Situated in the heart of Derbyshire, the Opera House Buxton is one of the leading performance auditoriums in the county. Designed by Frank Matcham, who also put together the plans for the London Palladium, the Opera House was built in 1903. The audience capacity is for 902 seated individuals, but there is also a 369-seater arts centre that is part of the theatrical complex next door, known as the Pavilion Gardens. The Opera House is the main staging area for the yearly Buxton Festival and has been used in the past to host the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival. Although it was used as a cinema for a period, since 1979 the Buxton Opera House has been dedicated to hosting live performances. The programme is varied, with comedy, drama, dance shows, children's productions and live music concerts all being staged. In addition, musical theatre and operatic productions are a regular feature in a typical performance season.

As it is an Edwardian era performance theatre, the Opera House Buxton has some restrictions for wheelchair users to consider. Three wheelchair spaces are available in the stalls, so long as the chair can pass through the wheelchair entrance route, which is 72 centimetres in width at its narrowest point. There is also a ground floor adapted toilet. All areas of the Pavilion Gardens Arts Centre are accessible for wheelchair users, with the sole exception of the Main Room's balcony. Some theatrical performances, including the theatre's annual pantomime, are signed in BSL for hearing impaired visitors. Hearing induction loops as well as passive infrared systems are available in both the Opera House and the arts centre.

Opera House Buxton tickets

As the hub of the Buxton Festival each summer, the Opera House stages many operatic performances. Ever-popular operas, such as Verdi's Macbeth and Puccini's Madame Butterfly, have been put on before. In addition to the festival, the Opera House hosts touring operatic companies, such as the Russian State Opera and the English Touring Opera.

The theatre is also used to staging popular versions of musical theatre, with productions of acts such as Hairspray and Spamalot on offer. The main stage is also used for one-off, stand-up comedy events, usually from some of the UK's leading comedians, such as Katherine Ryan or Jimmy Carr, for example. Other comedy nights are put on in the Pavilion Gardens, which is also home to the local comedy club, known as Buxton Buzz. Family-focused events are staged at both the Opera House and the adjacent arts centre. These include anything from entertaining pantomimes to child-friendly performances of classics, such as Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.

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