Mam Tor

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Mam Tor

Wednesday was still a glorious mid 20’s sunny day with very little wind. Mam Tor is a famous landmark in the Peak district only about 20 minutes drive from Buxton. The hills here suffer from frequent extensive landslips so Mam Tor derives its name from mother hill. We walked up to the top of the tor and along the ridges and saddles between the hills. There were many hang gliders on the top, launching into the updraughts. Strange seeing them just fill their sail like a kite and lift off.

In the evening we saw Idomineo, Mozart’s opera seria. Again very well produced with a well matched cast of singers. Before each of the operas in this festival there is a talk by the director and usually the conductor to give some insights into the choices made in the staging of the piece. It really adds to our appreciation of the work.

Thursday we had some free time again so we walked around Buxton and up to a tower on a high point above the town. Great views of the town and surrounding Peaks. The tower, called Solomon’s Temple was originally a folly that had gone to ruin but has recently been refurbished by the local council as a lookout tower and attraction.

Our last music event in the evening was a new production of an opera “Tisbe”. This is an early baroque opera by Brescianello not previously produced in the UK. It derives from the same source as Shakespeare’s Piramus and Thisbe done by the rude mechanicals in Mid Summer Nights Dream. It was played with little modification musically from the original score so we had the interminably long da capo arias much loved in the baroque. The director had recognised that modern audiences have trouble staying awake and tried to add interest with the singers acting out quite a lot of comic sight gags and that helped a bit. It was interesting to have seen it.

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