Watching (or rather, half-watching, because as always there was opera admin to do) the new ITV drama series Downton Abbey on the computer last night (via ITV Player) it was a delight to see glimpses of Bampton, and especially St Mary's church. Although most of the programme has been filmed at Highclere Castle, Bampton has been used for the village scenes. The scene of the Edwardian funeral emerging from St Mary's was curiously reminiscent of the rehearsals for our 2007 production (another UK première) of Georg Benda's Romeo and Juliet, a very early Shakespearian opera. The photographs are from the dress rehearsal on a fine Thursday night in July when the funeral procession of Juliet (Joana Seara) led from the church to the adjacent Deanery Garden. The pictures also show Ilona Domnich as Juliet's confidante Laura (sneaking an inappropriate smile in one of them). Sadly there are no photographs of the actual production: within 24 hours of this dress rehearsal Bampton was completely marooned by flood-waters following freak rain of devastating intensity. Consequently our first performance on the Friday night took place in the church itself rather than on the Deanery stage where our set stood soaked and forlorn; conductor Matthew Halls had to play the score on the church piano as most of the orchestra couldn't reach the village. Fortunately we had all the singers, but we had no electricity, and Juliet's funeral bier, carried around the church by four black monks by candlelight (a necessity, not an effect) was extraordinarily moving. For the 30 in the audience who managed to get there in these exceptionally difficult circumstances, it was an experience to be treasured. No-one has forgotten that evening! In particular the fact that electricity was restored at the exact second when Juliet woke up in the tomb (this is 18th-century Shakespeare with a happy ending) was uncanny.

It's time to be thinking again in a big way about our final Figaro performance coming up next week (Thursday 7 October, at 7pm) at St John's Smith Square, London. More rehearsals of course, and gathering of props and troops - plenty to keep us out of mischief. But before reporting on that, here are some delightful photographs of the three 'goddesses' in Arne's brilliant Judgment of Paris, an operatic gem which should be as popular (though somewhat different!) as Dido and Aeneas. The photographs are from our performance a week ago at an utterly wonderful country-house party in Hampshire where we were looked after and appreciated with great care. Demonstrating a full air safety drill are Joana Seara (our Cherubino in Figaro) as Juno, Serena Kay as Pallas (appropriately the "Virgin Goddess" according to William Congreve's libretto), and Ilona Domnich as the victorious Venus. Flying will never be the same!

We've already moved on to the next project, although of course we have a further Figaro at St John's Smith Square on 7 October - but coming up before then is the first of four performances of Arne's delicious masque, The Judgment of Paris. We're mystified why this brilliantly composed work is not better known, as the music is so inventive and the story of the celestial beauty competition has enormous comic potential. So our Cherubino, (Joana Seara), is now re-training to be an air hostess (Juno), along with her rival goddesses Pallas (Serena Kay) and Venus (Ilona Domnich). Pictured is the lovely 18th century Holywell Music Room in Oxford, which we visited this week for reconnaissance: sadly it's too small to take the Arne Air jumbo to Mount Olympus, so our November 7 performance there will be purely a concert, coupling the J of P with extracts from Arne's stirring Alfred. Tickets will be on sale very soon.

Despite it being possibly the coldest evening this summer, the sky was blue and the sunlight was brilliant, and the Westonbirt performance outshone even those at Bampton. Once again we were delighted by the warmest response of the audience both to the performance and to this version of Figaro. The pre-performance talk was, as always at Westonbirt, completely full, providing an opportunity to hear about Marcos Portugal's status and achievements. Temperature notwithstanding, the Westonbirt experience is very special, and the buildings and Grade I listed gardens are quite exceptional. This year the Italian garden has been restored (on-going) to extraordinary beauty and would itself have made a perfect setting for the garden finale of Figaro.... During the long interval the more intrepid picnickers remained outside to enjoy the gardens, but many took advantage of the sumptuous Victorian indoor dining rooms.

We had very good rehearsals yesterday (Saturday) with all the cast happily adapting to the inevitably different layout and acoustic at Westonbirt. The acoustic is always amazing but it is a relief that moving the stage from our usual position has in no way affected the clarity of sound. Today (Sunday) although the weather may be changeable this morning, full sun is forecast throughout the performance with a clear sky. We look forward to another outstanding performance of this utterly endearing opera.

Four weeks on, and with a very happy holiday behind us, we now return to recreating Count Almaviva's castle of Aguasfrescas, this time on the delightful (and appropriately named) Orangery terrace at Westonbirt School in Gloucestershire. The heavy rain this week has been disheartening and on Wednesday when we transported the scenery from Bampton over to Westonbirt the rain prevented us from doing any more than storing it indoors. We'll have to make an early morning start tomorrow to build it in time for our rehearsals. Fortunately the sun is shining again and the forecast is fine for the coming weekend. It's always a delight going to Westonbirt where we have performed since 2000. We're hoping for a good audience, and a successful revival of this wonderful opera. The photographs show a sunny view from last year, and the damp state of play from earlier this week.

