletter september 2014

1www.buxtonfestival.co.uk ❘ SEPTEMBER 2014

Chairman’s Message This is my first contribution to a Friends Newsletter, and I would like to reiterate the most grateful thanks that I gave at

the Friends lunch at the end of the Festival to Dame Janet, who has been such an outstanding Chairman for the last seven years.We all hold her in the highest regard, for her outstanding commitment, diligence, generosity, and endless hard work throughout the Festival, and indeed throughout the year. She has been an outstanding leader, and her charming and erudite introductions to almost every speaker, with an unsurpassed knowledge and analysis of their latest book, have been legendary. We all owe her our most profound gratitude. She will be the most difficult act to follow, but I am delighted to say that she intends to continue to join us for the Festival in future. We will all look forward to seeing her again in 2015.

The Festival has been a great success this year. I am writing this in the week after the Festival ended, and all the indicators are positive. Our operas were outstanding, with many national as well as regional and local reviews, and four stars were the verdict from most of the critics.

Importantly, they were received very well from near-capacity audiences. The singers were excellent, the choral singing was outstanding, and the Kinder Choir was delightful; many congratulations to them all. The stage designs and the interpretations were imaginative, and appropriate. Why shouldn’t Elysium look like Ibiza? Overall, the musical standards were very high throughout, and that was due in no small measure to the excellent orchestral playing, and conducting, including of course by our Artistic Director, Stephen Barlow. He and Randall Shannon, our Executive Director, had worked throughout the year on the content and specification of the Festival, and its success owes much to their skill and experience.

There were strong concert performances, and the Literary Series was also very well received, with several of the performances being sold out. What was also notable was the upbeat and positive tone which seemed to pervade Buxton throughout the duration of the Festival. The wonderful weather probably had something to do with it, and the audience reaction after each performance added to the “buzz” which was so prevalent.

In conclusion, I must refer to the major role played by the Friends throughout the 17 days, and especially the invaluable part played by Louise Potter, your superb Chairman. The professional role played by so many Friends at every event is vital to the success of the Festival. You are an integral part of the family of the Festival, and we could not do it without you. I hope you have enjoyed Festival 2014, and I hope you will continue to work with us. As colleagues, we look forward to hearing from you if you have suggestions to make. I look forward to meeting even more of you in the near future, and listening to your views. Thank you for your very significant contribution to the success of Festival 2014.

Dame Sandra BurslemChairman, Buxton Festival

2015 Festival dates: 10–25 JulyFestival operas: Giovanna d’Arco by Verdi and Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti

Visit the Festival website and join our monthly e-newsletter list for regular updates

3 The Square, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AZ Telephone: 01298 70395 [email protected] www.buxtonfestival.co.uk

Festival and Friends

Dame Janet Smith and Dame Sandra Burslem

SEPTEMBER 2014 ❘ www.buxtonfestival.co.uk2

Friends Chairman writes What a wonderful Buxton Festival we had this year. I do hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Congratulations to all the Festival team who work tirelessly to mount the feast of opera, music and literature we all enjoy at the Festival each July.

Our own opera productions set the tone for the Festival as a whole and all three were very well received. The quality of the concerts and literary talks was widely commented on and it was lovely to see Yuanfan Yang, the 16 year old pianist, perform to a capacity audience at the Festival following his debut with the Festival Friends at Thornbridge Hall earlier in the year. The Executive team led by Stephen Barlow and Randall Shannon has already started planning the 2015 programme and with your continued support, promises to make it a Festival not to miss.

You will have recently have received a letter from me and our Membership Secretary, Judy Barker, notifying you of our modest increase in subscription rates, the first in five years. We also asked if you will consider upgrading your support to become a Patron or Benefactor. We have done this because with reduced trust funding in the last couple of years we have to become more reliant on self-support to raise income to mount a festival like ours. Much is made of how inexpensive our opera tickets are in comparison to other opera festivals and of course our London members would normally pay higher prices to attend quality productions in the capital. The Festival Board decided some time ago to keep ticket prices set at a modest level to allow all who wish to attend the Festival the opportunity to do

so at an affordable price—which I support, but this does mean that the price we pay at the box office only covers half the cost of what we see on stage and for the other half we have to fundraise to maintain the high quality our members have come to expect. I hope you will consider upgrading your membership to help our fundraising in 2015.

