Bampton Classical Opera is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 company based in Bampton

Bampton, Oxfordshire

Bampton, also called Bampton-in-the-Bush, is a village and civil parish in the Thames Valley about southwest of Witney in Oxfordshire. The parish includes the hamlet of Weald....

, Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

 specialising in the production of lesser known opera from the Classical period

Classical period (music)

The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...

. Performances are always in English.

In 2002, Bampton Classical Opera performed the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 première of The Philosopher's Stone (Der Stein der Weisen), a singspiel

Singspiel

A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...

 by Emanuel Schikaneder

Emanuel Schikaneder

Emanuel Schikaneder , born Johann Joseph Schickeneder, was a German impresario, dramatist, actor, singer and composer. He was the librettist of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute and the builder of the Theater an der Wien...

 composed in collaboration with Mozart, Henneberg, Schack

Benedikt Schack

Benedikt Schack was a composer and tenor of the Classical era, a close friend of Mozart and the first performer of the role of Tamino in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute.- Early life :...

, and Gerl

Franz Xaver Gerl

Franz Xaver Gerl was a bass singer and composer of the classical era. He sang the role of Sarastro in the premiere of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute.-Life:...

. In 2004, it gave the first UK staged performance of Salieri

Antonio Salieri

Antonio Salieri was a Venetian classical composer, conductor and teacher born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, but who spent his adult life and career as a faithful subject of the Habsburg monarchy....

's Falstaff, and in July 2007 staged the UK première of Georg Benda

Georg Benda

Jiří Antonín Benda, also Georg Anton Benda or J.A. Benda was a Czech kapellmeister, violinist and composer of the classical period.-Biography:...

's Romeo and Juliet. It also performed the Mozart arrangement of Handel

George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

's Acis and Galatea. In 2008 it presented Leonora

Leonora (opera)

Leonora, ossia L’amore coniugale is an opera in two acts by the Italian composer Ferdinando Paer. The libretto, by Giovanni Schmidt, is based on Léonore ou L’Amour conjugal by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, which was also the source of Beethoven's Fidelio...

 by Ferdinando Paer

Ferdinando Paer

-Biography:Paer was born at Parma. His father was a trumpeter with the Ducal Bodyguards and also performed at church and court events. His name, Ferdinando, was after Duke Ferdinand of Parma and was given to him by Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, Duke Ferdinand's wife...

, based on the same story as Fidelio

Fidelio

Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...

, and in 2009 Le Pescatrici

Le pescatrici

Le pescatrici Hob. 28/4, is an opera in three acts by Joseph Haydn set to a libretto by Carlo Goldoni...

 (The Fisherwomen) by Haydn. In 2010 it presented the UK première of Marcos Portugal

Marcos Portugal

Marcos António da Fonseca Portugal was a Portuguese classical composer, who achieved great international fame for his operas in Italian....

's The Marriage of Figaro (1799), and The Masque of King Alfred and The Judgment of Paris

The Judgement of Paris (opera)

The Judgement of Paris is an operatic libretto written by William Congreve. It was set by four British Baroque composers - John Weldon, John Eccles, Daniel Purcell and Gottfried Finger - as part of a music competition held in 1700-1701...

 by Thomas Arne. In 2011 it is presenting more performances of the Arne double-bill; Il parnaso confuso by Gluck; The Italian Girl in London

The Italian Girl in London

The Italian Girl in London is one of eight comic operas, termed intermezzi, which Domenico Cimarosa wrote between 1777 and 1784 for the Teatro Valle, a handsome neo-classical Roman theatre built in 1726, which still stands today....

(L'italiana in Londra) by Cimarosa

Domenico Cimarosa

Domenico Cimarosa was an Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school...

, first performed in 1778; and The Choice of Hercules

The Choice of Hercules (Handel)

The Choice of Hercules is an oratorio in one act by George Frideric Handel. Handel produced the score between 28 June and 5 July 1750. The first performance was given on 1 March 1751 at the Covent Garden Theatre, London...

 by Handel

HANDEL

HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....

.

The company's two to three opera productions a year are performed in the grounds of the Bampton Deanery and at Westonbirt House

Westonbirt House

Westonbirt House is a country house in Gloucestershire, England. It belonged to the Holford family from 1665 until 1926. The first house on the site was an Elizabethan manor house...

, the premises of Westonbirt School

Westonbirt School

Westonbirt School is an independent day and boarding school for girls located in Gloucestershire in South West England. Founded in 1928, it is a member of the Allied Schools organisation...

, as well as on tour to UK festivals. They also give concert performances of operas at St John's, Smith Square, the Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...

 and the Purcell Room

Purcell Room

The Purcell Room is a concert and performance venue which forms part of the Southbank Centre, one of central London's leading cultural complexes. It is named after the 17th century English composer Henry Purcell and has 370 seats....

 in London. The company has an outreach programme, Bampton Schools' Opera, which gives workshops on the operas they have staged or plan to stage, and provides secondary school

Secondary education

Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...

 students with the opportunity to participate in opera rehearsals.

Bampton Classical Opera was founded in 1993 by its current artistic directors, Gilly French and Jeremy Gray, in order to perform classical period opera in English. It works with a variety of conductors and ensembles and does not have a permanent music director. Its patrons include Dame Felicity Lott

Felicity Lott

Dame Felicity Ann Emwhyla Lott, DBE, FRCM is an English soprano.-Education:From her earliest years she was musical, having started studying piano at age 5. She also played violin and began singing lessons at 12. She is an alumna of Royal Holloway, University of London, obtaining a BA in French and...

, Sir Roger Norrington

Roger Norrington

Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington, CBE is a British conductor. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington and his brother is Humphrey Thomas Norrington....

 and David Pountney

David Pountney

David Pountney is a British theatre and opera director and librettist internationally known for his productions of rarely performed operas and new productions of classic works...

, as well as the Rt Hon David Cameron

David Cameron

David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....

 MP, in whose Witney

Witney (UK Parliament constituency)

Witney is a county constituency in Oxfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election, and was created for the 1983 general election....

 constituency Bampton lies. The late Sir Charles Mackerras

Charles Mackerras

Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...

 was also a patron.

The company's offices are located at:
Holcot House, Market Square, Bampton, Oxfordshire OX18 2JJ, United Kingdom.

Sources

• Bampton Classical Opera official web site
• Jones, Roger, Review of Thomas Arne's Masque of King Alfred and The Judgment of Paris, MusicWeb International 7 November 2010 (accessed 29 January 2011)
• Church, Michael, Review of Benda's Romeo and Juliet at Bampton Classical Opera, The Independent 20 September 2007 (accessed 24 September 2007)
• Tanner, Michael, Review of Acis and Galatea, Spectator 24 May 2007 (accessed 29 January 2011)
• Porter, Andrew, Review of Martín y Soler
  Vicente Martín y Soler
  Vicente Martín y Soler was a Spanish composer of opera and ballet. Although relatively obscure today, in his own day he was compared favorably with his contemporary, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as a composer of opera buffa. He has been called the Valencian Mozart.He was born in Valencia and studied...
  
  's La scuola dei maritati at Bampton Classical Opera, The Times 18 August 2006 (accessed 22 June 2007)
• Thicknesse, Robert, Review of Paisiello
  Giovanni Paisiello
  Giovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer of the Classical era.-Life:Paisiello was born at Taranto and educated by the Jesuits there. He became known for his beautiful singing voice and in 1754 was sent to the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio at Naples, where he studied under Francesco Durante, and...
  
  's The Barber of Seville at Bampton Classical Opera, The Times 21 July 2005 (accessed 22 June 2007)