I (that's Jeremy, one of the Artistic Directors) have just been finishing the copy for our season's flyer - as usual a little late, but undoubtedly our designer Cath will get it all designed and ship-shape at lightning speed. But should the text really be as fishy as this?

"The chips are down for the fishing folk of Taranto: their love lives have become – well - a little vinegary, and Lesbina and Nerina would like to hook a bigger catch than their current boyfriends. When the Prince of Sorrento surfaces, seeking the lost heiress to his kingdom, the ambitious girls swim hard to escape the enclosing net of their soured relationships. But all that glitters is not a goldfish, and when the unassuming Eurilda is selected by the Prince, it’s time for the guts to fly and Lesbina and Nerina receive a grilling from their men. Happily no-one gets too battered - but perhaps when all is finally wrapped up the taste of tartare sauce lingers on….."

Well, yes - I think we can get away with this - the libretto for Le pescatrici is a farce by Carlo Goldoni, and Haydn is of course the wittiest of composers . And besides, this is going to be one of those gloriously funny productions which have won us many friends from the public and press in the past - "There isn’t a company in England with as sharp a sense of fun as Bampton" was how Opera Now described us a few years ago.

(The photo shows our 2005 production of The Barber of Seville - not the famous one by Rossini, but its precursor by Paisiello - we set it in a wonderfully ghastly caravan park - a really successful production which appeared at Bampton and also at the Buxton Festival).