(Photo Credit: Sisi Burn) Bampton Classical Opera will present “A Musical Celebration” on Dec. 7, 2024 at St. Mary’s Church in Oxfordshire. The performance features countertenor Kieron-Connor Valentine taking on songs and arias by Rhys Joines, T. Soborne Roberts, Alain Boulil, Jake Heggie, Chalin, Berlin, and Amanda McBroom, among others, alongside pianists André Bertoncini and Jeremy Gray. The Bampton Winds {…}
Bampton Classical Opera has announced a cast change for its production of “Alcina’s Island.” The Giuseppe Gazzaniga opera will now be headlined by Inna Husieva, a Ukrainian soprano who has had major success at the Elizabeth Connell Prize Competition and is a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist. She joins a cast starring Sarah Chae, Charlotte Badham, Monwabisi Lindi, Simon Brown, Magnus {…}
Bampton Classical Opera has announced its 2024 season. It starts with a summer production of “L’Isola d’Alcina” by Gazzaniga. The opera will get five performances across four different venues in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, East Sussex, and London. Thomas Blunt conducts and Jeremy Gray directs. Cast members include Susanna Fairbairne, Sarah Chae, Charlotte Badham, Monwabisi Lindi, Simon Brown, Magnus Walker, Jonathan Eyers, {…}
Bampton Classical Opera has announced its 2023 Christmas Concert “Feliz Navidad! – Christmas Music from the New World.” The event, which is scheduled for Dec. 19, 2023 at St. Mary’s Church in Bampton, Oxfordshire, will feature Juan Guitérrez de Padilla’s “Missa Joseph Fili” as well as music by Antonio de Salazar, Francisco López Capillas, Manuel de Zumaya, Francisco Guerrero, Tomás {…}
Bampton Classical Opera has a new addition to its 2024 season. The company revealed that it will present Giuseppe Gazzaniga’s “L’Isola d’Alcina.” The three-act opera is loosely based on the sorceress Alcina and features four men getting washed up on an island where they are seduced by an 800-year-old witch. The opera will be directed by Jeremy Gray and conducted {…}
(Photo credit: Sisi) Mezzo-soprano Melissa Gregory has been named the winner of Bampton Classical Opera’s 2023 Young Singers’ Competition. The finals took place Nov. 25 in the Leonard Wolfson Auditorium at Wolfson College in Oxford. Gregory took home the highest prize totaling in £2,000. Second prize of £1,000 was awarded to countertenor Kieron-Connor Valentine. The winner of the accompanists’ prize, {…}
Bampton Classical Opera Young Singers Competition has unveiled the finalists for its 2023 edition. The finalists include: Sarah Chae, soprano Aleksandra Dunaeva, soprano Melissa Gregory, mezzo-soprano Rhydian Jenkins, tenor Georgie Malcolm, soprano Dan D’Souza, baritone Myrna Tennant, mezzo-soprano Kieron-Connor Valentine, countertenor Judges include tenor Bonaventura Bottone, mezzo-soprano Jean Rigby, and pianist and vocal coach Ingrid Surgenor. The final is scheduled for Nov. 25, 2023 at Leonard Wolfson Auditorium {…}
Bampton Classical Opera Young Singers’ Competition 2023 has announced that Ingrid Surgenor is joining the judging panel. Surgenor, a senior coach at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and principal opera coach at the Royal Academy of Music, joins tenor Bonaventura Bottone and mezzo-soprano Jean Rigby on the panel. She has been {…}
Bampton Classical Opera is set to present “The Apothecary” as part of its 30th anniversary season. The Haydn opera, which is set to open on Sept. 9, 2023, will take place at The Barn at Old Walland, Wadhurt, East Sussex. It will star Guy Beynon as Sempronio, the titular apothecary, and Iúnó Connolly as Grilletta, his ward and pupil. Joining {…}
On Oct. 28, 2023, Bampton Classical Opera Young Singers’ Competition 2023 will hold the first round of their sixth biennial competition. Launched in 2013, the competition seeks to support some of England’s most promising young singers and their accompanists. The first closed round will take place on Oct. 28 and 29, with the final public round to be held on {…}
Bampton Classical Opera is set to present Händel’s “Clori, Tirsi e Fileno” this fall. There will be three performances in sum with the opening showcase set for Sept. 3, 2022 at the Old Walland in Wadhurst, Sussex. That will be followed up by a performance on Sept. 11, 2022 at Weald Manor in Bampton, Oxfordshire with the final showcase, scheduled {…}