Irish soprano Maìre Flavin, recently in the title role of Opera North’s Alcina, will be heard here in more intimate surroundings, alongside Opera North’s Head of Music David Cowan.

Together, they will treat us to some of their favourite songs, from composers such as Dowland, Purcell and Schubert. At the heart of the programme is Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, five songs based on poems by Friedrich Rückert, including the haunting ‘At midnight’ and the beautiful song of farewell, ‘I am lost to the world’, whose closing lines are ‘I live alone in my heaven, in my love, in my song’.