1 / 1 imagesConductor Andrew Greenwood

DOING its bit for Mendelssohn’s bicentenary, Buxton Festival is presenting his opera, Camacho’s Wedding.

It’s rarely heard and almost never performed on stage, and this is a concert performance, with no costumes, director or scenery.

You can see why. It’s a pretty flaccid story, in light romantic vein, and would invite ridicule if taken at anything like face value.

But it’s taken from Don Quixote, and the Buxton cast – drawn from those appearing in Lucrezia Borgia and Véronique, this year’s two superb, fully-staged shows – camped it up as much as possible, laughing at the script as much as with it, and (important, this) singing it very well indeed.

Donald Maxwell, as the aforesaid Don and narrator of the tale (thank goodness for that abridgement), set the tone, and the others had little to do but follow his lead.

Even so, the humour in the scenes is somewhat heavy and Germanic, but Jonathan Best made a drily laconic Sancho Panza, Victoria Joyce a quintessential heroine as Quiteria, and Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks a likeable hero (Basilio) – though his voice showed a few moments of strain amid a generally first-rate night of singing from all concerned.

Rich bridegroom

Colin Judson had the unenviable role of rich bridgeroom Camacho, who in the end doesn’t get married at all (and gave a hint of the mean Mafioso he’s singing in Lucrezia). Adrian Clarke brought Carrasco (father of the bride) to life, and Yvonne Howard was delicious as her friend Lucinde. Christopher Steele revealed a natural talent for romantic comedy as Vivaldo – which you would never have guessed from his Donizetti role.

Andrew Greenwood conducted the Northern Chamber Orchestra, with the combined forces of the Festival Chorus and Buxton Madrigal Singers making a big sound from the back of the stage. His sense of rhythmic energy lightened a score that plods in places.

It seems that only in the ballet section did Mendelssohn find his lighter touch, and in places the music sounds like a practice run for later sacred set pieces – Basilio’s ‘… Shall I embrace her ever again?, for instance, is in much the same vein as O For The Wings Of A Dove or I Waited For The Lord.

The two end-of-act ensembles were powerful – as, with the cast lined up broadside, they might well be – and two numbers that stick in mind are Quiteria’s ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow’ aria in act one and the pretty chorus of bridesmaids from the wedding scene.

In case you were wondering, Basilio gets the girl.

Repeated on Friday, July 24.

Reviewed: Fri, 17 July, 2009