Explore the world of Gilbert and Sullivan in the picturesque spa town of Buxton
Take in three core performances staged by the professional National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company: The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore
Hear from a scintillating array of guest speakers, including a prolific G&S conductor, principal cast member, writers and experts
“All performances at Buxton opera house were [a] sheer delight”
– ACE customer on the 2025 International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival tour
Gilbert and Sullivan represent quintessential Victorian England. The brilliant, witty lyrics of W S Gilbert dazzle alongside the attractive melodies of Arthur Sullivan. We look forward to returning to the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in 2026 in its “spiritual home” of Buxton, surrounded by the glorious hills of the Peak District, to enjoy no fewer than five operatic performances.
“Great meals, exhilarating performances in the opera house, and we can't wait to book for 2026!”
– ACE customer on the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival tour in 2025
Our Tour Director is expert musicologist and musician Dr Christopher Milton, whose immersion in the world of Gilbert & Sullivan began at an early age and who performs and speaks regularly at the festival. Christopher will be joined by a brilliant line-up of guest speakers: G&S expert Professor Ian Bradley will introduce us to the spiritual dimension of these lively works in conversation with the writer Rev Fergus Butler-Gallie; while principal singer Phoebe Smith, festival trustee Bernard Lockett, and prolific conductor James Hendry (Musical Director for the 2025 season) will all deliver talks.
Our tour will include professional performances by the National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company of perennial favourites The Mikado, HMS Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. We will also enjoy a professional production of Iolanthe by Charles Court Opera, the “superb” (Evening Standard) chamber opera and musical theatre company with a strong legacy of presenting G&S, and an amateur performance of Ruddigore by Peak Opera. All of the operas will be staged in Buxton’s delightful opera house, originally designed by theatre architect Frank Matcham. This shimmering venue opened in 1903 and is one of his few remaining theatres still surviving with many of its original decorative elements – described by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as “sumptuous” – in situ.
“A first class choice of hotel with excellent food and facilities was the icing on the cake”
– ACE customer on the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival tour in 2025
We will stay at the four-star Best Western Plus Buxton Lee Wood Hotel, a comfortable hotel located in a Georgian building in Buxton, set in its own mature gardens. For more information about the hotel location and facilities, please see the ‘Fitness & Practicalities’ section.
Christopher Milton
Chris is an expert musicologist and musician who performs and speaks regularly at the festival.
This tour will be led by Christopher Milton, PhD, a musicologist and musician who grew up in rural Somerset before reading music at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, followed by postgraduate study at St John’s College, Cambridge. His academic research focuses on the life and music of Benjamin Britten, which led him to Suffolk, working for the Britten Estate and Britten-Pears Arts, where his projects as part of the Britten Centenary in 2013 won the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal for Audience Engagement. He is an expert in the Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire and is a longstanding speaker and performer at the famous International Festival in Buxton.
“I am hugely excited about leading this tour to beautiful Buxton to explore the world of Gilbert and Sullivan. In my opinion there is no finer theatre than Matcham’s exquisite Buxton Opera House in which to hear these charming operas and we are so lucky to be able to see top-class performances of the highlights of the canon. I hope we can all discover something new about these familiar works with help from a wonderful team of experts and hear some bespoke lecture-recitals that will take us behind the words and music and have lots of fun along the way!”
– Tour Director Christopher Milton
As a writer, lecturer and broadcaster on music, Chris has worked with most major UK opera companies, orchestras and the BBC on television and radio. Aside from Britten, he has an interest in wider British music (especially Tippett and Elgar), the cultural and philosophical legacy of the Holy Roman Empire (and Central Europe generally) and the Broadway musical. As a practical musician, Chris studied conducting with Sir Colin Davis and has performed in a wide repertoire of opera, song and chamber music. He still lives in beautiful rural Suffolk, where he runs a smallholding rearing native rare breeds of livestock and is an experienced apiculturalist.
5
£1695
IGSB-26
