A hard-working chorus and orchestra, plus a couple of excellent dancers, add to the quality of the entertainment. Thomas Blunt is the spirited conductor. Bampton’s devotion to a specialised repertoire – rarities from the period of Mozart and Haydn – has brought forth many worthwhile rediscoveries over nearly 30 years.

It does so again in the shape of Gluck’s 1770 retelling of how Paris persuades Helen to elope with him to Troy: in this version, unusually, the librettist has allowed himself the licence that Helen is merely betrothed to Menelaus, not married to him.

The music is of a high order throughout, scarcely explaining the almost total neglect of a significant work by a great composer. Perhaps the fact that the principal roles are all conceived for sopranos is perceived as a problem – there are no tenors, baritones or basses, except in the chorus.

But Bampton assembles a fine cast, while Jeremy Gray’s production is creditable and credible. Designs reference ancient times, though far from exclusively, while the simple staging is always effective and often ironically humorous.
Each member of the cast contributes a finely sung, authentically acted performance. The attraction and often heated discussions between Ella Taylor’s resolute Paris and Lucy Anderson’s volatile Helen take centre stage – until, finally, Paris wins.

Lauren Lodge-Campbell helps focus the audience’s attention on Amor (Cupid), disguised as Helen’s counsellor Erasto, his determination to bring the couple together ultimately successful.

Lisa Howarth has her moment in the limelight when, as Pallas Athene, she arrives towards the end to warn the pair what fate has in store for them – and innumerable others.

Paris and Helen (Paride ed Elena, 1770) was the third of the ‘Reform’ operas by Gluck and his librettist Raniero da Calzabigi (after Orfeo and Alceste) but it retains some of the aspects of Baroque opera, particularly in the genre’s French form. Although written in Italian for performance in Vienna (and, unlike its operatic siblings, not subsequently adapted for the French stage) Paris and Helen features the spectacle of dance and a dramatic appearance by the goddess Athene towards the end. Indeed, like the operas of Lully and Rameau, the drama which enfolds shows – in however cheerful a fashion – a human situation which is set up in advance by divine powers or fate. Although there is no formal prologue in which any gods convene to contrive this, as often in those earlier tragédies lyriques, that device is seemingly referenced in Jeremy Gray’s production by having the figure of Amor appear during the Overture, flicking through a copy of the Iliad (to allude to the momentous war which will follow as a result of Paris and Helen’s falling in love) and Ovid (whose racy literature serves as an exemplar for their passion). Amor interacts with the pair in disguise as Erasto, Helen’s counsellor, to spur on their romance, whilst the goddess of love (who had promised the beautiful princess to Paris) is conjured in this performance by means of a reproduction of Botticelli’s celebrated depiction of her in the Birth of Venus.

Gluck’s opera actually presents a more-coy version of the origins of their relationship, as Helen makes considerable effort to resist Paris’s advances; and, although she does succumb in the end, it is not strictly an adulterous transgression as she is only betrothed Menelaus here, rather than married to him already. Two buff male dancers take the part of the athletes who contribute the choreography for the ballet interludes – some of which are supposed to constitute a games tournament for the Spartans in Gluck’s original. As such they bring a sense of the Classical ideal of physical bodily perfection and perhaps also, in their contests, a subtly homoerotic edge to underline the amorous campaign being waged by Paris upon Helen. 
The cast express a fair degree of Baroque passion in their performances nonetheless. Ella Taylor is a versatile Paris, turning from eloquent restraint at one moment (for example the song in which he woos Helen, accompanied by harp, which surely looks back to a similarly scored number in Orfeo ed Euridice) to vociferous declaration of purpose at another in the crisp and solid presence of their singing. Lucy Anderson voices Helen’s initially indignant refusal to countenance Paris’s attentions with her robust performance, if at times a touch squally. Tellingly she expresses most fervour in her aria at the end of Act Four where, like Fiordiligi, she resolves to have none of it, but the audience already knows full well where her conflicted emotions will lead her.

