Buxton International Festival: Shorts at Pavilion Arts Centre

This summer, Buxton International Festival rips up the operatic rulebook with Shorts, a punchy programme of four brand-new 20-minute performances designed to challenge, provoke and reimagine opera for a new age.

Running this July at Buxton’s Pavilion Arts Centre, Shorts brings together an extraordinary mix of creative voices – spanning jazz, folk, classical and contemporary theatre – for a series of stories that speak directly to our times. If you thought opera was all grand gowns, tragic heroines and three-hour runtimes, think again – this is opera with bite.

Manchester-based composer Carmel Smickersgill and Sunday Times award-winning playwright Josh Overton present Inevitable, a darkly comic take on existential dread. In a crumbling office beneath the doomsday clock, three generations crank a mechanism that keeps the world going – until doubt creeps in. Expect bleak humour and emotional punch as the clock ticks on.

Life Gets Stretched, by BBC Folk Award-winner Martin Green, tells a bittersweet wartime love story through physical theatre, a swirling folk-influenced score and an ‘invented’ language that taps into something universal. It’s a poignant meditation on change, connection, and the long arc of love.

LGBTQ+ history takes centre stage in Disorderly House. Inspired by the 1927 arrest of dancer Bobby Britt after a bohemian party in London’s Fitzroy Square, it celebrates queer trailblazers who might otherwise be forgotten. Full of vintage glamour, the opera is performed in English and Polari, a once-hidden language spoken by gay men in Britain.

And finally, Tears Are Not Meant to Stay Inside offers something richly atmospheric. With music by jazz and gospel artist Thandanani Gumede and words by acclaimed playwright Zodwa Nyoni (Liberation, Royal Exchange Theatre/ MIF), it asks whether we can still connect with ancestral memory in a modern world. Sung in Zulu and Ndebele, this spiritually-charged opera promises to be both joyful and deeply moving.

With direction from Marcus Desando and Rebecca Melzer, and design by Eliott Squire, Shorts is a rare chance to see opera stripped back, reimagined and bursting with new energy. For seasoned opera lovers, it’s a fresh fix; for newcomers, it’s the perfect gateway to the genre. With tickets from just £10, there’s never been a better excuse to dip your toe into the world of opera.