CULTURE INTERVIEW
© BPA
We don’t have to make an argument for these women to be in the limelight
are so often sidelined, misunderstood or twisted? The quick answer is, of course, yes! The wonderful thing is that these stories already show us fully fleshed-out characters: people full of as much contradiction and darkness as life and light. They may not make significant appearances in The Odyssey , but Ariadne, Medea and Phaedra are very much not sidelined; their stories are firmly rooted in mythological retelling. To think that Euripides wrote a play titled Medea in 431 BC and used the depiction of her grief to expose the inequalities of women in Athenian society at the time can’t be ignored! We don’t have to make an argument for these women to be in the limelight: they’ve made their own way there, and we get to be part of that re-telling. Which pieces of music will you be performing in the voices of Medea, Phaedra and Ariadne? Haydn originally wrote Arianna a Naxos for piano and voice (1789) and had intended to orchestrate it but died before he did.
Nothing can stop her: with poison coursing through her veins, her final dying words resound through Britten’s brash string texture: “My eyes at last give up their light, and see the day they’ve soiled resume its purity.” It’s the most extraordinary way to finish a piece, and one of my favourite death scenes to sing! What do you hope audiences will take from this concert? I really hope our audiences will lose themselves in the labyrinth of these stories. Myths let our minds run wild, and with music from so many different composers side by side, I hope these performances will be a whirlwind of imagination away from the everyday. Ancient Greek Meze takes place at West Road Concert Hall on 21 October. Find out more at brittensinfonia.com
So, in our programme, we perform it in an arrangement for string orchestra, emulating that world he hoped Ariadne would eventually find herself in. Haydn portrays her nobility with such beauty that there is no way that we cannot feel sympathy for her. In the final aria, she girds herself for death in a flash of strength. Quel prix de mon amour ( What a reward for my love ) comes from Charpentier’s 1693 opera Médée and is a wonderful anthem for the stories of all three women. Medea is so powerful and yet still her loyalty and love of Jason is her downfall: she has stopped monsters and yet ends up betrayed by the one who so deeply needed her powers. The programme ends in the dark world of Phaedra by Benjamin Britten (1975). Here we fall into a world of the madness where lust and temptation are in control. The whole piece leads towards Phaedra’s fatal decision to kill herself.
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK OCTOBER 2026 29
Powered by FlippingBook