It always gives me pleasure in having this opportunity to say a huge thank you to the volunteers of the Festival (some of whom are on your committee) and Opera House. I would also like to give thanks to the box office team who deal with our priority booking requests so efficiently and to the Waterstones bookshop team who turn up at every talk and give Buxton for a short period an excellent bookshop in the heart of the Festival village. Grateful thanks also to the staff of the Old Hall Hotel which becomes the unofficial Festival hub for the period of the Festival. Finally, I would like to thank the team who run the Cavendish Bar each evening for our Patrons and Benefactors. Their excellent service during the busy interval period was exceptional. The dedication and loyalty of all those I mention is greatly appreciated by us all. Their friendliness makes us all feel part of a large Festival family.

I enjoyed our Friends events during the Festival this year. For the first time we hosted a Friends Reception, giving members who would normally drive home after the opera the opportunity to join us for a pre-performance drink. During the middle weekend we held our post-opera Festival Party, inviting cast members to join us. Stephen introduced each member of the cast, all of whom received a well-deserved round of applause following

an amazing performance. He also introduced Joyce Ellis, founder of the Kinder Choir which gave a splendid performance in The Jacobin. On the final weekend we held our Friends Festival Lunch at the Old Hall Hotel which gave members an opportunity to discuss their Festival highlights over a convivial lunch. As many will know, this year’s Festival was Dame

Janet Smith’s last as Chairman and she relinquished her post on the final day at our Friends’

Lunch. The Board has elected Dame Sandra Burslem as Interim Chairman. The lunch was an opportunity for us to say farewell to Dame Janet and welcome to Dame Sandra, with whom we all look forward to working in the future.

This year Friends of Buxton Festival supported the production of Orfeo ed Euridice. The feedback from members regarding this production has been very positive on the whole and we are pleased to have made this opera possible. I enjoyed all the Festival productions this year, particularly the concert performance of Otello, which for me worked so well and allowed one to concentrate entirely on the singing and the music which was breathtaking. I think it is marvellous news that Kate Ladner, Desdemona in Otello, will be returning next year to take the title role of Joan of Arc.

Finally, I would like to end by letting you know that we have some wonderful Friends events planned for the autumn. Later this month we return to Moorcroft House by kind invitation of Philip and Pat Holland and then we have the annual Friends Weekend which will focus on English Touring Opera’s visit. Please don’t miss the concert in St John’s Church which we have helped organise as part of their visit to Buxton. And then just a few days later we return to Stephen and Joanna’s studio in central London for another evening of music with our Artistic Director and friends. I hope you will be able to join us for these evenings. All of the Friends events you are able to attend support the Buxton Festival. I also hope to see many of our members at the inaugural Literary Weekend in Buxton this October. A fantastic line-up of speakers has been arranged.

With very many thanks for all you do.

Louise PotterChairman, Buxton Festival FriendsFriends’ Reception

Friends’ Lunch


What the critics said… Buxton Festival 2014 a triumph!This year’s Festival has been a great success, both in terms of artistic output and audience attendance. We’ve been very gratified by the positive comments we’ve received from reviewers across the country.‘That’s why I love Buxton: the Festival opera may play to a select audience, but the festive spirit… is so infectious that even rain can’t dampen it.’—Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times

The Jacobin

‘…cast and director persuasively present the moral strengths of [The Jacobin], with its emphasis on a community holding on to its values at a time of wider social upheaval. Conductor Stephen Barlow displays the charm and emotional warmth of a score that is endlessly delightful.’—George Hall, The Guardian

‘[The Jacobin] has found its ideal team and venue at Buxton. Frank Matcham’s exquisite little theatre is perfectly scaled for Stephen Unwin’s production, which tells its rustic tale simply and sensitively…’—Hilary Finch, The Times

‘… a loving performance of a lovable opera, the homely Buxton Festival at its best’ Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph

Orfeo ed Euridice

‘…Chance retains the presence—vocal as well as physical—to dominate the evening, as he must. Stuart Stratford conducts a clean and tidy performance of the inspired score, which sees both the Northern Chamber Orchestra and the young Buxton Festival Chorus on excellent form, the latter delivering Paula O’Reilly’s choreography with apparently spontaneous informality.’—George Hall, The Guardian

