BAMPTON CLASSICAL OPERA 2017
ANTONIO SALIERI’S THE SCHOOL OF JEALOUSY (La scuola de’ gelosi)

Performances:
The Orangery Theatre, Westonbirt School, Gloucestershire: Monday 28 August
St John’s Smith Square, London: Tuesday 12 September

Libretto: Caterino Mazzolà
New English translation: Gilly French and Jeremy Gray
Director: Jeremy Gray
Conductor: Anthony Kraus
Orchestra of Bampton Classical Opera (Bampton, Westonbirt)
CHROMA (St John’s Smith Square)

Following highly successful UK premières of Salieri’s Falstaff (in 2003) and Trofonio’s Cave (2015), this summer Bampton Classical Opera will present the first UK performances since the late 18th century of arguably his most popular success: the bitter comedy of marital feuding, The School of Jealousy (La scuola de’ gelosi). The production will be designed and directed by Jeremy Gray and conducted by Anthony Kraus from Opera North. The English translation will be by Gilly French and Jeremy Gray.

Setting a sharply cynical libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, this opera buffa was written in Venice and first performed at the Teatro San Moisè in 1778. It was selected to inaugurate the Emperor Joseph II’s new Italian opera troupe at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1783, with an outstanding cast including the star English soprano Nancy Storace (later one of Mozart’s favourite sopranos and the first Susanna) as the Countess, and Francesco Benucci (later Figaro and Guglielmo) as Blasio. Salieri revised the score for these performances including new arias specially for Nancy Storace, and the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte added some textual adjustments. The opera made a huge impact and became one of the highlights of Storace’s career.

La scuola de’ gelosi was performed widely across Europe – from London to St Petersburg – for several decades, and was praised warmly by Goethe. The opera’s great success in Vienna almost certainly inspired Da Ponte and Mozart to create La scuola degli amanti which eventually became known by its alternative title Così fan tutte and there are many narrative parallels between the two. In both fidelity and honesty are tested by means of dangerous games and deceits, and the manipulative Lieutenant in Gelosi is a counterpart to Don Alfonso.

Cast
Countess Rhiannon Llewellyn (soprano)
Ernestina Nathalie Chalkley (soprano)
Carlotta Kate Howden (mezzo-soprano)
Count Alessandro Fisher (tenor)
Tenente Thomas Herford (tenor)
Blasio Matthew Sprange (baritone)
Lumaca Samuel Pantcheff (baritone)

Bampton Classical Opera was founded in 1993 by its artistic directors, Gilly French and Jeremy Gray, and stages less familiar works from the late Classical period, many of which might not otherwise be heard. The performances are of the highest musical quality, yet are relaxed and welcoming with fresh and accessible English translations, and can be enjoyed even by those with little opera experience.

The delightful Deanery Garden at Bampton provides a charming and picturesque venue for open-air opera, with an excellent natural acoustic. Westonbirt School is a spectacular Victorian mansion, with extensive Grade I listed gardens: the performances take place in the Orangery Theatre. Audiences are encouraged to bring their own garden chairs and enjoy a pre-performance or interval picnic. St John’s Smith Square is the most historic of London’s concert halls and provides an outstanding and appropriately eighteenth-century setting for this performance.

The School of Jealousy performances, with free pre-performance talks:
The Deanery Garden, Bampton, Oxfordshire OX18 2LL
7.00 pm Friday 21 and Saturday 22 July
The Orangery Theatre, Westonbirt School, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL8 8QG
5.00 pm Monday 28 August
St John’s Smith Square, London SW1P 3HA
7.00 pm Tuesday 12 September
www.bamptonopera.org
Booking Information, Bampton and Westonbirt
Tickets: £35 (under 18: half-price)
By Telephone: 01993 851142
Online: www.bamptonopera.org
By Post: Bampton Classical Opera, 1 Deanery Court, Broad Street, Bampton, OX18 2LY
Booking information, St John’s Smith Square
Tickets: £18, £28, £38. Booking opens in July.
By Telephone: 020 7222 1061
Online: www.sjss.org.uk
By Post: St John’s Smith Square, London SW1P 3HA