THIRTY YEARS OF BAMPTON CLASSICAL OPERA

Spectator

I have reached my last page, and yet barely mentioned the past decade which has seen many of our strongest productions and finest casts. Bampton’s unique exploration of superb rarities by Gluck, Haydn and Salieri deserves greater emphasis, along with our appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall and Oxford’s historic Holywell Music Room. Also important is our Young Singers’ Competition which, biennially since 2013, has encouraged and supported singers aged 21-32 and their pianists. And there are so many incredible musicians who deserve much more than a passing mention throughout this account!

Clearly a longer history needs to be written, in which to acknowledge our long-standing Board of Trustees, our honorary Patrons, and our wonderful friends in Bampton and Westonbirt who help with frontof-house, accommodation for musicians, back-stage and a myriad of other essential tasks. Vital to our existence are those who financially support us with such generosity and loyalty, even from as far away as Australia and the USA. Writing this account has reminded us of how those joining the Bampton community have happily inherited involvements associated with their house - the Ferstendiks at the Deanery were a good example of this and, when they eventually sold the house in 2020, Nicki and Eric Armitage warmly took on the opera. Opposite their gates is Cobb House, where Louise and Viv Robinson generously hosted many Friends events and post-performance parties; when they moved on, Pippa Harris and Richard McBrien enthusiastically continued the hospitality. On the other side of the village, Marina and Chris von Christierson are long-term supporters and hosted a memorable fundraising event with an appearance from our Patron, Dame Felicity Lott. Rosemary and Mike Pelham at Weald Manor have let us rehearse there frequently, and it was a joy to stage Handel’s

Clori, Tirsi e Fileno in their beautiful gardens last September. Marie and Rupert Dent, and Sarah and Nigel Wearne have warmly hosted postperformance parties, and recently we’ve held lovely garden parties for our volunteers at the Vicarage.

There’s a famous humour book by Hugh Vickers entitled Great Operatic Disasters and I cannot resist concluding with mention of a couple of ours. In 2015 Ukrainian mezzo-soprano Anna Starushkevych, first prizewinner of our inaugural Young Singers’ Competition, gave a superbly engaging performance as Ofelia in Trofonio’s Cave at the Deanery in July. She then returned to her homeland to see her family, but found herself stuck in Kyiv with visa problems, unable to return to the UK for the Westonbirt and London performances. We requested the intervention of our local MP (who just happened to be the then Prime Minister!), but even so the Foreign Office still failed to process the