‘Michael Chance’s Orfeo scores in terms of stage presence. His initial cries of ‘Euridice’ may be

motivated by remorse rather than love but they are spine-tingling…’—Mike Wheeler, Music & Vision

Otello

‘In addition to their solo work, there are thrilling duets and trios between the main characters … Rossini tests their range and technique to the utmost’—Philip Radcliffe, Manchester Theatre Awards

‘Stephen Barlow brought out the drama and lyricism in Rossini’s score in an ideal manner whilst also ensuring that his singers were never overwhelmed’-Robert J Farr, Seen & Heard Online

‘All credit to the Northern Chamber Orchestra and to Buxton for bringing out another jewel kept in the box for too long’—Colin Davison, Gloucestershire Echo

‘…a wonderfully enthralling performance with some vividly virtuosic singing’—Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill

The Jacobin

Orfeo ed Euridice

Otello


Artistic Director’s Festival Review 2014 I write just over a week after the Festival closed with an exceptional late night concert of Bach and

Handel in St John’s Church, with Gillian Keith singing the two late Cantatas for solo soprano and the evergreen NCO in support.This concert encapsulated the quality of this summer’s cup brimming over with diversity, passion, drama, enthralling entertainment, intellectual stimulation, exceptional artists and attentive audiences in all our venues. We were able to welcome returning artists and those new to the Festival in equal measure. It seems that all our guest performers once bitten are eager to return, which is a sure sign of a happy and rewarding annual gathering.

Equally stimulating was the growth once more of enthusiastic audiences. Ticket sales were buoyant, in both priority booking periods and when public booking took hold and continued until the very last day. Since 2008, the primary economic factor that affected the whole country, and compounded by the events of 2011, every artistic institution in the UK, and notably in the USA (opera companies and orchestras) and Germany, and particularly sharply in Italy, suffered the effects of economic collapses and the catastrophic banking crashes and were forced into extremely serious radical reviews of their foundation and operations. The Buxton Festival was no exception. But a keenly focused 2013 Festival with an acute eye on what was prudent yet maintaining the highest quality put us on a steadier footing for 2014, faith in which was rewarded by audience growth, the willingness of the highest quality artists to return to Buxton, the Arts Council’s renewal of our invaluable 3 year grant, and the firm support of our long term Friends. Randall Shannon and I believe passionately that quality is our first aim, and looking back I’m proud to say that each of the 17 Festival days hit the spot. You’ll have noticed that the diary of events now makes it virtually impossible to miss any event, except in a few rare cases, and we’d love to know just how many patrons were drawn to events in a day right across the spectrum of literary,

concert and operatic events. Certainly, there’s nothing quite like the Buxton Festival elsewhere in that regard.

The Festival is very much an intense working period for your Artistic Director. This summer, over the 17 days, I conducted 8 opera performances (The Jacobin and Otello) and 2 concerts (the opening Gala and the closing Bach concert), and gave an almost daily series of pre-performance talks. I’d very much have liked to have been able to see and experience as much as possible of all the events we plan very carefully, and immerse myself in the artistic pleasures completely, but for example, we were rehearsing on many of the early days such as Otello with orchestra and cast in Stockport and in Buxton, and on several occasions I and the orchestra were rehearsing on the afternoon of an Opera performance. This is meat and drink to musicians of course, the pleasure of immersion in the work, but it did mean that I was rarely able to sit back and enjoy complete concerts or talks, or take leisurely time to meet and greet Patrons, Friends of the Festival and audience members. Having said that, I still found pockets of time happily to dip in to a large number of events across the spectrum, Endellion, Schubert, the exceptional ICE concert in St John’s, piano recitals, Plowright’s recital and master class, Halle Soloists, James Naughtie, Jeffrey Archer, Lawson Trio, 4 Guitars, Adrian Butterfield, NCO Wind, Roderick Williams, Fibonaccis, and a host of others including Literary talks. I was also so happy to be approached so often, and gratified, if I was standing still for a second around the Opera House before a performance or walking swiftly from rehearsal to venue to office and back so incessantly. Clearly our audiences feel that the Festival has a ‘family’ touch as much as we do.

