Like any opera company, Bampton Classical Opera is very dependent on those who support it financially (our vital "Friends") and by offering volunteer help, and we always do our best to show our warm appreciation. We took the opportunity of today's Haydn's 200th anniversary by presenting a most enjoyable soiree yesterday evening in one of the lovely large houses in Bampton where the delightful new owners have taken over the tradition of warm hospitality set up by the previous equally delightful owners.  With one of our most popular and regular singers, Amanda Pitt, we presented an informal drawing-room concert of Haydn canzonettas, arias and piano sonatas, including the most entertaining (shades of Mozart in the long C minor piano introduction) dramatic cantata in honour of Nelson, and first sung at Esterhazy by Lady Hamilton, Lines from the Battle of the Nile - to echo Cornelia Knight's response to that first performance: "The effect was grand"!