Review: Verdi: Luisa Miller****

Of the 13 seldom staged Verdi operas, Buxton Festival is making a compelling case to restore Luisa Miller to the standard repertoire in a highly persuasive new production from Stephen Medcalf.

Count Walter's son falls in love with the beautiful peasant girl, Luisa, neither she nor her father aware of his parentage. Wurm, the Count's sinister secretary, reveals the young man's identity to Miller hopeful that he will be granted her hand in marriage, but when her father rejects him, the scene is set for lies and blackmail.

Rather obvious in its outcome, the young Verdi lavished some of his most beautiful music on the story.

Here set in the mid-18th century, the time of its composition, Medcalf effectively uses a basic square box for the changing scenes, allowing the clothes to speak volumes of its characters and their status.

The cast is outstanding, Susannah Glanville in pristine voice as Luisa, moving readily from a vulnerable girl to a passionate lover, while the ardent tenor of John Bellemer makes an ideal Carlo.

Creepily sinister, Andrew Slater is the personification of the double-dealing Wurm, with David Kempster is the father who falls foul of the deception around him.

Completing the main cast, Balient Szabo is a fine Walter and Miroslava Yordanova a formidable Federica. More violins were needed for the overture, but it is a good ensemble under the able direction of Andrew Greenwood.

Further performances on July 18, 22 & 25.