I was very pleased to note that our Operas this year drew enthusiastic interest from public and critics alike. It’s part of Buxton’s unique appeal to present works that are not perhaps performed as often as some, so being able to present Dvorak’s Jacobin which gathered a substantial number of national critics as well as the highest average ticket sales of the 3, and Rossini’s Otello alongside Gluck’s Orfeo with casts of such quality, experience and promise and featuring strongly our absolutely excellent chorus of 16 exceptional younger artists bore out the essential discerning curiosity

of our extended audience and strength of casting. Needless to say, the same curiosity and appreciation of the special Buxton feel applies to our high powered and growing line up of Directors and Designers, who also seem keen to return as soon as possible. Stephen Unwin and Stephen Medcalf delivered outstanding productions this summer, and all very much on a shoestring. Buxton Festival is not a wealthy Festival, and it won’t have escaped your notice that Randall and the office team are hard at work now to continue our Fund Raising campaigns which are essential to underpin further work and a strengthening of our artistic strategies. While it’s essential to maintain ticket prices that are keenly attractive, the Festival, least of all its Opera productions, cannot pay its way nor place trust in the future without personal giving and business sponsorship. For example, we were only able even to consider mounting the concert performances of Otello by dint of a very substantial personal gift from Ian Rosenblatt. Many would no doubt have wished to see a fully staged production, and it is our strategic aim to produce 3 operas each summer as soon as we can, but Buxton Festival undoubtedly uses its means accurately, creatively and prudently.

Finally, my own words of personal thanks to all our wonderful volunteers who steered and cajoled audiences, confiscated a mobile phone which was allowed to ring and ring during a stunning vocal recital, pacified over-heated audiences in the PAC during another Tuscan summer in Buxton, chased, lassoed and delivered Literary speakers without fail, unfailingly supported the tiny office team, and formed the backbone of Festival concert and Literary management, giving their time with such generosity and passion. Secondly to the NCO, our own Festival orchestra who never cease to amaze me with their ability to soak up pressure (3 operas, always new to them, in varying styles), and deliver outstanding playing with care and love, and who are now as much an indispensible part of the Festival as all of us. Thirdly to Louise Potter and Arianne Banks for their work in creating the ever more successful Literary series. And lastly to Randall Shannon and the small but heavyweight office team, whose skill, commitment, humour and devotion make everything and anything possible.

Stephen BarlowArtistic Director


Cavendish BarUpgrade your membership for an invitation to the Cavendish Bar in 2015.One of the benefits of becoming a Festival Benefactor or Patron is an invitation to join other VIP guests for an interval drink at the evening opera performances. We very much hope you will join us in 2015 as one of our Benefactors or Patrons. Membership starts at £175 for single membership per annum.

Literary Series ReviewThis year’s Literary Series was more ambitious than ever, comprising 45 talks in all, several of them entirely sold out.We were delighted to welcome back old friends including Shirley Williams, Antonia Fraser, Simon Jenkins and Paddy Ashdown, all of whom held their audience in thrall, and the four early morning lectures in the Old Hall Hotel—not for the faint-hearted—were filled to bursting.

As organisers, we felt lucky to have such a rich harvest of titles to draw on, and a roll-call of authors so passionate about their subjects, so articulate and compelling. John Julius Norwich set the

bar high with his delicious account of his mother Lady Diana Cooper’s life and letters, and thereafter one revelatory talk followed another, taking us from politics, war and finance though art and culture, food and gardening, to further lives and letters, among them Roy Jenkins, Dylan Thomas, Paul Cezanne, Princess Louise and Penelope Fitzgerald.

Max Hastings crisply summarised the catastrophe of World War I and Paddy Ashdown that of the Vercors defeat; Linda Colley tackled the politics of independence and Anthony King the blunders of government; Kate Adie looked at women’s lives on the home front, and Shirley Williams at her mother Vera

Brittain’s wartime achievements. Philip Hook took us on a canter through the art market, Claudia Roden revisited her passion for Italian food, Emma Bridgewater her passion for pottery, while Sarah Raven reprised Vita Sackville-West’s creation of Sissinghurst. Vicky Pryce explored the brutal facts of imprisonment, and Alan Johnson his own painful childhood. Margaret Drabble and James Naughtie revealed home truths about the writer’s life, and Lisa Appignanesi about the motivations for crimes of passion. And two passionate ornithologists left us with home truths about the lives of birds, to round the festival off.

