The Bampton Scenic Workshops are now in full swing with Le pescatrici set - it's sometimes a matter of dodging the showers as, like the opera itself, the workshop is mostly open-air.  It's amazing what can be built in an Oxfordshire cottage garden: last year passers-by became somewhat perturbed as a full size guillotine (for Paer's Leonora) began to appear over the Cotswold stone wall, although perhaps even more dramatic had been Mount Vesuvius (for Martin y Soler's L capricciosa corretta)  a couple of years earlier.  The prop list is ever growing as well, and it's is going to be quite a challenge to get the correct period look.  Meanwhile elsewhere in Bampton, costumes are being stitched and altered: Bampton Classical Opera has acquired something of a wardrobe over the years, and we have recently surprised ourselves with what we have discovered in its inner recesses.  For all this work, we thank Mike Wareham, Anthony Hall and Pauline Smith, who continue to create marvels for us.