Bampton Classical Opera 2026
André Grétry Zemira e Azor (‘Beauty and the Beast’) (1771/1776)
Performances:
Cokethorpe School, Witney, Oxfordshire: Friday 17, Saturday 18 July
Westonbirt School, Gloucestershire: Monday 31 August
Smith Square Hall, London: Friday 18 September
Libretto: Mattia Verazzi, after Jean-François Marmontel
English Translation: Gilly French
Director: Jeremy Gray
Conductor: Andrew Griffiths
Orchestra of Bampton Classical Opera (Cokethorpe, Westonbirt)
CHROMA (London)
Bampton Classical Opera is delighted to announce their 2026 summer production will be André Grétry’s sparkling fairy-tale opera Zemira e Azor, to be performed in a rare version based on the 1776 Italian edition, with additional music by Ignaz Holzbauer and Niccolò Jommelli, not heard in the UK since the late eighteenth century. It will be sung in a new English translation by Gilly French as ‘Beauty and the Beast’, conducted by Andrew Griffiths and directed by Jeremy Gray. Bampton Classical Opera performed Grétry’s L’amant jaloux in 2012, also conducted by Andrew Griffiths.
The production will be semi-staged and costumed, with opening performances taking place for the first time in a delightful setting at Cokethorpe School, Witney, Oxfordshire.
Zemira e Azor is an enchanting version of the well-loved fairy-tale ‘Beauty and the Beast’. Originally set in a fantasised Persia, reflecting the Orientalism popular in the eighteenth century, it is bursting with wit, romance and melodic charm. The original librettist Marmontel adapted the plot from La Belle et la Bête (‘Beauty and the Beast’) by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont and it also draws upon Amour pour amour by Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée.
A kind and beautiful young woman, Zemira, takes her father’s place as a prisoner in the magical castle of the monstrous Azor, in beastly form as a result of a spell cast by a malevolent fairy. She is horrified when she first encounters Azor but soon sees past his hideous exterior to his inner dignity and nobility, eventually falling in love. When she finally declares her feelings for him the fairy’s spell is broken and Azor is revealed in his true form as a handsome prince.
Grétry’s opera was immensely popular, leading to several translations and variant editions – it was the first French opéra-comique to be performed outside France and there were productions across Europe and in America. Mozart owned a score of the Grétry and made his own copies of parts of it; some commentators liken Grétry’s role of the servant Ali to Mozart’s Papageno. When it was performed in London in 1776 the audiences and critics praised Grétry’s ‘tasteful and elegant melody’ and the orchestration and lyrical style were considered ‘pleasingly tender’. The opera was a special favourite of Sir Thomas Beecham and was the last opera he performed (and recorded), in 1955.
Further details of Bampton Classical Opera’s production including casting will be announced in due course. Booking will open on 7 March.
Bampton Classical Opera stages productions in rural venues in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire as well as regularly in London at Smith Square Hall. Other significant venues and festivals have included Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, Buxton Festival, Cheltenham Festival and Theatre Royal Bath. Eschewing familiar repertoire, Bampton concentrates instead on rarities from the late eighteenth century, sung in lively new English translations, and has given many enterprising performances of forgotten operas. Amongst these have been UK premières of Bertoni Orfeo, Marcos Portugal The Marriage of Figaro, Paer Leonora, Benda Romeo and Juliet, Gluck Il Parnaso confuso, Philemon and Baucis and Salieri Falstaff and La fiera di Venezia.
Bampton Classical Opera was a finalist in the Rediscovered Opera category of the 2020 International Opera Awards for Stephen Storace Gli sposi malcontenti (Bride and Gloom), and its recent production of Salieri La fiera di Venezia (At the Venice Fair) was shortlisted for the 2023 Awards.
Bampton Classical Opera website here.