Louise Potter and Ariane Bankes

Kate Adie Paddy AshdownPeter Snow


Life back stage—a pictorial illustrationWatching an opera is an experience like no other, and as audience we are privileged to be presented with the final performance in all its glamour, sparkle and beauty.As the Festival Photographer, I was as fascinated with another side to a performance, a side that is as dynamic, exciting and beautiful. As an audience we never get the chance to experience it, so here we share with you a glimpse of what goes on behind the curtain and backstage during a performance of The Jacobin.

Mo El-FatihFestival Photographer


Special Invitationto the Friends of Buxton Festival

from Investec Wealth & Investmentat 4pm on Thursday 18 September 2014

at Hassop Hall, Hassop, Nr Bakewell

Presentation followed by a private concert with the fabulous

Lizzie Ball & James Pearson

Arrival and refreshments

Presentation by the Investec Wealth and Investment Team

James Lanchbery, Guy Ellison, Darren Findlay

Concert with Lizzie Ball and James Pearson

Drinks and canapés

Places are limited and free to the Friends of Buxton Festival

Please make your reservation through the Festival Friends of� ce

Email [email protected] sending your name and full postal address


Buxton Festival 2014 in pictures

Stephen Barlow conducting the Northern Chamber Orchestra

Song at Six

Setting up the Cavendish Bar

Stephen Barlow and Gillian Keith with theNorthern Chamber Orchestra in St John’s Church

The orchestra take a break in the sun during an interval

Stephen Barlow and Joanna Lumley with the Kinder Choir

Festival audience

Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne

Kate Adie TV interview in the park


Sponsorship News Our income from Trusts and Foundations has been a bit disappointing this year due to the fierce competition from so many

charities chasing a diminishing pot of funding.In addition, we have to wait a while before we can re-apply to the Trusts who generously funded us last year.

On the other hand, there seems to be increasing business optimism in the corporate sector and we are very pleased with this year’s new Sponsors and Advertisers and, the level of interest already shown for next year’s Festival. We had three successful launches earlier in the year including one in Derby where we feel there is quite a lot of audience and sponsorship potential. The Manchester Launch was in Waterstones on Deansgate and over 100 guests enjoyed another enjoyable Launch at The Crucible Theatre Sheffield.

The new sponsorship from Mercedes, who sponsored the opening Opera Gala, has worked very well and many of you will have seen the two A-Class Mercedes on display on the Opera House forecourt during the Festival. Mercedes-Benz also offered a SLK Class Mercedes for a weekend in our free Festival e-newsletter.

We were also delighted that Walkers Crisps chose the first weekend of Buxton Festival to sponsor us and launch their

lovely new up-market snack range called ‘deli’. Thousands of sample bags were given away over the weekend and at one point it seemed that every person in the Pavilion Gardens was eating a bag of ‘deli’ snacks.

Our other new and valued sponsors this year include East Midland Trains, Haddon Hall Nursing Home, Vision Express, Irwin Mitchell Solicitors, Grant Thornton Accountants, Baillie Gifford, HL Brown and Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce, who between them sponsored Robin Hanbury-Tenison, Shirley Williams, Antonia Fraser, Vicky Pryce, Jim Naughtie, Matthew Parris, Ranulph Fiennes and Otello .

Our sponsorship relationship with Waterstones is growing and they were very pleased that moving their bookshop onto the Promenade resulted in increased awareness and sales.

Last but not least, thank you to our friends Investec Wealth Management who sponsored the popular Lesley Garrett and Emma Johnson Concert on 14 July in the Opera House. Investec is also offering free tickets to Festival Friends for their special

event at 4pm on 18 September at Hassop Hall near Bakewell.

The Investec team will talk about their company and then guests will be treated to refreshments and a private concert by the fabulous Lizzie Ball and James Pearson. See the advertisement for this event elsewhere in this newsletter and over 60 places have already been snapped up so don’t delay as places are now limited. As you can imagine, our plan is to keep hold of our lovely sponsors and turn all the current enquiries into 2015 Festival Sponsors!

David HeughDirector of Fundraising

New Festival Literary WeekendFriday 31 October–Sunday 2 November

We are delighted to announce a new Festival event this Autumn. The Literary Weekend will include talks by Jung Chang, Kirsty Wark, Sandra Howard, Jonathan Aitkin and Kathy Lette and a Sunday literary lunch at the Old Hall Hotel featuring talks by Matthew Parris and Nicholas Parsons.

