Bampton Classical Opera at St John’s Smith Square

This is an opera I don’t know anything about at all but even Barry hadn’t heard it before. You might even say I know the opera just as well as the others do. But I’m sure they picked up on a few things I didn’t.

It’s by Haydn and the title means The Fishergirls. The fishergirls are two friends, Nerina and Lesbina (poor girl). They hear that a prince is coming to the neighbourhood looking for his bride, a princess who is now living as a fishergirl. Nerina and Lesbina both have boyfriends, who happen to be each other’s brothers. But they’re only fishergirls, and they quite like the idea of being princesses.

The story was a bit La Cenerentola meets Cosi Fan Tutte. Might not have noticed this myself but in the first half there was a sign at the side of the stage advertising a performance of La Cenerentola. In the second half it advertised Cosi Fan Tutte. I think La Pescatrici isn’t quite as good as these two operas, but Schubert composed some really lovely music for it, and there was a good performance from every member of the cast. But for me, Cinderella is a nice person, and even though Fiordiligi and Dorabella are a bit silly, you do quite like them. But I didn’t really like the main characters in this opera.

Lesbina and Nerina just seemed a bit bratty, although Emily Rowley-Jones and Serena Kay both sang very well, and they were both really funny. I’m a bit jealous of Serena Kay, who managed to look so convincing as a character who is early twenties at the oldest, probably late teens. Emily Rowley-Jones probably is early twenties, although sometimes she reminded me of my three year old. Their characters were quite alike, but this made it funnier, as they both thought they were better than each other. Loved the ending where they both pushed other singers aside in order to take their curtain call, it really livened things up. Hope they were only acting!

Lina Markeby who played another fishergirl, Eurilda, was a lot nicer and easier to identify with. She had a lower, heavier voice than the other two, but it was a very gentle sound, I really liked it. It was a smaller role, she didn’t have a lot to do really, and it wasn’t really a funny role, but she was lovely.

The boyfriends, Burlotto and Friselino seemed quite similar, but Andrew Friedhoff and Mark Chaundy worked together well and Vojtech Safarik was a very noble prince. His English was good too. You often see people singing in foreign languages but you don’t seem to see many people singing in English when it’s their foreign language.

The male singer who made the biggest impression for me was Robert Winslade Anderson as the elderly fisherman who brought Eurilda up. He had a lovely deep bass voice and lots of stage presence.

The opera was translated into English by Gilly French and Jeremy Gray. Can’t say I understood all of it, the others said that St John’s is a very echoey hall, and if you sit in the wrong place you could end up not hearing much at all. But I did hear most of it, and the translation was very funny with some clever rhymes. Can’t think of any just now, but it was great. Jeremy Gray was also the director, the action was on a small strip at the very front of the stage, but the singers seemed to have plenty of space, it never seemed even a little bit cramped. Alice Farnham was the conductor, the opera had some really lovely tunes which were beautifully played by the London Mozart Players.

Bampton Classical Opera are a small company who don’t often visit London but they are well worth seeing, especially if you want to see something you’ve never even heard of. Really looking forward to seeing them again next year.