Lauren Lodge-Campbell interprets the disguised god Amor playfully, with a sort of flutter in her rendition to evoke the mischievous encouragement she gives to Paris and Helen, somewhat like the coquettish Despina, to refer to Cosí fan tutte again. Her charming duet with Paris in Act One is a good example. Lisa Howarth makes a coaxingly stern Athena as she makes a futile attempt to warn the lovers of the consequences of their actions, before Helen sails away to Troy. She and Benjamin Durrant also have some brief but emphatic solos as Trojan followers of Paris.
Thomas Blunt and the Orchestra of Bampton Classical Opera create a due sense of occasion with the ceremonial overture and in the livelier sections of the score, even if the trumpets and horns sometimes slip up in their intonation. But it is in the softer, slower music that the ensemble often sounds particularly well integrated (for instance the minor-key trio of Act IV) and Rita Schindler on the harp provides a gentle and unobtrusive rippling accompaniment in Paris’s arioso.

Altogether the production demonstrates that Gluck and Calzabigi’s Classicism need not be austere (even if Gilly French’s translation avails itself of less wit than previous Bampton projects) and that this rarely performed opera can be as exquisitely rewarding as any of the composer’s better-known examples.
 

Yet again Bampton Classical Opera finds the opportunity to bring to life one of those long-overlooked gems of the opera genre. Isouard’s Cendrillon in 2018 was highly regarded, Storace’s Bride and Gloom followed in 2019 and was equally well reviewed. This year Jeremy Gray and Gilly French combine as Artistic Directors and translators to bring Gluck’s Paris and Helen to The Deanery Garden in Bampton for the ultimate garden opera on a balmy evening.

Unlike the frequently performed Tristan and Isolde, a story of a chivalric romance, the rarely performed, Paris and Helen, became the story which developed into a Greek legend. Premièred in 1770 in Vienna, this third of Gluck’s so-called ‘reform operas’ received only 25 performances. On the evidence of Bampton’s performance, it remains something of a mystery that Manchester in 1963, and the Barbican in 2003, remain the only two previous professional performances in this country. Well done Gray and French for their work on unearthing this gem and delivering a very capable translation into English!

Conductor Thomas Blunt is well regarded and has a strong following   thanks to his work with Longborough Festival Opera; he worked his most irreproachably sympathetic magic with the soloists, generating excellent support from his team of nineteen. Tempos were strong and deliberate; there was never a sign of fatigue in their delivery. When the thunder clouds delivered the stern warning from Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Blunt was given some external support from a noisy helicopter, arriving slightly late, which nevertheless added to the sense of how dire the consequences for Paris and Helen in their illicit lovemaking could be. Lisa Howarth, commanding in her role as Pallas Athena, takes her strong soprano voice into the Wagner world and sings Gutrune in Götterdämmerung; I’m sure this suits her well.

Simple sets, simple costumes and lighting allow choreographer, Alicia Frost to take full advantage of the space and lack of intrusive elements This gives the two dancers, Oliver Adam-Reynolds and Oscar Fonseca, licence to produce some thrilling, complicated gymnastics moves, a delightful surprise for an audience enjoying another most relaxed picnicking occasion. All four Trojans, supporters of Paris, sing confidently with Lisa Howarth, once again, and Benjamin Durrant (one of a chorus of four) showing the importance of clear diction added to thrilling energy and passion. Lauren Lodge-Campbell delights in her impish role as Amor, the god of love, and is equally comfortable in Amor’s disguised role as Erasto, Helen’s counsellor. She uses her incisive approach to support her love of crises in a very well-paced role developing her strategy to deceive Helen with an inexhaustible indulgence.

And so to the principal singers. Lucy Anderson, winner of the 2019 Bampton Classical Opera Young Singers’ Competition, commands the stage as Helen, singing with eloquent grace. She varies her use of vibrato to heighten moments of tension. Her unease in her relationship with Paris is shown in her anguished observation, ‘how can I abandon him?’. She recognises her guilt in even considering breaking off her engagement to Menelaus, the future King of Sparta, who, conveniently, is away in Crete.

Ella Taylor, winner of Second Prize at the 2020 Kathleen Ferrier Awards, makes their stage debut with Bampton in the role of Paris, Prince of Troy frequently referred to as Alexandros ‘a protector of men, noted for his bravery as a shepherd’. Paris struggles to progress the courtship with Helen and by Act IV leaves the action in a huff shortly before the thunder clouds are joined by the tardy helicopter. Ella brings a raw energy to the work; the duets with Lucy some of the highlights of the evening and their voices are bright, again notably clear in diction and responsive to nuance.

