Nicola Lisle previews next week’s Music in the Abbey festival

There’s a distinctly operatic feel to this year’s Music in the Abbey festival – which is perhaps not surprising, given that John Lubbock’s wife Christine Cairns is a former opera singer who now teaches singing at the Birmingham Conservatoire.

What is more surprising is that John – principal conductor of the Orchestra of St John’s, which holds the annual festival at Dorchester Abbey – freely admits that opera is not high on his list of favourite musical genres.

“I’ve only ever done a couple of operas, and it’s not something I want to do,” he says.

“There are some bits that are absolutely wonderful, but I’m very bad at suspending disbelief. I just can’t deal with all these crazy stories!”

Nevertheless, there are two semi-staged operas on the programme this year, which runs from Purcell’s operatic jewel, Dido and Aeneas, and highlights from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

Dido and Aeneas is being produced by Christine Cairns and includes former Abingdon resident Johnny Herford as Aeneas.

The opera is complemented with a selection of Purcell’s arias, duets and anthems.

Tchaikovsky’s opera has been reduced to an hour-long piece, The Story of Tatyana and Onegin, which has allowed John to cut out some of the “crazy” elements to the story.

“It starts with the scene between the nurse and Tatyana, then the letter scene where she sends the letter to Onegin and he comes back and throws it in her face.

“Then we go straight to the last scene, where they meet and he says, ‘Who’s that girl?’ Then there’s the end, which is just agonisingly wonderful. That is the complete story.

“We did it in St John’s Smith Square and found we didn’t have to produce it because it’s entirely real.

“You don’t have to suspend your disbelief at all.

“The whole business of shooting your friend because he dances with your girlfriend is just ridiculous.

“Anyway, it makes a perfect hour with the four characters – the nurse, Tatyana, Onegin and Gremin. And we leave it at that.”

The cast includes Christine Cairns singing the nurse, with Ilona Domnich as Tatyana, James McOran-Campbell as Onegin and Bozidar Smiljanic as Gremin.

As with Dido, the programme will be completed with some of the composer’s other music, including a selection of his motets.

There is more opera on the menu with Rising Opera Stars, now a traditional part of the Music in the Abbey programme, featuring Christine’s pupils from the Birmingham Conservatoire singing operatic arias, duets and ensembles.

It’s not all about opera, though.

The festival opens on Monday with the Papagena Quartet, an all-female ensemble singing an a cappella mix of classical, folk and contemporary music from around the world.

Tuesday night sees the return of the popular Derek Paravicini Jazz Quartet, which includes Derek at the piano with Hannah Davey (vocals), Ben Holder (jazz violin) and Ollie Howell (drums).

Another favourite, pianist Maki Sekiya, returns on Wednesday for a programme of Bach, Scriabin, Mozart and Liszt.

A more unusual inclusion is the Karavai Ensemble, a virtuosic balalaika group from Perm in Russia, returning to Dorchester after a six-year gap. They will be performing on Saturday.

lMusic at the Abbey, Dorchester-on-Thames, runs from Monday to Sunday, September 7 to 13.

See osj.org.uk for details and tickets.