Festival Friends will receive a brochure and booking details in September.

The Lord Mayor and Mistress Cutler were among 100 guests from the world of industry and commerce for the Sheffield Launch of Buxton Festival at The Crucible Theatre Sheffield in May. The Launch was kindly sponsored by Central Technology Ltd. Left to right David Heugh, The Lord Mayor of Sheffield—Cllr Vicky Priestley, Buxton Festival Chairman—Dame Janet Smith, Randall Shannon.

The Investec Zebra standing guard at the Opera House

Waterstones


Friends Opera Holidays Spring 2015Friends of Buxton Festival have an opportunity to enjoy an unusually wide range of performances on Grosvenor Travel’s Spring 2015 Friends European opera holidays.

Classic operas by Mozart, Berlioz, Wagner and Richard Strauss stand alongside Baroque compositions by Charpentier, Vivaldi, Handel, Gluck and Rameau. Excellent centrally sited accommodation, some fascinating historic cities and a combination of guided tours and free time should continue to provide great pleasure to Friends participating. Ticket allocations are limited so please read the enclosed brochure or call Grosvenor Travel on 01492 547744 for further information.

Festival Holiday 2015We are working with our travel partner, Grosvenor Travel; on organising a Buxton Festival holiday in 2015. The holiday is likely to be based at the Palace Hotel in Buxton for three nights and offer coach travel from Macclesfield railway station (the train service from London Euston to Macclesfield is 1h 40m), giving the opportunity not to have to drive.

Thank you for the opportunityStraight from the final term of my second year as a vocal studies student at the Royal Northern College of Music, I made the short journey to Buxton to kick off my internship at Buxton Festival 2014.The festival team had previously contacted me and asked if I wanted to be an actor in the Festival’s production of The Jacobin. As an aspiring opera singer, the opportunity to act alongside established industry greats and an extremely talented chorus was invaluable! As the first week progressed, I got to meet and get to know the seven other interns, we all had a passion for music in common so gelled very quickly.

The internship requires an adaptable individual thanks to the diverse experiences and situations it places you in. From being the first face a member of the public may see, to vital office work, to page turning, to venue set up, to artist greeting, to microphone operator: the sheer variety of tasks I faced has given me the insight into how much work is needed to carry out the daily running of an international festival. I was pleasantly surprised about how much I enjoyed the literary side of the festival as well. Listening to a talk directly from an author who is so knowledgeable and passionate about their subject was a thrill. The festival staff also tailored my internship in order to give me some professional experiences that can help my career and training. I performed three different recitals at the Festival’s ‘Songs at six’.

Set in the bandstand, with the Pavilion Gardens as a backdrop, it was a privilege to sing and entertain the audience before they headed into the opera house to experience some world-class productions.

Being a Buxton intern is hard work; you enter a fast-paced environment and learn a lot of names and skills in a short amount of time. I soon came to appreciate the work of the office staff who work all year round to realise a successful festival and who are always there to help and keep the interns busy! The result though is a huge feeling of accomplishment—for me the Festival has really added fuel to my desire to be a successful classical singer and I would recommend it to anyone interested in classical music, event management or art production.

Ed GaffneyFestival Intern

Festival Interns

Ed Gaffney

Amsterdam


Friends EventsAutumn ConcertMoorcroft House, Buxton Saturday, 27 September at 7pm

We are delighted to announce that Fiona Hymns (soprano) and Benjamin Lewis (baritone) will perform at our Autumn Concert. Those members who attended the Festival operas this year may recall Fiona and Benjamin forming part of the impressive Festival Chorus. We are pleased to give these two rising stars an opportunity to present their own operatic programme for members to enjoy in the intimate setting of Moorcroft House. We are very pleased to be returning to Moorcroft House where we are always assured a warm welcome from our hosts Pat and Philip Holland. The Committee will be providing their usual high standard of catering for our dinner following the concert. Tickets £50 including dinner and welcome drink.

Autumn Opera BreakBuxton Opera House 8 & 9 November

For this year’s Friends Weekend we have organised a package centred round the visit of English Touring Opera to Buxton. This popular autumn break in Buxton will include a stay at the Old Hall Hotel, a favourite hotel for Festival goers. For those arriving in Buxton early, you may be interested to attend one of the regular recitals given by students from the Royal Northern College of Music on

7 November at 1pm at the Pavilion Arts Centre. Tickets for these recitals cost £6 and can be obtained from the Buxton Opera House.