Bampton Classical Opera deserves enormous praise for their efforts to revive, indeed, rediscover the hidden gems of the opera genre which remain unearthed. Further performances of this production can be seen at the Orangery Theatre, Westonbirt School, on 30 August and St John’s, Smith Square on 24 September – last chances not to be missed! In his pre-performance talk, Jeremy Gray recounted an anecdote in which an actress of some note described these hidden gems as ‘an exciting opportunity and an insight into a different world of escapism’. Bampton Classical Opera, however, has its feet firmly on the ground, noted for their sensible and practical approach to opera.
 

Greek heroes are not unaccustomed to squaring up to the whims of gods and fortune, but in bringing Christoph Willibald Gluck’s account of the elopement of Paris, son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, and Helen, daughter of Zeus and Queen of Sparta, to the stage, Bampton Classical Opera – while not triggering a Trojan War – have faced more than their fair share of challenges and misfortune this year.  

After a sunny opening night at Bampton Deanery Gardens in July, inclement weather nearly scuppered the second performance, which I attended, the rain-sodden stage necessitating frequent mopping, the excision of some of Gluck’s not inconsiderable dance episodes, and disrupting both of the Act finales.  So, I was eagerly awaiting the company’s customary September performance at St John’s Smith Square, but that too fell foul of the figurative deities, with members of the cast succumbing to various respiratory ailments.  Lucy Cronin was thus obliged to sing – which she did with sparkling clarity – the indisposed Lisa Howarth’s chorus solos in the opening scene, while Milly Forrest – fresh from her award-winning performance at the Royal Overseas League – stepped in at short notice to deliver Pallas Athene’s portentous prophecy in the closing moments.  Benjamin Durrant’s chorus part was sung with brightness and vigour by tenor Adam Tunnicliffe, from the wings, with the balance only occasionally unsettled by the chorus’s positioning.  Despite these misfortunes, Bampton Classical Opera negotiated the casting challenges with the same unruffled, can-do pragmatism with which they had overcome the summer deluge, bringing their characteristic light-touch irony to Gluck and Calzabigi’s drama of feminine waywardness and a wooer’s wiles.

Premiered on 3rd November 1770 before the Viennese imperial court, Paride ed Elena was the last of Gluck’s three ‘reform’ operas and the first of his operatic ‘Trojan trilogy’.  In contrast to Alceste and Orfeo ed Euridice, it was not a great success, and since its premiere performances have been few and far between.  Indeed, it seems not to have been performed at all between the 1777 Neapolitan production and the revival in Prague in 1901.  It was staged at Drottningholm in 1987.  It was Gluck’s last Italian opera; for, in 1770, his patroness, the future Marie Antoinette, married the heir to the French throne, and the composer’s attention turned to Paris and the French stage.
It’s fair to say that this is an opera in which not much ‘happens’.  The acts present Paris’s song-fuelled attempts to win Helen’s heart, aided and abetted by ‘Amor’, and there is little genuine theatrical conflict.  There are lengthy dance episodes (only slightly truncated here), and rather conventional secco recitatives advance the ‘action’.  Gluck’s Preface acknowledges that, ‘The drama of Paris and Helen did not require from the composer’s fancy those strong passions, those majestic images and those tragic situations which shook the audience in Alceste; neither did it necessitate so many grandiose harmonic effects.  Thus, the same forceful and energetic music will surely not be expected …’.  In the latter profession, though, Gluck sells himself short.  He composed a series of beautiful arias and ensembles for the four soprano soloists (at the premiere, the role of Paris was sung by the soprano castrato Giuseppe Millico), and, relishing the well-wrought balancing of simplicity and ornament at St John’s Smith Square, I could not help reflecting that Richard Strauss would surely have loved the delicious vocal richness of the ladies’ trios.