By now all the props are stowed in crates, the set is struck, the costumes washed and pressed, and all is over until our Westonbirt performance on 29 August. After three years of poor weather for our Bampton weekend, we were blessed this time with warm evenings (which was just as well as the Figaro performances went on until 10.45pm) and - most importantly - still air. The moon was a bit late rising (for which we chastised our lighting engineer Ian!), but otherwise conditions were perfect. We were delighted to welcome Dr David Cranmer from Lisbon, who has spent the past five years engaged on editing the manuscripts for these performances and who is now looking forward to promoting a new production of Figaro in Lisbon for Marcos Portugal's 250th anniversary in 2012. His pre-performance talks were enlightening and for us personally it was a great pleasure to meet him after years of email correspondence. The audiences were warm and enthusiastic, and the singers and orchestra were unanimous in their enjoyment and respect for this opera. It felt like a vintage Bampton weekend.

Again a two-rehearsal day with work on Act 1 with the orchestra in the afternoon, as well as a full evening dress rehearsal. Final touches have now been completed on the set, singers are becoming accustomed to their flowing Moorish-inspired costumes by Fiona Hodges, and we're able to enjoy the ravishing effect under the lights. Always the last person to leave after an evening rehearsal is our lighting designer/technician Ian Chandler, who has been lighting our productions for 17 years: generally the quiet time after everyone else has left is the moment for him to adjust colours and focus and to prepare for the show. The DR ran fairly smoothly although we're having to rethink a prop issue, lest Cherubino's revolving wardrobe gets snagged on discarded underwear....

Each day becomes busier than the last. Catering was in full swing at Holcot House today in the more than capable hands of Gilly French, assisted by her cousin Felicity French, with the cast of 14 and the orchestra of 24 to feed between rehearsals. Excellent home cooking is one of the special features of the Bampton week, helping to boost morale. There was plenty of technical work on stage this morning, but the main events on the schedule were the afternoon Sitzprobe in the cool of Bampton's medieval church, and the evening (non-costume) run of Act 2 on stage with orchestra. The moon rose right on cue for Susanna's Act 2 aria - "How clear the moonlight" - and the set looked stunning under our first lighting trial. Today was also the 25th birthday of Caroline Kennedy (Cecchina) - she's shared previous birthdays, including her 21st, with us and is very much part of the Bampton musical family. She was treated to a very operatic rendition of Happy Birthday at tea-time in the church.

We had fine weather today for our first stage and piano rehearsals at Bampton. Inevitably things ran a little late - the stage has to be built, and the set put up, and it's always quite difficult to pull all the strings simultaneously to make sure everything and everyone is in place. Poor mobile reception doesn't help. The director held his breath to see whether the revolving set would actually revolve, but needn't have worried as we got through the rehearsals with remarkably little snagging, and singers' anxieties seemed to be allayed. Indeed we all feel rather pleased with a set which works well in different permutations for the four scenes of the opera. There's still a fair amount of painting to be done, but we have technical time built into the schedule and should get there in time.

At last a day with no rehearsals, but plenty of work to do nevertheless. The big event was our live broadcast from the BBC at Broadcasting House for Radio 3 In Tune. With the ever-amiable Sean Rafferty presiding, it is always a great pleasure to have this opportunity to talk about our repertory and productions with excerpts provided by our cast. Today the programme featured Emily Rowley Jones (Susanna), Nicholas Merryweather (Figaro) and John-Colyn Gyeantey (The Count) accompanied by our repetiteur Kelvin Lim. Gilly French, Jeremy Gray and Robin Newton provided some of the background discussion. We always feel so well cared for at the BBC and it gives us a nice warm feeling before the hard slog of the performance week. If you didn't hear us on air, you can "listen again" via the Radio 3 website for the following seven days.

Today we reached the end of our London rehearsals, a very intensive period which has worked the cast very hard. There's just one day's rest before the move to Bampton and the whole new experience of work on our open-air stage and with the set - until now, from necessity, the cast has been imagining chairs as walls, screens and garden bowers. It's all on course to be a vintage Bampton show. It's going to be a frantic week nevertheless - including a fair amount of final painting of the set, and still a few props to obtain. It's always an exciting time, and very sociable too - and with such a friendly cast, we will all be enjoying ourselves, something which should come across on stage.

We were very sad to hear today of the death at the age of 84 of Sir Charles Mackerras, one of the outstanding conductors of our time, renowned for his interpretations stretching from Handel to Mozart to Sullivan, and also for his expertise in Czech music, especially the operas of Janácek. He has been a Patron of Bampton Classical Opera for several years, and attended two of our productions at Bampton, Martin y Soler's La capricciosa corretta and Paer's Leonora, the latter creating great excitement for him as he spotted the likely influences on Beethoven's more famous version. We were especially honoured when his daughter invited us to perform Haydn's L'infedelta delusa as a surprise for Sir Charles and Lady Mackerras at their Diamond Wedding party in 2007. Our photographs show that charming occasion at Buscot House: Sir Charles is seen with our current repetiteur Kelvin Lim, and with the cast including our Figaro, Nicholas Merryweather.

