Opera
Flying start
'Rodney Miines
Lucia di Lammermoor (Buxton Festival)
The opening of the first post-war Buxton Pestival (Lilian Baylis, as always, got there first) was assailed by one of those peculiarly (*rade dramas: an ailing Lucia, and her substitute flying in from Europe with police escort from Manchester airport to arrive ,i‘vo hours before curtain-up. Then the tenor lost his voice, though I was not altogether sure he had one to find. So it would not be Profitable to comment on the performance in detail: they got through it, which says ttinch for the professionalism of all concerned. When he was not nursing one or Other of his principals the conductor, Anthony Hose, seemed more at home with the violence of the piece than with its eniegiac melancholy, and the Manchester Lainerata, deprived of his full attention, Played patchily. Malcolm Fraser's production was thoroughly sensible (not thought to be a pliment in the world of Opera today, `"ough it is in my book) and free of eccen,'!eitY, save perhaps for Edgardo entering to °hg the Sextet with what looked suspici!tislY like a sawn-off shotgun. Mr Fraser is got afraid to let a chorus stand still and sing, 41.'d with a chorus as excellent as that Pembled for the festival, this paid mividends — they dominated the perforlh„,ance musically. Roger Butlin has carved a he for himself as the purveyor of perma,ettt sets for grand operas that demand 'aeveral. His Martin-esque painted gauze f,111 Gothick fragments, with lowering halfri;eta peering through at appropriate 0°Ments, established the doom-laden .0 Sphere economically and efficiently. ve1he surprise Lucia, Deborah Cook, is a saY capable one of the light, Lily Pons le:°01. The management was planning for a flute-cadenza-ridden, darker lirico4140 approach to the role. The best singing tivrae from Paul Hudson (Raimondo), dep of his big scene by the substitution. He tirt'!tight on Arturo's famous weapon to add ehistic verisimilitude to his narrative; the Aiejiros, nevertheless, remained pretty still. which leads one to suppose that in the IC Months the management had to plan &ibis Production they found that good native llers were all fully booked and had to 11:4 elsewhere. I am sure this will not %Pen again, he writes threateningly. 14,.`34t. that, really, is all by the way. Frank regteham's Opera House of 1903, lovingly kt0red by Derek Sugden of Ove Arup, is a eigekk-out. The acoustics are warm and th 41., the sense of intimacy in an auditorium 1: holds a thousand, ideal. The decoraa bewildering mixture of Edwardian e°e0 plasterwork, art nouveau stained glass and much else, is a riot of the very best bad taste and utterly exhilarating.
Nor is that all. On the opening night there was a real air of festivity in the town not necessarily anything to do with the opera: brass bands, drum majorettes, Cloggies, wind bands, fireworks, fanfares from the Opera House balcony and all. There is a festival club with a late licence. Each year there is to be a literary theme. This time it was Scott, with a superb exhibition in the new Art Gallery assembled by Catherine Gordon of the Courtauld Institute. It is crammed with Victorian Scott paintings that I know are supposed to be bad but which, like Landseer's 'Dying Warrior', pack a powerful emotional punch. The prize exhibit, though, is Millais's 'Effie Deans', shown publicly for the first time here, with its companion piece 'The Bride of Lammermoor'. These two alone are worth the price of a train ticket to Buxton, and the exhibition runs until 25 August.
But the most important thing is that Buxton is an ideal festival town. It is small. Everything is in walking distance. The buildings are various and unspoilt, from the 18th-century crescent to many Edwardian monsters as lovable as the Opera House. Its former spa status means that there is hotel accommodation in plenty. (Beware of the Palace, though, until its restoration is as complete as that of the Opera House.) The surrounding countryside is majestic. Having got off to such a flying start despite all, Buxton promises to be about the most invigorating thing to have happened to the British festival scene since 1947.
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