ANCIENT GREEK MEZE WITH MEZZO HELEN CHARLSTON AND STAND-UP CLASSICIST NATALIE HAYNES
Book early for this tour to get the best seats for just £25, or £12.50 for under 30s!
Ticket prices may increase closer to the event.
Performers
- Helen Charlston
- mezzo soprano
- Natalie Haynes
- stand-up classicist
- Britten Sinfonia
Programme
- Britten
- Phaedra
- Charpentier
- Quel prix de mon amour
- Woolrich
- Ulysses Awakes
- Stravinsky
- Apollon musagète
- Haydn
- Cantata: Arianna a Naxos
Love, loss, deception and revenge… join us for an atmospheric evening of pieces based on ancient Greek myths, interspersed with brilliant comedic commentary from classicist Natalie Haynes, best known for her BBC Radio 4 series Stand up for the Classics.
This performance marks 50 years since the death of composer Benjamin Britten, with sublime mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston the soloist in his late micro-opera Phaedra. The contrasts between Phaedra's disgust at her own obsession with her stepson and the heartfelt expressions of her love for him are darkly and brilliantly conveyed in this condensed masterpiece.
“Hell hath no fury" is also the mood in Charpentier's opera about Medea and Haydn's depiction of Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus, while male protagonists fare better in Stravinsky's ballet music and Woolrich's shimmering re-write of a Monteverdi aria.
The stories may be tragic, but in the company of comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes there will be tears of laughter too, with the doomed woman stereotype providing plenty of provocative material.
