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The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival was founded in 1994 by Ian Smith and his son Neil and is held every summer in England. The three-week Festival of Gilbert and Sullivan performances and fringe events attracts thousands of visitors, including performers, supporters, and G&S enthusiasts from all around the world. Beginning in 2014, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, hosts the festival, which was held in Buxton, Derbyshire, from 1994 to 2013. At the Festival, about a dozen amateur Gilbert and Sullivan performing societies from around the world compete on the Festival's main stage each year for awards including "International Champion". At the weekends there are professional Gilbert and Sullivan performances, including performances each year by the festival's homegrown National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company. A smaller nearby theatre and other venues host the Festival fringe, which consists of dozens of performances, lectures, a memorabilia fair, and other events. ==Description of the Festival== The Festival was founded in 1994 and continues to be produced by Ian Smith and his son Neil to enhance the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. It also has a goal of reinstating G&S and the performing arts in schools in Britain. Occasionally, the Festival has added a week of performances in the United States. Ian Smith believes that the Gilbert and Sullivan works are an important national heritage and legacy, especially as performed in the tradition of the venerable, year-round D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which performed Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Operas continuously, year-round, for over a century until 1982.〔Bradley, pp. 49–50; Joseph, p. 358. Between 1988 and 2003, a seasonal company used the name D'Oyly Carte. See Bradley, pp. 54–68〕〔Skow, John. (1982 "Music: Final Curtain for D'Oyly Carte" ). ''Time'' magazine, 8 March 1982, accessed 7 July 2010. Until the Gilbert and Sullivan copyrights expired in 1961, no other professional theatre or opera companies were allowed to present the Savoy Operas in Britain, although professional companies performed the operas elsewhere, and numerous amateur Gilbert and Sullivan companies performed around the world. After 1961 other professional companies began to perform the operas in Britain. See Bradley, chapters four and six; and Hewett, Ivan. ("The Magic of Gilbert and Sullivan" ). ''The Telegraph'', 2 August 2009, accessed 14 April 2010.〕 When that company closed in 1982, greatly diminishing the amount of Gilbert and Sullivan produced in Britain, Ian Smith "had a burning anger" that the English Arts Council had not subsidised the company, and this led him to found the festival.〔Bradley, pp. 45 and 197–98〕 Each summer, beginning with the last weekend in July or first weekend in August, the Festival includes over three weeks of nightly G&S operas (and weekend matinees) and dozens of daytime fringe activities.〔Radcliffe, Philip. ("theartsdesk in Buxton: G&S live on (and on)" ), theartsdesk.com, 22 July 2012〕 The Festival was held in Buxton, England, every year from 1994 to 2013, but it has experimented with additional weeks of the Festival in other towns or cities, including Eastbourne, England once, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania twice, Berkeley, California once〔(Festival history pages )〕〔Sandham, David. ("Buxton Festivals" ). Buxton Festivals website with links to photos and reviews of each Festival, accessed 19 September 2010〕 and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania twice.〔Fine, John Christopher. ("Gilbert & Sullivan Fare Is Alive and Well" ). ''The Epoch Times'', 13 July 2010〕 The festival relocated to Harrogate in 2014 and is scheduled to remain there at least to 2018.〔Chalmers, Graham. ("Harrogate wins topsy-turvy battle over G&S Festival" ), ''Wetherby News'', 5 June 2014〕〔Chalmers, Graham. ("Harrogate loves International G&S Festival!" ), ''Harrogate Advertiser'', August 2014; and ("Three more years: G&S Festival’s pledge to Harrogate" ), ''Harrogate Advertiser, 5 September 2015〕 The Festival has sold more than 25,000 tickets in some years〔("ClassicFest, Royal Hall, Harrogate, August 21 to 27" ), ''The Press'', 20 July 2012〕 and attracts about 2,000 performers each year.〔Moss, Stephen. ("Gilbert and Sullivan: The unbearable lightness of being" ). ''The Guardian'', 21 January 2010, accessed 6 August 2010〕 Sky Arts notes that the Festival "is one of the most colourful, melodic and joyous festivals of musical theatre you will come across. Celebrating the timeless, waspishly satirical lyrics of W. S. Gilbert and the brilliant musical inventiveness of Arthur Sullivan, the festival is quite simply the world’s biggest event dedicated to the Savoy operas. ... It is forward-looking and fun presenting contemporary as well as traditional productions of G&S."〔("Sky arts at the Gilbert and Sullivan Festival" ). ''Sky Arts'', British Sky Broadcasting, accessed 13 August 2010〕 The Festival's professional orchestra accompanies the main stage performances.〔("Harrogate will be new home for International G & S Festival in 2014" ), NODA.org, 19 July 2013〕〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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