In any case, director Jeremy Gray is not one to let a score’s nuances or a drama’s droll potentialities pass him by.  The overture set the tone, the martial opening, subsequent lyrical episodes and closing jubilant dance charting the lovers’ fares and fortunes – as discovered by Lauren Lodge-Campbell’s Cupid when, having used her umbrella-parachute to bring her safely to ground and removed her flying goggles, she browsed through her Homer, uncovering with shock and dismay the prophecy and peripetia which she would then seek to avert.  I may be mistaken, but it seemed to me that the musicians of CHROMA, conducted stylishly and crisply by Thomas Blunt, were seated further forward than customary at Bampton productions at SJSS, but, even if I am incorrect, the string playing was particularly immediate and fresh, and the woodwind conversations with the solo voices especially eloquent and clear.

Gray’s simple set presented two screens of irregular rectangles tinted in soft natural tones of brown, grey and teal, reminiscent of the watercolour washes of Ben Nicholson’s Greek-inspired abstracts – as also reflected in costume designer Jess Iliff’s loose tunics and drapes, which matched Classical elegance with relaxed modernism.  Nicholson’s belief that such forms give the viewer ‘the actual quality of Greece itself, and this will become a part of the light and space and life in the room’ was brought to fulfilment by the grand Corinthian columns framing the acting space and lighting designer Ian Chandler’s simple but striking hues.

Paris and Helen may end on a portentous note, as the enraged Pallas Athene appears on a cloud to warn the unhappy pair of lovers that her wrath will thwart their future happiness – a prediction of sorrow which they seem only half-heartedly to push aside, for all Gluck’s major-key brightness and the lovers’ avowal that they will not be deterred by destined disaster.  But, Gray – and his co-artistic director Gilly French, who supplied a neat and natty English translation of Calzabigi’s libretto – did not let such clouds linger over their production.  The dance episodes were nicely tongue-in-cheek, as Oliver Adam-Reynolds and Oscar Fonesca flexed their muscles and flaunted their grace at the command of their Spartan queen – deftly choreographed by Alicia Frost.

High voices prevail, and Gluck scarcely distinguishes them, but Bampton’s cast characterised their roles strongly.  Lauren Lodge-Campbell is a natural singer-actor and she relished her busy-bodying, as Cupid-cum-Queen’s counsellor, Erasto.  Her soprano is sweet and strong, and Lodge-Campbell – with knowing eyebrows and purposeful frowns – was a playful meddler, consulting her Classics and commanding her acolytes, tiptoeing stealthily and marshalling the actions’ players with a wry wink.  Lucy Anderson found a terrific glint and flashes of fire in Helen’s arias, ensuring that we appreciated the Spartan queen’s feisty independence, but she also made sure that we warmed to Paris’s prevaricating beloved.

The role of Paris is a big sing, and Ella Taylor was more than equal to the challenge.  What a lovely easeful soprano they have: Taylor’s phrasing was graceful and noble, and there was no strain at all, whatever stamina was required.  And, their naturalness and clear diction in the recitatives was exemplary.  The blending in the duets and trios was wonderfully comforting, and the combined voices bloomed with colour and spirit.  The choral tableaux were neatly despatched.  And, finally, I was able to enjoy the deus ex machina – with attendant smoke machine – at the close.  Oscillating lights heralded Pallas Athene’s arrival, and Milly Forrest issued her warnings with a biting precision and clarity.

Pallas’s prophecies may be ominous, but Bampton’s courage and conviction are equal to that of any aspiring Greek hero.

Least popular of Gluck’s reform operas, Paride ed Elena shows what little store we should set on popularity. (Do not Gluck’s operas more generally?) Bampton Classical Opera once again deserves our thanks in bringing a ‘neglected’—frankly, ignored—eighteenth-century opera to performance, first in Oxfordshire and now in its annual visit to St John’s, Smith Square. That it should do so at all is praiseworthy enough, that it should do so in ‘current circumstances’ all the more so. If I found some elements of staging, costumes in particular, a little makeshift, it is not worth labouring the point; circumstances were far from ideal.

