Buxton Opera House

Buxton Opera House is in The Square, Buxton, Derbyshire, England.

History

It was built in 1903 and designed by Frank Matcham, one of Britain's finest theatre architects. He also designed two famous London theatres: the London Palladium (1910) and the London Coliseum (1904).

The Opera House ran as a successful theatre, receiving touring companies until 1927, and also became the venue for an annual summer theatre festival from 1936 to 1942 in conjunction with the London-based Old Vic company. In the intervening years it served as a cinema.

The theatre is staffed by a small full time technical crew for all the backstage work setting up all the shows and artists that appear. Volunteers from the local community are also employed for front of house duties including bar work and ushers.

Refurbishment

In October 1976 the Opera House was closed and rumours circulated that it would never reopen. In 1979 however, a major restoration took place with people both from the local area and across the UK helping with the work. An orchestra pit was also added to the original Frank Matcham design which was otherwise largely unaltered since 1903.

In the early 1990s, it became apparent that more work was required in the theatre if it were to continue to serve the public into the next century so between October 1999 and June 2001 an extensive program of both internal and external restoration took place.

In February 2007, another major refurbishment was completed at the Opera House that saw the installation of air conditioning in the gallery and backstage area, new seats in the gallery and upper circle, a new get-in lift to replace the ramp and new backstage working lights as well as re-wiring and painting the backstage area and dressing rooms.

Festivals

Since July 1979, the Opera House has been home to the Buxton Festival, which runs for about two weeks in mid-July and has developed into one of Britain's largest opera-based festivals. Typically, it includes a Handel opera (with conductors such as Harry Christophers) and other rarely-seen operas as well as more popular classics. Running alongside it is the Buxton Festival Fringe. It is popular as a warm-up for the Edinburgh Fringe, and it now claims to be the largest 'true' fringe festival in the UK.

Since 1994, the Opera House has also hosted the annual three-week-long International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, attracting audiences from all over the UK and from abroad. It is an adjudicated competition among amateur G&S societies and also presents professional performances and fringe events.

Since 2004, the Opera House and the neighbouring Pavilion Gardens have hosted the annual Four Four Time music festival which sees a wide variety of performers appearing over one week in February. Performers for the 2008 festival include Marc Almond, Richard Hawley, The Stranglers and Boy George.

External links

* [http://buxton.uk.net/buxtonoperahouse.htm Buxton Opera House Information]
* [http://www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk/ Buxton Opera House official website]