Carnival in Buxton: processions, brass bands and well-dressings — and, inside Frank Matcham’s exquisite little Opera House, a glitzy masked ball in Venice. And there’s no carnival queen like Lucrezia Borgia. The Buxton Festival began, in 1979, with Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and it has been loyal to the composer throughout its 30 years. Lucrezia Borgia was a brave choice to start this year’s festival. But courage dangerously resembled hubris when the leading lady fell ill, with no understudy.
Mary Plazas, felled by a severe infection, tiptoed her way through her entrance aria which, thank goodness, required little more of her than to contemplate the sleeping Gennaro. This Gennaro, infatuated with Lucrezia, and robustly sung by John Bellemer, turns out to be her son.