The role of Paride, written for a soprano castrato, poses a problem in that one will end up with a cast of five sopranos—or one will transpose it down for a high tenor. Allegedly, for the nature of the alleged ‘problem’ is unclear when one listens, especially to so accomplished a performance as we heard from Ella Taylor. Taylor’s Paris—we may as well use English, since the opera was sung in an English translation by Gilly French—evinced youthful strength and vulnerability through Orphic song, rising to more militaristic clamour where required. Their portrayal both contrasted with and complemented Lucy Anderson’s equally multi-faceted Helen, knowingly beguiling and resistant, ultimately moved—perhaps musically as much as verbally—to confront and acknowledge the transformation of her own feelings. As cunning agent of that transformation, Cupid posing as royal counsellor Erasto, Lauren Lodge-Campbell shone and sparkled. Milly Forrest, a late replacement as Pallas Athena, commanded attention as the deus ex machina, as did members of the small chorus, Lucy Cronin first among equals given her accomplished first-act solo. So too did dancers Oliver Adam-Reynolds Oscar Fonseca, who brought to proceedings a highly physical eroticism otherwise lacking from the staging.

Thomas Blunt led CHROMA in a well considered, flowing account of considerable cumulative drama. Here there was none of the stiffness I observed in a Bampton performance earlier this year of La corona under a different conductor. Blunt judged ebb and flow with due regard for instrumental and vocal sensibilities, but above all with an ear to the greater whole. Cuts were judicious and did little damage, which is not to say that one might not wish to hear them restored in other situations. Here, no one could have tired, in the way some people unaccountably seem to do so, of Classical drama lyricised and rendered visible. Rarely if ever did a small instrumental ensemble have one wishing for larger forces, the St John’s acoustic weaving its magic. Gluck and Calazbigi will surely have won more converts, and willingness to explore dance as musical drama augurs well for further Bampton explorations. Dare we hope, perhaps, for a little Rameau or even Traetta? To be fair, more Gluck would also be highly welcome. We shall see—and hear; at least I hope we shall.

Music *****
Staging *****

Since 1993 Bampton Classical Opera has charted a particular furrow – the rarer operas of the classical period and its immediate surround composed by the likes of Arne, Cimarosa, Grétry, Martín y Soler, Paer, Paisiello, Salieri and Storace, as well as Mozart, Handel, Haydn and Gluck.

The company’s latest venture, Gluck’s Paris and Helen (aka Paride ed Elena) proved extremely worthwhile. Written in Italian for the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1770, the dramma per musica was designed for four sopranos voices in the principal roles.

Both musically and dramatically it’s a fascinating piece, and its total neglect by major UK companies is inexplicable. Stepping into the gap, as on so many other occasions, Bampton places us all in its debt.

Gilly French provided a clear translation of the high-quality text by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi (also the author of Gluck’s two earlier ‘reform’ operas), while director/ set designer Jeremy Gray created a simple but invariably effective staging that maintained a strong narrative while taking in a nice line in irony. Jess Iliff ’s costumes were apt, Ian Chandler’s lighting to the point.

A couple of athletic dancers (choreographer Alicia Frost), a hardworking chorus of four, and a skilled and numerically well-proportioned orchestra under the incisive baton of Thomas Blunt all made positive contributions.

So, too, did the four principals. In what is essentially a cast of three plus a dea ex machina figure who arrives near the end, the two main participants, in particular, had their work cut out, yet both of them delivered.

Soprano Ella Taylor made a bold and determined Paris, their firm voice charting a lithe and lively line. They were well matched by Lucy Anderson’s powerfully expressive Helen.  Lauren Lodge-Campbell made her mark as Amor (aka Cupid), who piles on the pressure for the two to come to amorous agreement (in this version Helen is merely betrothed to Menelaus, who doesn’t appear). Lisa Howarth came on at the end like a literal wrath of god to warn the feckless pair what they were about to unleash. All in all, Bampton did Gluck proud.
 

Favoured by the gods, subject to prophecy, Greek heroes are not unaccustomed to facing challenging quests and executing superhuman acts. The soprano Ella Taylor could not, however, have anticipated that the role of Paris would demand endurance of a baptism, not by fire, but by deluge. The Second Prize winner of the 2020 Kathleen Ferrier Award and their fine fellow cast were confronted by the fickle gods and frustrated by the whims of nature, during a weather-beaten performance of Gluck’s opera in the garden of Bampton Deanery, yet demonstrated fortitude, resourcefulness and stylish musicality.

