OVERTURE

The company originated with a one-off performance on Saturday 17th July 1993, created by Bampton couple Gilly French and Jeremy Gray. Gilly, a singer, dreamed of performing the role of Galatea in Handel’s pastoral ‘masque’ Acis and Galatea, and Jeremy was a committee member for the West Oxfordshire Arts Association which fortuitously was then considering branching out from its traditional concentration on the visual arts. Thus was born ‘Bampton Summer Opera’, in the charming garden of the historic Deanery, adjacent to the church. The mythological story of Acis and Galatea is a delight - one of Handel’s masterpieces and a significant foundation of English-language opera.

The Bampton production was simplicity itself – no stage, minimal props (although including some spectacular fireworks), hired Baroque costumes, four soloists, a 13-strong chorus and an orchestra of 14. Performers were a mixture of professional and amateur, and the whole event had a pleasantly homespun quality. A bar was supplied by a local vineyard, lighting and front-of-house facilities were enthusiastically provided by local volunteers, especially members of the Bampton Drama Group who proved such a support in the early years. The ambition was that the event would be relaxed and accessible, so no seating was provided: the audience were asked to bring garden chairs and picnics if they liked. Rain would have been a problem, but the church was primed as an alternative, and the weather turned out balmy and calm. The garden acoustic was deemed to be excellent. The village was curious and provided an enthusiastic audience, and one gentleman reckoned it was “the best evening of his life.” Thanks to small-scale sponsorship and donations, attracted by the WOAA committee and especially by the hard work of its chairman Trevor Milne-Day, there was even a small profit, although tickets were priced at a modest £10. The critic from the Oxford Times was (mostly) complimentary. When it was over, everyone breathed a big sigh of relief, especially the WOAA committee, and life returned to normal - until some rashly began to ask “what are you doing next?”

And so here we still are, thirty years later: we’ve remained a small-scale concern, much dependent on the vital help of local volunteers, but we became a professional company with the very strongest national, indeed international, reputation.

(A fuller account of the early years is given in the book which accompanies this exhibition)