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 {…}
(Credit: Bampton Classical Opera) The Bampton Classical Opera has announced the winners of the 2021 Young Singers’ Competition. Sopranos Jessica Cale, Sophie Sparrow, Shafali Jalota and Cassandra Wright, mezzo-soprano Frances Gregory, and baritone Dan D’Souza reached the final competition round. The first prize winner was Australian soprano Cassandra Wright, who has also received a cash prize of 2,000 pound sterlings. {…}
Bampton Classical Opera has announced that it will present Haydn’s “Il mondo della luna” as its 2022 production. This will be the third of Haydn’s operas that the company will be presenting. It will be sung in a new English translation by Gilly French with Jeremy Gray directing. Thomas Blunt will conduct the cast, which will be announced at a {…}
Bampton Classical Opera has announced that it will present “Monteverdi Christmas Vespers” on Dec. 12, 2021 at St. Mary’s Church in Bampton, Oxfordshire. The showcase will feature the Bampton Classical Voices under conductor Andrew Griffiths performing music by Monteverdi, interspersed with motets by Croce, Grandi, G. Gabrielli, A. Gabrielli, Merulo, and Bassano aimed at telling the Christmas story. This is {…}
Bampton Classical Opera has announced its Young Singers’ Competition 2021 Finalists. Finalists include soprano Jessica Cale, mezzo-soprano Frances Gregory, soprano Sophie Sparrow, soprano Shafali, baritone Dan D’Souza, and soprano Cassandra Wright. Judges for this year’s competition include tenor Bonaventura Bottone, vocal teacher Jennifer Dakin, and accompanist and conductor Phillip Thomas. The first prize will take home a cash prize of {…}
