Private company

Bampton Classical Opera

Opera company based in Bampton, Oxfordshire, UK

Bampton Classical Opera is an opera company based in Bampton, Oxfordshire and founded in 1993. It specialises in the production of lesser known opera from the Classical period. Performances are always sung in English.2 Its revenue was £169,539 in 2025.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1993Founded1
Marcos Portugal's Marriage of Figaro, Bampton 2010
Photo: Jeremy Gray Winstonsmith99 at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

Bampton Classical Opera is an opera company based in Bampton, Oxfordshire and founded in 1993. It specialises in the production of lesser known opera from the Classical period. Performances are always sung in English. Opera today called the company 'ambitious, innovative and imaginative'.2

The story

History

Bampton Classical Opera was founded in 1993 by its current artistic directors, Gilly French and Jeremy Gray. Following a staging of Mozart’s rare unfinished opera L’oca del Cairo (The Cairo Goose) in 1994, the company specialised increasingly in rare works of the classical period, usually from the second half of the eighteenth-century.

2022 Production

In summer 2022, the company will perform "Fool Moon", a new English translation of Il mondo della luna by Haydn

From Wikipedia’s article on Bampton Classical Opera, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

Other productions from 2000

In 2021 The company gave a concert performance of The Crown by C W Gluck.

In summer 2021 the company performed Paris and Helen by Gluck, the 2020 performances having been postponed.

In 2000 Bampton Classical Opera performed Stephen Storace’s The Comedy of Errors, with libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. In 2001, it performed the United Kingdom staged première of The Philosopher's Stone (Der Stein der Weisen), a singspiel by Emanuel Schikaneder composed in collaboration with Mozart, Henneberg, Schack, and Gerl.

Productions before 2000

In 2003, it gave the first UK performance of Salieri's Falstaff, and in July 2007 staged the UK première of Georg Benda's Romeo and Juliet. In 2008 it presented the UK première of Leonora by Ferdinando Paer, based on the same story as Fidelio, and in 2009 Le Pescatrici (The Fisherwomen) by Haydn. In 2010, it presented Marcos Portugal's The Marriage of Figaro (1799), the first performances anywhere since its première in Venice in 1800, and The Masque of King Alfred and The Judgement of Paris by Thomas Arne. In 2011, it presented the UK concert première of Il parnaso confuso (Parnassus in Turmoil) by Gluck; The Italian Girl in London (L'italiana in Londra) by Cimarosa, first performed in 1778; and The Choice of Hercules by Handel. In 2012, it presented productions of L'amant jaloux (The Jealous Lover) by André Grétry (1778) and Blaise le savetier (Blaise the Cobbler) (1759) by François-André Danican Philidor. In 2013, it presented a new production of Mozart’s first comic opera, La finta semplice (1769), in a new English translation entitled Pride and Pretence. In 2014, it revisited La finta semplice and Gluck's Il parnaso confuso, as well as presenting Orfeo by Ferdinando Bertoni, a modern times UK première. In 2015, Bampton Classical Opera performed Salieri's Trofonio's Cave. In 2016, it staged a double bill called the Divine Comedies featuring Arne's The Judgement of Paris and, a UK première, Gluck's Philemon and Baucis - an English translation of part two of Le feste d'Apollo. In 2017, it presented the UK modern times première of The School of Jealousy by Salieri. In 2018, it presented another UK première, Isouard's Cinderella. In 2019, it performed Bride and Gloom (Gli sposi malcontenti) by Stephen Storace in an English translation by Brian Trowell. This was the second ever UK production, and it has led to Bampton Classical Opera being selected as a Finalist in the Rediscovered Work category of the International Opera Awards 2020.

From Wikipedia’s article on Bampton Classical Opera, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Revenue over time

As stated on Wikidata, in the currency reported.

Revenue

Bampton Classical Opera revenue by year1169.5K GBP in 2025+49% since 2020
050.0K GBP100.0K GBP150.0K GBP200.0K GBP2020: 113.7K GBP113.7K GBP20202021: 61.1K GBP61.1K GBP2021−46%2022: 119.2K GBP119.2K GBP2022+95%2023: 132.4K GBP132.4K GBP2023+11%2024: 154.5K GBP154.5K GBP2024+17%2025: 169.5K GBP169.5K GBP2025+10%
  • 2025169.5K GBP1
  • 2024154.5K GBP1
  • 2023132.4K GBP1
  • 2022119.2K GBP1
  • 202161.1K GBP1
  • 2020113.7K GBP1

Timeline

  1. 1993Founded Founded1