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.