THIRTY YEARS OF BAMPTON CLASSICAL OPERA

wears off and she murmurs his name. Romeo exclaims ‘Oh God!’ (it must be admitted, that’s not a great line) - and at that very second the Almighty did indeed intervene and electric light was restored to the church. As Romeo goes on to say: “Is this a miracle? Or only a dream?” The second evening, when the flood waters were even higher, we kept to the atmospheric candlelight, even though by then electricity was restored.

Another memorable church performance was Salieri’s The School of Jealousy in 2017: again, perfect weather for the Thursday dress rehearsal, but torrential rain on performance days. Despite the rain many in our hardy audience made use of the available tents in the garden, determined that their picnics should not be spoilt. Jacky Allinson and friends moved the all-important bar indoors, and St Mary’s became the only church in

Christendom with a licensed bar in the Children’s Corner. But we even needed a marquee indoors as thieves had recently stripped the lead from the aisle roof, and we didn’t want the drinks to get watered down!