Dvořák’s Jacobin delights Buxton Festival audience

By Mark Pullinger, 13 July 2014

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“Lester was able to spin legato gloriously in his moving tribute to the music of his homeland”

Reviewed at Buxton Opera House, Buxton on 12 July 2014

Dvořák, The Jacobin

Buxton Festival Opera

Stephen Barlow, Conductor

Stephen Unwin, Director

Jonathan Fensom, Set Designer

Andrew Greenan, Count Harasova

Nicholas Lester, Bohuš

Anne-Sophie Duprels, Julie

Bonaventura Bottone, Benda

Anna Patalong, Terinka

Matthew Newlin, Jiří

James McOran-Campbell, Adolf

Nicholas Folwell, Filip

Daisy Brown, Soprano

Fiona Hymns, Soprano

Norman, Joanna, Soprano

Catarina Sereno, Soprano

Sophie Dicks, Mezzo-soprano

Imogen Garner, Mezzo-soprano

Sinnott, Natalie, Mezzo-soprano

Adam Kowalczyk, Tenor

Onelius, Mikael, Tenor

Leonel Pinheiro, Tenor

Dwyer, Nicolas, Baritone

Jamie Rock, Baritone

Howes, David, Bass

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Sarah Noble, 15th July

Setting the life of Vera Brittain to the music of Ivor Novello, Buxton Festival's new musical is a welcome if overambitious showcase for them both.

***11

Arcadia in the Peak District: Mozart's Il re pastore in Buxton

Sarah Noble, 9th July

Mozart's early opera seria may not be his greatest achievement – but lightness of touch from all involved highlight its charms in Jack Furness' new production.

***11

Buxton Festival celebrates 40th anniversary with Eugene Onegin

Robert Gainer, 6th July

Every July, Buxton’s charming opera house hosts an international festival of opera, literature and the arts. This year the festival opened with a strong familiar favourite, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

****1

For teenage kicks: Mozart's Lucio Silla at Buxton International Festival

Charlotte Valori, 9th July

The fashion for reviving Mozart's teenage operas brings a vocally dazzling production of Lucio Silla to Buxton, nevertheless hampered by the work's own lack of believable drama and some fairly flat staging.

***11

Fresh peaches of temptation

Charlotte Valori, 8th July

A period-perfect Albert Herring from Francis Matthews for Buxton International Festival takes time to settle into its stride, but provides plenty of laughs along the way.

****1

Verdi's Macbeth at Buxton International Festival

Charlotte Valori, 7th July

A searing, edge-of-your-seat spinetingler from Elijah Moshinsky makes the strongest possible case for Verdi's first Macbeth, ideally suited to the proportions of Buxton's beautiful Opera House.

*****

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Dvořák’s Jacobin returns from musical exile to delight Buxton