BUXTON OPERA HOUSE
PLAN YOUR VISIT TO BUXTON OPERA HOUSE
INFORMATION
Location: The A515 from Ashbourne and the A6 from Matlock meet in Buxton.
Visit: At the side of the Opera House is the Conservatory, housing native and tropical plants.
Refreshments: There is a good selection of restaurants, pubs and cafes in the town.
Buxton is a town with fine parks and grand old buildings. At well over 1,000 feet above sea level, Buxton is the highest town in England for its size. The marketplace is in Higher Buxton, the older part of the town that rests on a small limestone plateau. Lower Buxton, the newer part of the town, nestles in a river valley. The river, the Wye, does the disappearing trick, being culverted under the town centre before emerging on the far side. Essentially, Buxton is a northern town at the southern end of the Pennine Chain, but county boundaries place it in the Midlands. Given a more equable climate, Buxton might well have rivalled Bath as the most prominent spa town in England.
BUXTON OPERA HOUSE
Buxton Opera House, designed by Frank Matcham in grand Edwardian style, was completed in 1903, but just over twenty years later, it was converted into a cinema. Sadly, it fell into disrepair and closed in the mid-1970s. However, following a campaign to restore it, it reopened in 1979 as an Opera house with a new orchestra pit added to the original Frank Matcham design.
In the same year, the Buxton International Festival of Music and Arts was born, which has developed into one of this country’s largest opera-based festivals. To share the arts with as many people as possible, a second theatre – the Pavilion Arts Centre – opened in 2010. It is housed in the former Paxton Suite of the Pavilion Gardens complex, to the rear of the Opera House.
The Opera House is now one of Britain’s leading receiving theatres. It presents around 450 performances each year, including dance, comedy, children’s shows, drama, musical concerts, pantomime, and opera, as well as a lively Fringe Theatre and Community and Education Programme. The theatre is also home to The International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival.
For further details, visit the website at www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk.
