Archive: this review describes a 2025 festival production.
Buxton International Festival has built a reputation over its 40+ years for offering a programme of rarely performed operas.
In 2025, Buxton International Festival commissioned Shorts: four contemporary operas of around 20 minutes each, created by seven writers and composers. The original report described a warm reception on opening night, 13 July, and included this audience response:
“It was so not what I thought opera was about, to me it felt like mime, interpretive dance, song and and story – and that’s not how operas are usually sold to us; I’ve often seen operas as ‘it’s not for me’ and inaccessible and being sung in difference languages where I won’t understand what’s going on – that’s not what it was like at all, all four operas were incredible, each so individual, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who hasn’t been to an opera before!”
Four New Stories of Our Time
Four new short operas premiered at Buxton International Festival in 2025.
Inevitable
A countdown to the end of the world.
Composed by Carmel Smickersgill (Ivor Novello Award Nominee), libretto by Josh Overton (Sunday Times Playwright Award Winner).
Life Gets Stretched
A couple meet, fall in love and change; 20 years in 20 minutes.
Composed and written by Martin Green (Ivor Novello Award winner and BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winner).
Disorderly House
Inspired by the 1927 police raid on dancer Bobby Britt’s London home.
Composed by Jasper Dommett (Ivor Novello nominee), libretto by Jessica Walker (Opera North, Wigmore Hall).
Tears Are Not Meant to Stay Inside
Nomvula feels invisible and turns to a traditional healer to help her unsettled spirit.
Composed by Thanda Gumede (Opera North, BBC Proms), libretto by Zodwa Nyoni (BBC, Channel 4, Netflix).
Shorts brought together writers and composers from jazz, folk, classical music and theatre.
Carmel Smickersgill and playwright Josh Overton created Inevitable.
In Inevitable, three generations work a crank to delay the end of the world, as doubt grows about whether it can be postponed.
Martin Green’s Life Gets Stretched follows two refugees who meet and build a life during a war. It uses folk influences, physical theatre and a language he invented for the piece.
Disorderly House draws on the 1927 police raid at dancer Bobby Britt’s Fitzroy Square flat. In the opera, Britt performs Salomé’s Dance of the Seven Veils before the police arrive. The National Archives records the raid and subsequent disorderly-house charge. The opera was performed in English and Polari, a language used in parts of Britain’s gay community.
Thandanani Gumede and writer Zodwa Nyoni created Tears Are Not Meant to Stay Inside.
In Tears Are Not Meant to Stay Inside, Nomvula turns to a traditional healer. The opera explores connections to spiritual heritage and was sung in English, Zulu and Ndebele.
The operas were directed by Marcus Desando and Rebecca Meltzer and designed by Elliott Squire.
The opening performance was on 13 July 2025 at Pavilion Arts Centre. The festival programme listed further performances on 15, 18, 21 and 25 July.
For current programmes, visit Buxton International Festival.
Investing in the Future of Opera
In a 2025 statement, producer Helen Goodman said the commission brought together artists from different backgrounds and reflected the festival’s commitment to new work.
Watch: the festival’s Shorts trailer
Performed in English, Zulu, Ndebele, Polari, and an invented language.
Buxton International Festival, 3 The Square, Buxton, SK17 6AZ
T: 01298 72190 Box Office / 01298 70395 Festival Office
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