/ / / / / /

Wish You Were Here: The St Endellion Festival of Music

July 30, 2012 at 3:37 PM | by | Comments (0)

Perched on a hill, stuck out on Britain's most southwesterly peninsula, in plain sight of Arthur's fortress island Tintagel, you find the tiny Cornish church of St Endelienta, home — for three weeks a year — to the St Endellion festivals of music at eastertime and in the summer.

It's our fifth year returning to this idyllic, windswept hamlet with a couple hundred musical co-conspirators — all of whom pay their way to come down to Cornwall to play or sing for the love of it — and we can't imagine life without the festivals. One of us calls Endellion his "musical centre of gravity", and every particle (and nearly every holiday cottage) for miles around is swept up into a maelstrom of musicmaking.

The music is incredibly ambitious, with operas mixing with choral masses, chamber works, solo performances and church services, and it's a miracle of planning, talent and hard graft that pulls everything together in time for the nightly concerts, many of which sell out months in advance as music-lovers from miles around book their seats in the tiny church at St Endellion.


Ryan Wigglesworth conducts (L-R) Roderick Williams, Mark Padmore, Valerie Reid and Katherine Broderick in a rehearsal for Eugene Onegin, St Endellion 2010 Summer Festival

The audience heads in greater numbers to the neo-Gothic Cathedral in Truro too, where the Festival brings one concert each year. With more than five times the number of tickets available (and some still left for this year's fantastic programme) it's a real treat to feel the stones of the cathedral shake with massed orchestra and choir.

We wish you were here. But now we're heading off for a tactical snooze before more rehearsing. That Stravinsky and its Chorus of Whores and Roaring Boys isn't going to sing itself.

The 2013 St Endellion Festivals of Music take place from 30th March-7th April 2013 and 30th July-9th August 2013.

Susan Bullock, Sir John Tomlinson and a team of Valkyries in the final performance of Die Walküre, St Endellion 2011 Summer Festival

[Photos: John Walton for Jaunted]

Comments (0)

Post a Comment

Return to » Wish You Were Here: The St Endellion Festival of Music

Join the conversation!

Not a member? .
Use of this Site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (effective 3/21/12) and Privacy Policy (effective 3/21/12). © Condé Nast. Your California Privacy Rights. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.
Ad Choices