Donizetti Roberto Devereux and Offenbach Bluebeard
Buxton Festival, July 6-22, 2007.
(Thanks to the Buxton Festival for providing the pictures below)
The Buxton Festival continued its run of commendable productions with its 2007 offerings of a dramatic Donizetti's Roberto Devereux counterbalanced with a comic frothy Bluebeard from Offenbach.
The team for Roberto Devereux was:-
Elizabeth - Mary Plazas
Roberto Devereux - Todd Wilander
Sara, Duchess of Nottingham - Susan Bickley
The Duke of Nottingham - David Kempster
Lord Cecil - Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks
Sir Gualtiero Raleigh - Jonathan Best
Conductor - Andrew Greenwood (the Festival's new artistic director)
Director - Stephen Medcalf
Designer - Francis O'Connor
Lighting - John Bishop
The somewhat austere production highlighted the opera's dramatic qualities and in as new departure for Buxton, the production was sung in Italian. Alfred Hickling in the Guardian noted that "Stephen Medcalf's dark, painterly production delivers proof that Donizetti was certainly prolific, yet could equally be profound". Lynne Walker in The Independent found things to praise in all of the lead singers. David Denton in the Yorkshire Post noted that "the singing of the small chorus was uncommonly good". There was general praise for Andrew Greenwood's (the Festival's new Artistic Director) conducting of the Northern Chamber Orchestra.
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Leicester, Elizabeth, Nottingham and company
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Leicester and Elizabeth
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The
opening scene before Elizabeth was dressed in her full finery.
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The team for Bluebeard included:-
Bluebeard - Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts
Popolani - Geoffrey Dalton
Oscar - Jonathan Best
Boulotte - Imelda Drum
King Bobeche - Mark Le Broq
Prince Saphir - Hal Cazalet
Queen Clementine - Linda Ormiston
Hernia - Charlotte Ellett
Conductor - Wyn Davies
Director - Annilese Miskimmon
Designer - Simon Holdsworth
Lighting - John Bishop
There could hardly have been a greater contrast than the sparkling production of Bluebeard in a new translation complete with topical jokes by Kit Hesketh-Harvey and with superb staging and a cast that played it up to the full. Lynne Walker in The Independent talked of " a jolly production that looks as good as it sounds."
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The company with Boulotte and Bluebeard at the centre
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Boulotte with a glimpse of Simon Holdsworth's stylish sets
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Bluebeard and Boulotte
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