First performed on 3 November 1770 before the Viennese imperial court, Paride ed Elena was the last of Gluck’s three ‘reform’ operas and the first of his operatic trilogy relating the elopement of Helen, Queen of Sparta, and Paris, Prince of Troy, and the consequent eruption of the Trojan War. There is little ‘action’; instead, each of Calzabigi’s acts presents Paris’s song-fuelled attempts to win Helen’s heart, aided and abetted by Amor’s meddling. Some variety is offered by frequent dance elements and, though reduced, as choreographed by Alicia Frost they provided an opportunity for some tongue-in-cheek levity to contrast with the solemnity of the seduction.
Jeremy Gray’s simple set presented stacks of irregular rectangles tinted in soft natural tones of brown, grey and blue, reminiscent of the watercolour washes of Ben Nicholson’s Greek-inspired abstracts. Fulfilling Nicholson’s belief that such forms gave the viewer ‘the actual quality of Greece itself’ was a tough grind in the drizzly damp at Bampton, but the designs were pleasingly reflected in the costume designer Jess Iliff’s loose tunics and drapes.

Gluck presents further challenges by casting his opera for four sopranos and employing a melodic simplicity that scarcely distinguishes between them. At the premiere in 1770, the role of Paris was sung by the soprano castrato Vito Giuseppe Millico, Gluck’s Orfeo in Parma the preceding year. At Bampton, Taylor proved more than equal to the demands of style and technique, singing with a beautifully even tone—strong and smooth across the registers, and with a shining glow at the top—fully expressive of Paris’s passion.

Lucy Anderson communicated Helen’s confusion, indignation and desire with a wide-ranging palette, considerable power and vocal flexibility. As Amor (initially disguised as the Queen’s counsellor, Erasto), Lauren Lodge-Campbell was a playful busybody, avidly consulting her Homer and, in ‘Nell’idea ch’ei volge’, sweetly revealing her purpose to help Paris win Helen’s love. Paride ed Elena is rich orchestrally and the conductor Thomas Blunt drew characterful playing from the Orchestra of Bampton Classical Opera.

The weather was cruel to Bampton’s act-endings. At the close of Act 2, once Helen has confirmed her devotion, Gluck resorts to operatic convention: the deus ex machina. A thunderclap signals the appearance of the enraged goddess of war, Pallas Athene, and it was a pity that we weren’t able to enjoy the full extent of Lisa Howarth’s wrath as she cursed the unhappy pair with a prediction of war and sorrow.
 

Gluck's final Reform opera in a very rare staging which brings out the focused intensity of the drama in a production with a charming injection of humour too.

When it comes to British performances of Gluck's final Viennese opera, Paride ed Elena, there are a lot of maybes. Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort & Players performed it at the Barbican in 2003, which MAY have been the work's London premiere, and this year's revival of the work by Bampton Classical Opera could well be the work's first London staging. But then even in 18th century Vienna, Paride ed Elena rather lagged behind Gluck and librettist Ranieri de' Calzabigi's other two operas, so that in the period to 1800, there were more than 100 performances of Orfeo ed Euridice in Vienna, compared to more than 70 of Alceste and just 25 of Paride ed Elena.

So it was with great pleasure that I was able to encounter Gluck's Paride ed Elena, performed in a new English translation by Gilly French as Paris and Helen, with Bampton Classical Opera's performance at St John's Smith Square on Friday 24 September 2021. Thomas Blunt conducted Chroma, with a production directed and designed by Jeremy Gray, and choreographed by Alicia Frost. Ella Taylor was Paris, Lucy Anderson was Helen and Lauren Lodge-Campbell was Amor. There were two cast substitutions, Milly Forrest was a very last minute stand-in for Lisa Howarth as Pallas Athene with Lucy Cronin (from the ensemble) standing in as the high priestess, and tenor Adam Tunnicliffe sang the chorus tenor from the wings whilst stage manager Harvey Evans acted.

There is a lot of commonality between Paride ed Elena and Orfeo ed Euridice. Both concentrate on a trio of soprano and mezzo-soprano soloists, both have a hero in a quest for his beloved and both, of course, weave in a considerable amount of dance. It is worthwhile remembering that Gluck and Calzabigi actually collaborated on four works, not just the three operas (Orfeo ed Euridice, Alceste, Paride ed Elena), but their first joint effort was the ballet Don Juan and dance remains a very important element of their style. The idea was to mix the Italian and the French styles, so moving away from large-scale Italian da capo arias and incorporating choruses and dance in a flexible patchwork which owes a lot to French tragedie lyrique.

