Reviews
Review highlights appear on this page. For the full report
follow the links to the relevant opera via the Repertory page
General comments
Once again, a performance by Bampton Classical Opera left this listener amazed that such works are not more frequently performed Opera Today, 2009
A serious business with remarkable artistic standards Opera, 2009
Bampton Classical Opera has an admirable history of devising challenging educational projects Opera Today, 2009
Bampton Classical Opera offers operas that one wants to hear Opera, 2008
Thank heaven for little opera companies' The Independent, 2007
'Bampton's inventive daring grows ever more finessed… scintillating…' terrific Opera, 2006
'Invariably slick, always cleverly imaginative…' terrific value for money Opera Now, 2006
'...the magnetism of Bampton Classical Opera...' The Oxford Times, 2006
'Bampton Classical Opera's stagings of comic opera are endless fun; yet Jeremy Gray's and Gilly French's sparkling ensemble has proved it has a nobler mission. Its snappy productions juxtapose the cheeky, the ingenious and the bizarre with a genuine serious concern to make the music tell, engaging gifted young singers and capable orchestral players.' Opera, 2005
'every idea, move and entry seemed polished, finished, thought through; relevant, deuced clever ….. everything gelled admirably.' Opera, 2005
'The company has its own style - quirky, witty, zestful – which endows late 18th century opera with rapid momentum, showing a constant empathy with its subject. Bampton invariably scores with musical verve and quick-fire delivery.' Opera Now, 2005
'Bampton’s calling-card has been founder Jeremy Gray’s spacey, faux-naïve stagings' The Times, 2004
'Bampton Classical Opera’s imaginative producer-translators have a knack of advancing prodigious young talent' Opera, 2004
'The epitome of opera-in-a-garden' The Times, 2002 and 2003
'There isn’t a company in England with as sharp a sense of fun as Bampton. Season after season they dig up rare gems, served up with canny wit, visual deftness and a musical spring that make them one of the high pleasures of an English summer' Opera Now, November 2003
'There's always something good to say about Bampton' Music and Vision, 2003
'This admirable outfit, brainchild of two Westminster schoolteachers, has for 11 years been unearthing and performing lost and forgotten works' The Times, 2003
'the excellent Bampton Opera' The Evening Standard, 2003
'Bampton Classical Opera … has amassed all the ingredients for an ideal medium-range opera company: it has verve and initiative, seriousness and fun… it has its own talented ensemble of singers. But what impresses most is Bampton’s unswerving commitment to staging rare operatic gems of the Classical era.' Opera Now, 2002
'An intelligent, quirky sense of humour, an eye for detail and directorial tautness have informed all Gray’s recent stagings.' Opera, 2002
'Jeremy Gray, the moving spirit of Bampton Classical Opera … has the unmistakeable joie-de-vivre of what may, I fear, be becoming an ever-rarer English type – a man simply doing his own thing.' The Oxford Times, 2002
'Rare 18th century fare is a Bampton speciality, and for this reason alone it deserves recognition' Opera, 1999
Haydn – Le pescatrici, 2009
brilliant, racy... We all had a whale of a time Opera
a radiant whole Opera Today
plenty of laughs...strongly cast... impeccable timing and control The Oxford Times
Schubert – The Conspirators, 2009
...warmth, personality and camaderie... a joy Opera
a delightfully entertaining, remarkably confident and outstandingly assured performance of this unjustly neglected opera... shrewdly cast... tenor Tom Raskin and baritone Edmund Connolly supported and encouraged the young performers sensitively throughout... a new English translation, brisk and uncluttered, struck an effective balance between detail and dramatic momentum... the deft visual and verbal wit which has come to characterise Bampton Classical Opera’s unfussy, sharp approach... Opera Today
Paer – Leonora, 2008
'Promising young singers appear in its casts... A fascinating evening, honestly, decently and ambitiously performed' Opera
'A high quality cast' Opera Now
'This imaginative, focused production... Intelligent, well-paced...' Opera Today
Gluck and Mozart – Le Cinesi and Apollo and Hyacinth, 2008 and 2009
Genuine enjoyment and engagement Opera Today
'just right... excellent' Opera Now
'...a triumph' The Oxford Times
