"I am a conductor in the opera house and have freelanced for the last 15 years or so," confirms Buxton Festival's artistic director, taking up the appointment prior to last year's festival.

In a freelance capacity, he has just finished doing the summer term operas, a Gounod /Rossini double bill, at the Guildhall School of Music.

The main part of his brief as artistic director of the Buxton Festival is choosing the festival's own opera productions, three this year, Lortzing's The Poacher (Der Wildschütz), Handel's Samson and an English triple bill, subject to final festival board approval.

Initially, Andrew explains, festival chief executive Glyn Foley works out if the festival can afford to stage them, the number of singers required and so on, also whether they will sell.

He adds: "It is basically my opera programme" and confesses to being "at the mercy of visiting companies" to complete it.

"We look around at what's on offer but do have regular 'clients' like The Opera Group. They've been several times" – this year with Kurt Weill's Street Scene.

"Opera Theatre Ireland (almost regular clients) could only offer a Handel opera this year but we've got a Handel piece of our own" – Samson, a dramatic oratorio and the ninth Handel work (Ariodante twice) staged at the festival.

"I haven't looked back on the exact number of Handel operas done over the years," admits Andrew, "but they fit the Buxton Opera House very well and, in recent years, we have had this nice contact with Harry Christophers who is a great Handel expert.

"It gives him a chance to do some staged opera which he doesn't get the rest of the year, so it's a good association for all of us which works very well."

They seem to go down well, too?

"They do. Samson, I think, is something like 85% sold already.

"It has a very good cast. Tom Randle, well-established in Buxton, is on Harry's recording in the title role as well. Jonathan Best (also on the recording) and one or two excellent young singers like Rebecca Bottone.

"Elin Manahan Thomas is an up-and-coming soprano. She hasn't done much opera and has a light concert-ish voice which will be just right for the Israelite Woman's Let the Bright Seraphim."

Andrew is conducting The Poacher by the woefully-neglected Albert Lortzing (1801-51) but hugely popular in Germany, where he is the most performed German-language composer after Wagner and Richard Strauss in German opera houses.

He first encountered the opera in Germany in the mid-1990s when he was house conductor in Cologne.

"I didn't know anything about it, had very little rehearsal time and really enjoyed it, thinking what a lovely piece this is. I thought it would be a jolly good idea to do it here.

"Why Lortzing doesn't travel, I don't know.

Maybe we'll find out when we have a crack at it."

It's being performed in English, so does that make a difference to the musical sound?

"It does, no doubt about it, but I think when you're doing a comedy the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. People should understand every word and, in Buxton Opera House, they should hear every word."

Should? Nowadays, singers' word clarity is often lacking.

"This is a common complaint and it is true that diction isn't as insisted on these days and singers are not as particular as they used to be. There's more insistence on a good line and singing, as it were."

Speaking of the vernacular, what prompted the interesting triple bill of English one-act operas?

"We've extended the festival by two days this year so have taken the opportunity to do a third production of our own, and it seemed like a good idea.

"It's the 50th anniversary of Vaughan Williams' death, for a start, and Riders to the Sea is very much a theatrical piece, more so than say, Pilgrim's Progress, which is often done semi-staged which suits it.

"Holst's Savitri has been a favourite of mine for years. It's an absolutely beautiful piece and The Wandering Scholar (also by Holst) makes a nice contrast to the other two in that it's a sort of rumbustious comedy."