The programme is as follows:

Friday, 7 November

4.30pm Welcome Reception

5pm 3-course dinner

6.30pm Pre-opera talk

7.30pm Ottone by Handel

Saturday, 8 November

12.30pm 3-course lunch

2.30pm English Touring Opera Recital

6.30pm Pre-opera talk

7.30pm Il Mondo della luna (Life on the Moon) by Haydn

Price per person sharing a twin or double room is £325, including two nights B&B at the Old Hall Hotel and the programme as listed. If you wish to organise your own accommodation or perhaps don’t require accommodation—we are pleased to offer a non-residential package for £160pp.

ETO RecitalSt John’s Church, Buxton Saturday, 8 November at 2.30pm

English Touring Opera soloists perform a selection of arias and duets including popular favourites in the delightful parish church of St John’s. Tickets £10 each from the Opera House box office—telephone 01298 72190 to book. If you have booked the full weekend package then this recital is included. Tickets £10.

Stephen Barlow & FriendsStephen Barlow and Joanna Lumley’s Studio, London Wednesday, 12 November at 7pm

We are honoured to have been invited by Stephen and Joanna for a musical evening in their delightful Studio in the grounds of their London home. Our Artistic Director, Stephen Barlow, will be joined by two friends to present a programme which is sure to bring pleasure . More details will be available on the Festival website for this event soon. The evening will include food and wine. Tickets £60. Directions will be sent to those who book.

Christmas Event6 The Square, Buxton Friday, 5 December at 7pm

We have invited singers from the Buxton

Musical Society to join us for some musical entertainment, food and wine. We very much hope you too will be able to join your Committee for this special pre-Christmas event. Tickets £20.

Annual General MeetingOld Hall Hotel, Buxton Friday, 6 February, 2015 at 11am

All members welcome to attend and find out more about how the Friends Committee is run and also details about the 2015 Festival.

AGM LunchOld Hall Hotel, Buxton Friday, 6 February, 2015, 12.30pm

Our first event of the year is a convivial lunch for members following the Annual General Meeting. £25 including glass of wine and coffee.

Menu

Leek and Oyster Mushroom Tart with Baby Leaves and Basil Oil Dressing

orGame, Port and Bacon Terrine with

Cranberry Chutney and Crusty Rolls—

Fillet of Plaice stuffed with Spinach, Pesto Butter,

Cherry Tomatoes and Pine Nutsor

Loin of Pork with Peach Stuffing and Cider Sauce

~Both served with Saute Potatoes

and Pan Fried Snaps—

Treacle Sponge and Custardor

Cheeses and Accompaniments—

Tea or Coffee served with Minted Chocolates

Dates for your diary—201512 April: Lunch and speaker at Hassop Hall

14 May: Tissington Hall

15 May: Opera Study Day including lunch at the Lee Wood Hotel Speakers: Simon Rees and Roger Witts

15–16 May: Spring Opera Break in Buxton

Fiona Hymns

Benjamin Lewis


Festival Chairman: Dame Sandra Burslem Executive Director: Randall Shannon Artistic Director: Stephen Barlow Friends Patron: Donald Maxwell Friends Chairman: Louise Potter Buxton Festival Foundation Chairman: Ian Johnston

Buxton Arts Festival Limited: Registered Charity No. 276957 Friends of Buxton Festival: Registered Charity No. 513970

Court of ProtectionCharitiesFinancial AdvisersInternationalIndividuals

*as at 30 September 2012. Member firm of the London Stock Exchange. Member of NYSE Liffe. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Investec Wealth & Investment Limited is registered in England. Registered No. 2122340. Registered Office: 2 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7QP.Offices at: Bath Belfast Birmingham Bournemouth Cheltenham Edinburgh Exeter Glasgow Guildford Leeds Liverpool London Manchester Reigate Sheffield

Wealth & Investment. Composed differentlyWe are proud to support the Buxton Festival. With more than

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C32072.002_W&I_Buxton programme_May13_260x210_v2.indd 1 08/08/2013 10:38

buxton festival friends newsletter september 2014

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