Britten Sinfonia – Ancient Greek Meze

Britten Sinfonia bring Ancient Greek Meze to West Road Concert Hall on Wednesday 21 October, a concert that pulls together music from three different centuries, all with ancient Greek mythology as the common thread. The orchestra is conducted by violinist Zoë Beyers, and they're joined by mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and classicist Natalie Haynes.

Haynes is the one who ties the whole thing together. A Cambridge alumna, author, and broadcaster, she's best known for her New York Times bestseller A Thousand Ships and her BBC Radio 4 series Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. She describes herself as a 'reformed comedian', and that comes through here: she'll be interspersing the music with comedic commentary on the myths being sung.

Charlston takes the lead on the singing. She performs Britten's late micro-opera Phaedra, which captures the title character's obsessive love for her stepson and her furious self-loathing — and this performance comes 50 years after the composer's death and the work's premiere. She also sings Charpentier's Quel prix de mon amour from Médée and Haydn's cantata Arianna a Naxos, which depicts Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus. The male protagonists get their turn in Stravinsky's ballet music Apollon musagète and John Woolrich's Ulysses Awakes, an evocative re-write of a 1640 aria by Monteverdi.

Between the music and the commentary, the evening runs about two hours including a 20-minute interval. It starts at 7:30pm at West Road Concert Hall, with tickets at £25 and under-30s at £12.50.