Whipped Cream

Buxton Festival's 2014 Opera Gala,
attended by MIKE WHEELER

Breaking with the pattern of previous years, the 2014 Buxton Festival began not with the headline opera's opening night but with an opera gala (Buxton Opera House, Buxton, UK, 11 July 2014) — an interesting innovation which sadly turned out to be a bit of a damp squib.

It began well, with the Festival's Artistic Director Stephen Barlow conducting the Northern Chamber Orchestra in a magical performance of the overture to Weber's Oberon. The opening horn-call can rarely have sounded so ethereal...