Nicola Lisle looks at Bampton Classical Opera’s summer productions

It’s a swelteringly hot Saturday in late June and in a small studio in west London, not far from St John’s Smith Square, a comedy is unfolding.

It’s the first week of rehearsals for Bampton Classical Opera. Director Jeremy Gray is staging a scene involving Bampton regular Nicholas Merryweather and newcomer Christopher Turner.

The opera is La Grotta di Trofonio (Trofonio’s Cave), by Mozart’s great rival Antonio Salieri, and is the latest neglected masterpiece from the 18th century to be unearthed and given a new lease of life by Jeremy and his wife, Gilly French. Even at this embryonic stage there are laughs a-plenty, and I can easily imagine this playing out in the rather more luxurious surroundings of Bampton’s Deanery Garden.

The piece premiered in Vienna in 1785, and although there have been some European productions within the last ten years, Mr Gray is fairly sure it has never been produced in the UK.

“We don’t quite believe it,” he said, “but we can’t actually find anyone who’s done it, ever. The Cave of Trofonio was put on in London in the 18th century, but it doesn’t seem to have been with Salieri’s music, so I feel 99 per cent sure this is a premiere here.”

Unsurprisingly, the company has embraced the opera with great enthusiasm.

“Everyone’s been saying this is lovely to work on, despite being a very simple and in some ways predictable plot,” he said. “That’s its weakness, really – there’s no subplot – but that’s fine because it allows you to concentrate on the music. The audience are not going to get lost in the story. So many 18th-century comedies are so complicated, but this isn’t.”

“It’s lovely how simple it is,” agreed conductor Paul Wingfield, who is making his Bampton debut this year. “The music is so well crafted. There are moments that are really beautiful; a lot of it is very special. I’m enjoying getting to know it.”

Comparisons with Mozart are inevitable and yet the piece predates Mozart’s famous Da Ponte operas. “It was written the year before Figaro, three years before Don Giovanni and four years before Cosi,” said Mr Gray. “Of course Mozart does it better, but we’re not talking a gulf between a third rate composer and a genius; we’re talking about the gulf between Mozart as a genius but Salieri as a first-rate composer, who was respected, admired and feted all across Europe.”

The plot revolves around two couples whose love is put to the test when the two men, Artemidoro and Plistene (played by Christopher and Nicholas), enter the cave of mysterious hermit Trofonio (Matthew Stiff), and emerge with completely opposite personalities – much to the bemusement of their fiancées, Dori (Aoife O’Sullivan) and Ofelia (Anna Starushkevych).

“It’s very much like Cosi, but rather than having the couples swapped around they have their personalities swapped around,” said Mr Merryweather.

“I play the fun one, and I go into Trofonio’s cave and come out very serious. Then my friend, who’s the serious one, comes out fun. So hilarity ensues, of course. It’s years since I did a serious role and I quite like that.”

Bampton Opera’s Trofonio’s Cave (Salieri)
The Deanery Garden 
Bampton, July 17 & 18
Tickets: 01993 851142 or bamptonopera.org