Bampton Classical Opera, review: Rare operas given the knockabout comedy treatment

Neither emerged as neglected masterpieces, but at least they had their moment in the sun, writes Nick Kimberley
Broad humour: Bampton Classical Opera relocated their productions to the airways
Nick Kimberley14 September 2016

To say that Gluck’s Philemon and Baucis (dating from 1769) and Thomas Arne’s The Judgement of Paris (1742) are rare would be a gross understatement. Both operas last less than an hour, both relate an allegory from classical culture that would have made sense to an 18th-century audience but which barely resonates today.

Opting to present them as knockabout comedy, and using more or less the same set for each, Jeremy Gray’s production for Bampton Classical Opera located the Gluck in an airport terminal and the Arne on a budget airline flight.

The young, fresh voiced cast coped equally well with the taxing vocal lines and the broad humour, which centred on the incongruity of doing mundane modern things – stamping passports, duty-free shopping – while telling ancient stories about gods and mortals.

The star of the show was Christopher Turner, as an alternately wrathful and beneficent Jupiter in Gluck, and as Paris in the Arne, his golden apple a gilded iPod (Apple: geddit?).

Five operas for beginners

1/5

Under conductor Paul Wingfield, Chroma, an ensemble best known for playing contemporary works, made a decent fist of the ancient music, and if neither opera emerged as a neglected masterpiece, at least they had their moment in the sun.

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