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Writer's pictureAlan Hulme

Star-studded 2023 Buxton Festival



This year's Buxton International Festival offers a hugely-impressive line-up of opera, jazz, music and books - more than 120 events over 17 days from July 6-23.

Festival highlights include three new opera productions: Bellini’s La Sonnambula, Handel’s Orlando and Mozart’s Il Re Pastore.

BIF and Norwich Theatre launch The Land Of Might-Have-Been, a new musical based on the early life of Buxton’s Vera Brittain, with music by Ivor Novello.

The line-up also includes jazz - from iconic trumpeter Wynton Marsalis plus pianist/vocalist Tom Seals and The Super Big Tramp Band.

The concerts’ programme features Nicola Benedetti and The English Concert, The King’s Singers, Sarah Connolly, Lucy Crowe, Joanna MacGregor and Gwilym Simcock.

The books guests include playwright Sir David Hare, Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller, BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen, MP Jesse Norman, vaccine queen Dame Kate Bingham, writer, communicator and strategist Alastair Campbell and journalists Gary Younge and Polly Toynbee, among others.

Adrian Kelly, BIF’s artistic director said: “Buxton International Festival is an unapologetically ambitious, creative and accessible festival that takes risks and entertains, and 2023 will be no different – bold, brave and back in full Technicolor.”

CEO Michael Williams adds: “It’s a stop-in-your-tracks, shout-from-the-rooftops festival this year.

"Buxton 2023 is full to the brim with daring and excellence. It’s contemporary, relevant, reflective and provocative with sumptuous opera, glorious music and opinion-forming book talks. We reach for the stars in Buxton, make no mistake.”

Priority Booking opens on March 7, with public booking from April 4.


The full line-up can be seen here



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