But whereas Orfeo ed Euridice uses tragic intensity to propel the drama, Paride ed Elena is perhaps somewhat more relaxed. Paris' wooing of Helen, and her reluctance in the face of his intense passion, is well handled with some superb moments, but the overall idea behind the plot does not perhaps grip as much. And, of course, there is that curiously equivocal ending where Pallas Athene appears, thunders, warns of the impending Trojan War happening if they persist, yet the two still do so. In a way, the ending satirises the lieto fine which Italian opera required of tragedies, both Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste have such a forced happy end, but here the tables are turned and Pallas Athene's Deus ed Machina is ignored.

Gluck's three Reform opera all deal with the intensity of the love of a couple, yet he clearly wondered about Paride ed Elena. Unlike Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste, he did not mine Paride ed Elena to create a French opera for Paris, in fact, elements of Paride ed Elena went into his French version of Orfeo.

But it is full of wonderful elements, the way Gluck and Calzabigi treat the drama flexibly, as characters interrupt each other and their fluidity of form is allowed to arise directly from the interactions of the text. Of course, it requires singers who can bring the right sort of tragic intensity and passion to vocal lines which need to continue to have shape and poise. And Bampton Classical Opera did very well indeed here.

Ella Taylor proved near ideal as Paris, they brought a bright flexibility to the vocal line and allowed a sense of tragic intensity to gradually build. Their solo which concluded Act Two was terrific, and it was simply part of a whole, we never doubted Paris' seriousness or passion. Yet Taylor never went over the top, they had the ability to convey this through the music and I loved the way they shaped the lines, so their performance of Paris' ardent, almost over the top, love song to Helen in Act Three (with harp accompaniment) was very much a highlight.

The first Paris was the soprano castrato Giuseppe Millico who created the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Parma version of Orfeo ed Euridice with the title role transposed up for soprano castrato, and someone needs to invite Taylor to perform the Parma Orfeo ed Euridice, and quickly please.

Lucy Anderson made a superb foil as Helen, the opera only gradually brings her character into focus and I loved the way Anderson managed to balance Helen's clear attraction to Paris and her being taken aback at the sheer force of his passion. It is Helen's emotions which make the drama in the second half of the opera work so well as and Anderson brought out through the music the way Helen is torn between accepting Paris and rejecting. And Anderson had some of the more bravura elements in the opera (Gluck and Calzabigi weren't against these per se, just display for its own sake), in which Anderson shone.

With the rather perky role of Amor (in disguise as Erasto, Helen's counsellor), director Jeremy Gray brought an element of humour to the production, helping modern audiences to articulate what could otherwise be somewhat sober and too serious. Lauren Lodge-Campbell was delightful in the role, bringing a bright, clear sense of articulation to the vocal line and managing to inject some humour without sending up the plot. Milly Forrest made an impressive, and fearsome, Pallas Athene, whilst Lucy Cronin was a poised high priestess. The vocal ensemble were highly active in the drama and Evans and Tunnicliffe almost managed to convince us with their double act of singing and acting.

Gilly French's new English translation of the work brought a colloquial element to the drama as well as a bit more humour than perhaps Gluck and Calzabigi might have envisaged. The singers made terrific efforts at conquering the acoustic and getting the words over.

The dance element was not stinted, and Oliver Adam-Reynolds and Oscar Fonseca (both of whom trained at the Urdang Academy) impressed with their combination of athleticism (at one point they were dancing athletes), poise and, where needed, humour. They also moved the minimal scenery with great wit.

Conductor Thomas Blunt and Chroma were placed at the back of the stage, visible through the scenery. Blunt and the relatively small instrumental ensemble made great virtue of the litheness that a few instruments is able to create. Blunt really encouraged the players to bring out the driving rhythms and drama of Gluck's music, forming a powerful complement to the poised vocal lines, yet there was plenty of instrumental style too.

Paride ed Elena is never going to achieve the popularity of Gluck's other operas, and certainly requires rather special singers in the solo roles. Bampton and its cast did the opera full justice and despite the small scale of the staging, the power, intensity and imagination of Gluck's writing really came over.