Ralph Vaughan Williams composed The Wasps as incidental music for a Cambridge University production of Aristophanes’ eponymous play in 1909. It stretched to around 100 minutes of music.

Nowadays all we hear is the sparkling and jaunty overture, always a favorite on popular classics radio shows.

In this performance by Manchester’s Halle Orchestra, conductor Mark Elder revives the whole piece. The dialogue has been translated and updated by English National Opera’s David Pountney.

David Mellor believes this to be a worthy revival, but has doubts about Pountney’s dialogue.

Check out the price of this CD: In North America. In the UK.