Buxton International Festival has announced the opera and musical theatre programme for 2021 and confirmed the dates for the event.
The festival will run from Thursday 8 July until Sunday 25 July 2021 and will include co-productions with Salzburg State Theatre and the Early Opera Company. There will also be an opera oratorio commissioned by the festival.
One of the highlights will be the Buxton Opera House and Buxton International Festival production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music which was postponed in 2020. It will be directed by the Opera House’s Paul Kerryson and conducted by Wyn Davies.
Another rescheduled show is opera oratorio Our Future, In Your Hands, a Buxton International Festival commission in collaboration with Royal Overseas League. It is written by Laura Attridge with music by Kate Whitley. Tom Newall conducts and Mark Burns is the director.
There will be a new English version by Kit Hesketh-Harvey of Viva La Diva, adapted from plays by Simeone Antonio Sografi. It will be a Salzburg State Theatre production with music by Gaetano Donizetti. Adrian Kelly will conduct and the director will be Jacopo Spirei.
The co-production with the Early Opera Company will be Acis and Galatea with music by George Frideric Handel and libretto by John Gay. Conductor will be Christian Curnyn, with Martin Constantine directing.
More than 4,700 people have watched the 2020 Festival which went online after the conventional event was cancelled for the first time in 40 years because of COVID-19. The whole programme is available at the Buxton International Festival web site and on its YouTube channel.