Nicola Lisle talks to Bampton Classical Opera co-founder Gilly French

Bampton Classical Opera has become renowned for unearthing neglected operas from the late 18th century.

Now the company is branching out with a new a capella consort, Bampton Classical Voices, which will cover a broader time span.

The inaugural concert, on December 21, features Christmas music from the Renaissance up to the 20th century.

The consort was the brainchild of Gilly French, who founded Bampton Classical Opera with husband Jeremy Gray in 1993.

“I’ve always loved consort singing myself, and I thought this was something that I’d like to share with our audiences,” she says. “It’s another aspect of vocal music that we could connect with.

“We’ve got a lovely programme for the opening concert. The Renaissance music is so rich, so it connects to the spirit of Christmas. We’re also doing newer pieces, including the SATB version of Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, which is a fantastic piece for both performers and audience. There’s a couple of harp solos as well.”

The programme has been put together by Andrew Griffiths, who has conducted for Bampton Classical Opera and will be conducting and singing tenor.

“Gilly obviously wanted something Christmassy, and it was her idea to base the programme around the carol In dulci jubilo, so we’ve got three different settings of that carol,” he explains.

“She also very much wanted to do Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, so it branched out from there. The first half is entirely Renaissance, then in the second half I thought we’d do British 20th-century carols.”

William Byrd’s four motets for Advent form the framework for the first half, interspersed with works by European composers such as Michael Praetorius, Jean Mouton and Tomás Luis de Victoria.

Some more familiar pieces abound in the second half, including Vaughan Williams’ Wassail Song, Michael Head’s The Little Road to Bethlehem and the Charles Wood arrangement of Ding Dong Merrily on High.

The eight singers making up the new consort have all been carefully hand picked. “Nearly everyone in the consort has stage experience,” Andrew says. “So rather than choose people who only do consort singing, we have tried to choose people who have experience of other sorts of singing as well.”

The concert is billed as a St Beornwald’s Day concert. Who, I wondered, was St Beornwald?

Gilly chuckles at the question. “He’s the patron saint of Bampton, but he’s very obscure. Nobody knows what he got up to. It might even have been a she.

“When we were putting on our first December concert back in the 1990s, I happened to mention it to John Blair, an Oxford-based historian of Bampton.

“And he said, ‘You must do it on the 21st, because it’s St Beornwald’s Day, and it hasn’t been celebrated since the Middle Ages’.

“So we feel we are responsible for the resurgence of the celebration of his day. A loose Bampton connection, really, but it’s a good excuse to do a concert.

“I think this year’s concert is going to be an amazing way of bringing the audience in to the wonderful intimacy that is chamber music.”

Where and when
Bampton Classical Voices: In dulci jubilo!
St Mary’s Church, Bampton, December 21, 7.30pm, 01993 851142 or bamptonopera.org