Latest news
“Bampton…have produced some delightful treats over the years. This year’s offering…ranks among the best…” Four Star Review for Gluck Double Bill
July 31, 2014
“Birthday boy Gluck is largely ignored this year – in the UK, at least – with few apparently interest in the Austrian composer’s 300th anniversary. Step forward adventurous Bampton Classical Opera, who are not only marking the occasion but have chosen to do so by giving the first UK staging of his little-known gem, Il Parnaso confuso (The Muses confused), and teaming it with Venetian composer Bertoni’s Orfeo – a work that uses the same libretto as Gluck’s more famous version. Renowned for unearthing operatic rarities, Bampton Opera founders Jeremy Gray and Gilly French have produced some delightful treats [...]
Read moreBampton at Bury Court – Tuesday 12th August
June 20, 2014
Tickets are selling well for the Gluck / Bertoni double bill on 12th August, so do book early. Below is an extract from Bampton’s latest newsletter… “Il Parnaso confuso had not been heard in the UK at all until June 2011, when Bampton gave the UK première at the Purcell Room on London’s South Bank, with Benjamin Bayl conducting. This was a concert performance, again with the Bampton Classical Players, and so this year’s production will be the UK staged première. Written for four sopranos, it is a delightful and gentle comedy about four bored muses up against a deadline. [...]
Read moreBampton at Bury Court Opera 12th August – Tickets now on sale
May 13, 2014
After the success of La Finta Semplice last year, Bury Court Opera is delighted to welcome back Bampton Classical Opera for a second visit. Tickets are now on sale for their Gluck and Bertoni double bill in celebration of Gluck’s 300th birthday. In Gluck’s charming and light-hearted Il Parnaso confuso, composed in 1765 and originally sung by four Austrian Archduchesses, the temperamental Muses of Tragic Poetry, Lyric Poetry and Music find that their inspiration has unexpectedly dried up at a critical moment. Ferdinando Bertoni’s passionate Orfeo was commissioned in 1776 by the great castrato singer Gaetano Guadagni in direct rivalry with Gluck’s [...]
Read moreGood reviews for The Lottery
March 25, 2014
Reviewed By: Hannah Crawforth, King’s College, London Review The stupendous success of Henry Fielding’s The Lottery in 18th-century London nearly prevented him from writing Tom Jones, the novel for which he is best known. Written in 1732, the ballad opera was the most popular of Fielding’s works for the stage, and he looked all set for a dazzling career as a dramatist and librettist. It was only the 1737 Licensing Act (which sought to censor London’s plays and suppress certain theatres) that forced the writer to turn his hand to the then emerging form of the novel, in [...]
Read moreCritic Roderic Dunnett enjoys The Fairy Queen
February 25, 2014
“If everything about this production is brilliant, the cast comes near it too. The plum performance is Aidan Smith, the baritone headmaster figure: the timbres of his voice are quite gorgeous. Lilly Pappaioannou (the English Teacher, a reawakening Titania: “No, no, no kissing at all”) is an unusual, old-fashioned mezzo. The girl pupils – Grace Carter, Flore Philis – sing appetisingly throughout. Richard Latham yields one super aria as the Maths Teacher, and Helen-Jane Howells half a dozen exquisite ones, all on target, as the Science Teacher. The cast’s enunciation was beyond one’s wildest hopes. There are several other gems. [...]
Read moreReviews for La finta semplice
October 7, 2013
Bury Court audiences have a treat in store on 20th October if the reviews of Bampton Classical Opera’s La finta semplice are anything to go by. We do have tickets available. Either book online or email the box office to secure your seats. “Spinning operatic yarns is one of Bampton’s specialities, making classical opera endless fun…a tip-top team. This was an an uplifting and energised evening – all in the best traditions of Bampton” – Opera Now
Read moreWhere are they now? Latest news of Young Artists who have appeared at Bury Court Opera
September 25, 2013
Laurie Ashworth (concert 2012) is due to make her Wigmore Hall solo debut in February 2014. Nicolas Darmanin (Ramiro – La Cenerentola 2012) is making his solo debut at ROH Covent Garden in Les Vêpres Siciliennes in autumn 2013 and launches his international career in Rosenkavalier with Vlaamse Opera, Antwerp in 2014. Andrew Dickinson (Lensky – Eugene Onegin 2013) is singing Male Chorus (Rape of Lucretia) for Glyndebourne on Tour 2013 and also performs in Glyndebourne’s Billy Budd touring to New York in early 2014. Ilona Domnich (Gilda – Rigoletto 2011 and Tatyana – Eugene Onegin 2013) sang [...]
Read moreGood reviews for Pelléas et Mélisande at the Grimeborn Festival
August 27, 2013
Pelléas et Mélisande has had extremely good reviews at the Grimeborn Festival in Dalston so don’t miss your chance to see it at Bury Court on Wednesday 18th September. Tickets are available. The London Evening Standard wrote: ‘Debussy’s only finished opera is not a simple work but you won’t see it done more persuasively than in Aylin Bozok’s production…[the cast was] extraordinary…Simon Wallfisch invests Pelléas with a wholly endearing Pierrot-like shyness. As Golaud, Alan Ewing thunders richly and betrays inner hopelessness. Illona Domnich’s Mélisande is as mesmerising as the other characters keep saying she is…’ For the full review follow this link: [...]
Read moreBury court Opera presents concert performances of Eugene Onegin in Italy
May 14, 2013
Bury Court Opera is pleased to announce that two concert performances of its recent production of Eugene Onegin will be held in Italy later this summer. The first is on Thursday 18th July at La Mortella – William Walton’s House on the island of Ischia. The second is on Tuesday 23th July at the Anghiari Festival in Tuscany. For details please visit the Southbank Sinfonia website: www.southbanksinfonia.co.uk
Read more20th October 2013, La Finta Semplice by Mozart
April 24, 2013
On 20th October 2013, Bury Court plays host to Bampton Classical Opera’s production of Mozart’s first comic opera, La Finta Semplice. Directed by Jeremy Grey and conducted by Andrew Griffiths, it is sung in a new English translation by Gilly French – ‘Pride and Pretence’. Ticketing and production information will be published soon.
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