Tonight was our second choreography session led by our resident choreographer Jenny French (sister of Artistic Director Gilly). Jenny has choreographed all our opera dance sequences in the past and our singers – who are not necessarily used to taking on such non-vocal exercise – always find her calm, clear and encouraging. The Figaro dance is of course the wedding fandango, and the music in Portugal’s version is curiously reminiscent of Mozart, presumably because both were making use of popular dance tunes. The photographs show our Susanna (Emily Rowley Jones) really getting into the swing, and Bartolo (Mark Saberton) perhaps less certain of his talents.

Yesterday morning's rehearsal studied the bridesmaids' presentation to the Countess - no intended bridesmaids here, but of course the scene includes the bashful Cherubino trying out his female disguise and finding it an excuse once again to approach his beloved Countess. We were debating whether our new edition from Lisbon was correct in giving the solo line to Cherubino - it's not often a singer talks out of performing a role but our Portuguese soprano Joana Seara, playing Cherubino, graciously gave up this number in favour of Cecchina (a.k.a Barbarina - or Fanchette in Beaumarchais). So our youngest singer, Caroline Kennedy, found herself unexpectedly in the rehearsal studio limelight with an extra solo (sadly, there is no "L'ho perduta" aria in our version for Cecchina/Barbarina). From left to right in the rehearsal photo are Joana Seara, Susan Moore, Sian Winstanley and Caroline Kennedy.

At the weekend we made a quick visit over from London to Bampton to check on progress at the Bampton Scenic Workshops – seen here with master builders Anthony Hall and Mike Wareham. Being constructed are the Moorish lanterns for the garden scene finale, and parts of the Countess’ wardrobe. Materials for construction were kindly donated to us a couple of years ago by Tate Britain, coming out of a major exhibition of orientalist painting. We’re very pleased to be giving these fretwork panels a new lease of life as part of our set. As we don’t have permanent workshop facilities, Mike and Anthony have been relieved at the recent spell of good weather which has enabled them to work easily on construction, as well as on a suntan.

Yesterday we had enormous fun rehearsing the final scene of Figaro, set in Almaviva's palace garden at night. Of course it's one of the most confusing scenes in opera, as Susanna and the Countess swap clothes, tricking their husbands into imagined infidelities and jealousies. With twinkling lanterns, secret hiding places "by the shade of the cypress bowers", and the added complications caused by Cherubino and Cecchina (a.k.a. Barbarina), Bartolo and Marcellina, and a very voyeuristic Basilio, the scene is set for an ever-changing fantasy of growing complexity before the eventual moving reconciliation between the noble couple. Rehearsing in a London drama studio using sundry chairs as scenery is a somewhat different experience from how it will eventually feel on our open-air Bampton stage, but our wonderful cast is used to being adept and all will soon fall into place. The picture shows one of the draft designs for the garden scene, which we trust at Bampton will be matched by the beautiful warm evenings we're enjoying at the moment.

The photograph shows not a rehearsal for Figaro but a scene from our 2005 production of The Barber of Seville by Paisiello. This 1782 opera was the first to set one of the controversial Figaro plays by Beaumarchais and it proved to be one of the most successful operas of the late eighteenth century, holding its own well into the next century when, of course, it was eclipsed by Rossini’s version. Our production, which was also seen at the Buxton Festival, was set in a holiday camp “of timeless ghastliness” (as one reviewer put it), and featured Nicholas Merryweather as Figaro, seen here with Adrian Dwyer and Rebecca Bottone. Marcos Portugal’s 1799 Marriage of Figaro was almost certainly written as a sequel to the Paisiello, rather than in rivalry with Mozart’s version which was little known in Italy (where Portugal was working). We’re delighted to have Nicholas back with us again in the role of Figaro: he’s a magnificent singer with a breathtaking sense of timing and dramatic colour. It would be fun to mount both the Paisiello and the Portugal as a pair of productions sometime – but alas our caravan has long been consigned to the bonfire.

A mad day

At BAMPTON CLASSICAL OPERA we're now deep into rehearsals for The Marriage of Figaro – but not as you know it! Is there anyone who can claim to have seen or heard a Figaro other than the famous Mozart/Da Ponte version? And whilst nothing can improve on that – one of the greatest cultural achievements of the 18th century – it is fascinating to encounter all the familiar characters (Susanna, Cherubino, the Count and Countess, Cherubino, Antonio….) but with different music and slant. Bampton Classical Opera ventures where others fear to tread and, following our hilarious 2005 production of Paisiello’s Barber of Seville, now turns to even rarer fare. The remarkable career of the Portuguese composer Marcos Portugal (1762-1830) took him from Lisbon to Italy and eventually to Brazil, fêted wherever he went. Composed eight years after Mozart’s death, his Figaro may be considered a rashly presumptuous choice for a composer, but is a fitting and most attractive setting of the original Beaumarchais play. There is something deeply satisfying, as we are discovering in rehearsals, in performing music which no-one has heard for two centuries - so don’t miss your chance to experience this ‘new’ and very lively classic opera in our UK and modern times première of La pazza giornata (The Mad Day) ovvero Il matrimonio di Figaro.