Introducing... Ryedale Festival 2005

The 2005 Ryedale Festival will be the tenth and last for festival director Malcolm Layfield. For his finale, the programme has an Italian flavour and the emphasis is on rising international stars too. Charles Hutchinson picks his way through the festival highlights.

Give examples of the Italian theme.

On the opening evening and tomorrow at 7.30pm, Helmsley Arts Centre's resident company, the 1812 Theatre Company, presents Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Eduardo De Filippo's charming comedy about three generations of an Italian family preparing for the ritual of Sunday lunch. Matriarch Rosa lovingly creates her special ragu as the drama surges around her kitchen table, and all the complications of family life emerge in the course of the weekend, to be resolved by Monday.

In the festival cinema event, on Monday at 7.30pm, Helmsley Arts Centre screens Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves, his 1948 story of a long-unemployed Italian workman who is robbed of the bicycle he needs for his new job, whereupon he and his son search for it in Rome. Lamberto Maggiorani and Enzio Staiola star.

On Thursday at 10am at Pickering Memorial Hall, John Warrack gives a lecture on Rossini and the Comic Muse; at 12.30pm, Anthony Finn hosts the Italian wine tasting at the festival lunch at the Worsley Arms, Hovingham.

You haven't mentioned any Italian music yet.

There is plenty, especially the works of Rossini. Malcolm Layfield conducts the Ryedale Festival Opera in director Stefan Janski's new production of Rossini's Cinderella opera, La Cenerentola, at the Riding School, Settrington, on Thursday at 7.30pm and next Saturday at 5pm (sold out). Young singers from the Royal Northern College of Music's international opera department will be joined by the Goldberg Ensemble for this flagship event, sung in English.

Nicola Philips, flute, and Deian Rowlands, harp, play Rossini's Andante and Variations in their 11am coffee concert at Pickering Memorial Hall next Friday (sold out); on their first British tour, Tokyo Strings lead off their 8pm concert on July 28 in the Riding School, Settrington, with Rossini's String Sonata No 1.

The Manchester Chamber Choir and Goldberg Chamber Orchestra's 8pm choral concert tomorrow at Ampleforth Abbey Church includes Palestrina's setting of the Song Of Songs and music by Gabrieli.

Who are the rising young stars bound for Ryedale?

In the first Young Artists' Recital, on Sunday at 4pm at Botton Village Community Centre, the new Mzanzi Ensemble presents traditional Kwella music from their South African homeland, along with Strauss and Brahms sextets.

In the second, cellist Victoria Simonsen, from New Zealand, is accompanied by pianist Sam Armstrong on Tuesday at 8pm at Sledmere House for works by Beethoven, Schubert and Rachmaninov.

The Navarra String Quartet, from Holland, has two engagements, a Young Artists' Recital at The Saloon, Duncombe Park, next Friday at 8pm (sold out) and a coffee concert the next morning at 11am at Pickering Parish Church.

Ukrainian pianist Ivan Hovorun incorporates the festival's Italian theme into his sold-out Young Artists' Recital by playing Clementi's Sonata on July 24 at Helmsley Arts Centre at 8pm.

Nicholas Ponsillo conducts the young ensemble Vamos in a contemporary concert of Berio, Dallapiccola and Messiaen works at Helmsley Arts Centre on July 25 at 8pm, when a new Matthew Wright composition will be premiered.

The Estrella Piano Trio, former pupils at the Yehudi Menuhin School, play at Bossall Parish Church on July 28 at 11am and at the Festival Friends' Tea Party at Howsham Hall on July 29 at 3pm.

Five more highlights in a nutshell, please.

Celebrity recitals start with the Schubert Ensemble tonight at 8pm at the Riding School, Settrington; Japanese violinist Midori Sugiyama, Macedonian double bass player Gorgi Cincievski and pianist Miyako Machida give a coffee concert on Monday at 11am at St Peter's, Norton; the Gould Piano Trio of Lucy Gould, Alice Neary and Benjamin Frith play the Schubert E flat Trio and Beethoven's Archduke on Wednesday at 8pm at Castle Howard (sold out); pianist Ian Fountain's celebrity recital is at 8pm at Castle Howard on July 27; Duo di Basso, from Prague, follow up their festival residency last summer by performing with Michaela Cerna, ballet mistress of the Czech National Theatre, in her new choreography on July 29 at 8pm at Botton Village Community Centre.

How will Malcolm Layfield say farewell to his festival directorship?

On July 30 at 8pm, he is the violin soloist for the Goldberg Ensemble's Bach and Vivaldi programme; on July 31 at 7pm, he conducts the Goldberg Chamber Orchestra in the sold-out grand finale, featuring Richard Watkins in Strauss's Horn Concerto No 1 and concluding with Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Both concerts are at the Riding School, Hovingham Hall. Farewell and hearty thanks, Malcolm.

Ryedale Festival 2005, today until July 31. Box office: 01751 475777.

Updated: 09:14 Friday, July 15, 2005