International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Buxton Opera House
Buxton Opera House

The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival is held every summer at the Opera House in Buxton, Derbyshire. The Festival attracts thousands of visitors, including performers, supporters, and G&S enthusiasts from all around the world. It was established in 1994 by Ian Smith and his son Neil to enhance the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. It also has a goal of reinstating G&S and the performing arts in schools in Britain.

Contents

[edit] Description of the Festival

Each summer, beginning with the last weekend in July, the Festival includes over three weeks of nightly G&S operas and daytime fringe activities. The Festival has presented performances in Buxton, England, every year since 1994, but it has experimented with holding part of the Festival in other cities, including Eastbourne once, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania twice, and Berkeley, California once.[1]

[edit] The competition

Lithograph from The Mikado
Lithograph from The Mikado

At the core of the Festival is a competition of a dozen or more amateur G&S performing societies who travel to Buxton from all over the world to present their shows. A professional adjudicator critiques each amateur performance immediately after the curtain falls. The adjudicator then scores each performance, and both group and individual awards are announced at the end of the Festival. At the first Festival in 1994, first prize was awarded to the production of Utopia Limited presented by the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Hancock County, Maine, USA. The Derby Gilbert and Sullivan Company has won the first prize more often than any other company (six times); and the South Anglia G&S Company has won three times and placed second three times.[2] Individual awards are also presented for performers, directors and musical directors.[3]

Some groups compete year after year at the Festival, but some companies, especially those travelling from North America, South Africa, Australia and other distant places, may only visit occasionally or once. Some groups meet and rehearse entirely at the Festival, including the internet group SavoyNet, which has competed each year since 1998. The Festival organizers also rehearse a Festival Production (for which all rehearsals take place during the Festival itself) and a Youth Production (for performers under 18) during the course of the Festival each year.[1]

[edit] Professional productions

In addition to the amateur productions that are presented and compete at the Festival each year, there are weekend professional performances given by companies such as the Carl Rosa Opera Company, Opera della Luna, the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, and the G&S Opera Company, starring such well-known G&S performers as Richard Suart, Simon Butteriss, Bruce Graham, Gillian Knight, Michael Rayner, Patricia Leonard, Donald Maxwell, Jill Pert, Janet Cowley, Gareth Jones, the Opera Babes and Eric Roberts.[1]

[edit] Venues and fringe events

All of the competition performances and the weekend professional performances are given in the Frank Matcham-designed Buxton Opera House (built in 1903), a 900-seat opera house with excellent acoustics. The Festival also holds performances and fringe activities in the smaller Paxton Theatre and in other venues.[3]

The numerous daytime "fringe" activities include performances, master classes and lectures by members of the original D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (such as Valerie Masterson, Thomas Round, and John Reed) and other professionals, performances by the Festival's group of handpicked "Young Ambassadors", and a late night Festival Club, where two different cabaret performances are given each evening after the opera, or sometimes a G&S singalong is held. There is also a G&S memorabilia fair, providing a chance for collectors and gift hunters to buy and sell G&S books, scores, figurines and other items of interest.[1]

[edit] Effect and allure of the Festival

The Festival serves as a "lightning-rod" of G&S activity worldwide. G&S performers and audiences from one part of the world can see performances by groups from other parts of the world. Performances in the traditional style mix with avant garde ones, and G&S scholars can communicate with a wide audience of enthusiasts.

Buxton, an intimate, yet bustling spa town located in the Peak District about an hour southeast of Manchester, has proved to be an excellent setting for summer opera festivals, with good choices for lodging, dining and local sightseeing. There are nearby castles (e.g., Peveril Castle), stately homes (e.g., Chatsworth House and Haddon Hall), abbeys (e.g., historic Calke Abbey) and numerous limestone caverns, including Poole's Cavern, right at the edge of Buxton. The small size of the town allows visitors and performers to meet and mingle freely during the course of the Festival. Jean Dufty, in Gilbert & Sullivan News wrote: "The amateur performances were of a very high standard.... There is a lovely atmosphere in Buxton of Gilbert and Sullivan thriving, being enjoyed, and drawing everyone together as a family."[4]

In addition, the Festival serves to raise awareness and funds for the Festival organizers' efforts to re-introduce G&S into British schools. The Festival has been featured in several British television shows and in the documentary films Oh Mad Delight[5] and A Source of Innocent Merriment.[6]

[edit] Recordings

Recordings are available from the Festival organizers of most of the productions that have been seen at the Festival, including the professional Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company.[7]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Festival history pages
  2. ^ Site contains detailed information about Festival winners and events
  3. ^ a b June 2007 Festival Newsletter, p.5
  4. ^ Dufty, Jean. "Buxton Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, 1998" in Gilbert & Sullivan News vol. II, no. 13, p. 8 (Autumn, Winter 1998, The Gilbert and Sullivan Society)
  5. ^ Article on the film Oh Mad Delight
  6. ^ Article on the film A Source of Innocent Merriment
  7. ^ Recordings available from the Festival

[edit] External links

[edit] Festival information

[edit] Companies that have performed at the festival

Professional
Amateur