Benda - Romeo and Juliet, 2007
'superb...' The Independent
'evident relish...' The Oxford Times
'brilliantly engaging...' Music and Vision
'a real gem' Musical Pointers
Handel/Mozart – Acis and Galatea, 2007
'wit and sparkle… a delightful evening' Musical Pointers
'well performed' The Spectator
Mozart – Apollo and Hyacinth, 2007
… a delightful, spirited evening Opera
Mozart – The Jewel Box, 2006
'a real treasure trove: a delicious concoction… Jewels indeed' Opera
Martín y Soler - La capricciosa corretta, 2006
'rewarding' TLS
'invariably slick, always cleverly imaginative… terrific value for money' Opera Now
'another triumph... slick staging... style and panache... vocally strong throughout' The Oxford Times
Paisiello – The Barber of Seville, 2005
'Jeremy Gray’s fast-moving, zestful and colourful production …the action all looked deliciously unlikely, and fuelled many comic mishaps' Opera News
'Gilly French’s cleverly inventive rhymed translation [was] witty, lucid, always audible and a boon to all the singers… Gray displays a wonderful eye for paradox, sending things up much as Paisiello’s score does, which both typifies and impishly parodies the Italian style' Opera
'madcap comedy done with the usual ensemble pizzazz that this company musters' The Times
'great eloquence and joy' The Oxford Times
'combines fun and sentiment to perfection' Manchester Evening News
Haydn - La vera costanza, 2004
'superb in all departments' Opera
'melting moments that are the best of Haydn' The Times
'the world, you soon felt, seemed not a bad place after all' The Oxford Times
'a cast of bold dramatic range and beguiling musical gifts' Opera News
Haydn - L'infedeltà delusa, 2004 and 2005
'this sparklingly witty evening's entertainment… one of the many strong points was their complete conviction in the quality of the work. Jeremy Gray's direction was mercifully unpretentious, allowing the farce to play for what it is' MusicOMH.com
'musical verve and quick-fire delivery' Opera Now
Salieri Falstaff, 2003 and 2004
'Gray's Bampton productions pry humour from his texts with a consistency and precision that lift them way above the lightweight shenanigans of "garden" opera.' Opera News
'full of relevant laughs, with Gilly French's slick translations... a joy ...pure magic' The Independent
'painlessly updated' The Times
'the lyric singing is uniformly excellent... the true running joke lies in the English translation, by Jeremy Gray and Gilly French, which, with its clinking rhymes and robust English idioms...surpasses even the usual standard' The Oxford Times
'a gem of an evening… Gilly French's aria translations rivalled the best Amanda Holden quality' Opera Now
'Thirty-one scenes of sheer joy...' Opera
Cimarosa - The Two Barons of Rocca Azzurra, 2002
'a terrific cast… a laugh a minute' The Independent
'Bampton’s latest discovery … is performed with their usual carefree ensemble, a product of regular singers who work well together and a relaxed atmosphere.' The Times
'The work was imaginatively cast. In whatever range, voices matched and balanced, ensuring lustre in the frequent ensembles.' The Oxford Times
Mozart - Waiting for Figaro, 2002
'an inspired evening... a fresh revelation of genius… everyone excelled' The Independent
'clarity, intimacy and – a rarer achievement – a communicative warmth that embraces the listener.' The Oxford Times
Mozart, Henneberg, Schack, Gerl & Schikaneder - The Philosopher’s Stone, 2001
'Jeremy Gray … has built up both a composite team and his own intelligent directorial style, informed by a wry sense of humour' The Independent
Storace - The Comedy of Errors, 2000
'Gray shrewdly contrived exactly the kind of visual variety and zip Shakespeare’s original demands' The Independent
'Lively and slick' The Times
'Bampton Classical Opera's production put scarcely a foot wrong. Nifty comedy, colourful settings, beautifully contrived send-up, imaginative moves, a real sense of directorial pacing, clear words (in Arthur Jacobs's immensely successful translation) and a clutch of promising voices made this an evening to be savoured.' Opera
Paisiello - Nina, 1999
'Jeremy Gray’s tidy and compact production, imaginatively updated to a 1930’s hospital setting, worked well thanks to intelligent consistency in sets, props and costumes and a well-marshalled chorus impressively free of overacting.' Opera
'Jeremy Gray's carefully considered staging... taut and focused... well-directed' Opera Now
