Page 385 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024
P. 385
Opera Holland Park
© Mark Pullinger
Other UK opera festivals
In the Peak District spa town, the Buxton International Festival often stages lesser known
operas. This season features Verdi’s Ernani, La Tragédie de Carmen (Peter Brook’s taut
reduction of Bizet) and Handel’s l trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. Leicestershire’s
Nevill Holt Opera has reinvented itself as the Nevill Holt Festival and features two staged
productions this summer: The Magic Flute and the world premiere of Isabella Gellis’ The
Devil’s Den by Shadwell Opera.
Bradford-on-Avon’s If Opera has also seen a revamp in recent years, under new Executive
Director Michael Volpe (formerly of OHP) and offers stagings of Lucia di
Lammermoor and Die Fledermaus. Oxfordshire’s Bampton Classical Opera offers another
rarity this summer, Giuseppe Gazzaniga's L’isola d’Alcina, and the nearby Waterperry
Opera offers stagings of The Turn of the Screw and The Barber of Seville. And Dorset
Opera, flourishing under Roderick Kennedy’s ebullient management, chalks up its 50th
anniversary with a new production of Madama Butterfly and the world premiere of Paul
Carr’s Hardy-inspired Under the Greenwood Tree.
