Dame Janet Suzman is reading at Cadogan Hall on September 15

A NEW ensemble takes to the stage at Cadogan Hall on September 15, designed to give professional experience to players under 30 and called the Odyssey Festival Orchestra. It’s the brainchild of conductor Peter Ash. And for its first outing he’s devised a thematic programme around the legend of Prometheus, with music by Beethoven and readings by the legendary theatrical Dame (not to say Camden resident) Janet Suzman. Looks like something different to the ordinary. cadoganhall.com

• Leaping to attention with its new season, the Wigmore Hall has a distinguished week ahead with veteran Lieder singer Christoph Pregardien on September 12 (Schubert, Brahms, Mahler) and the magnificent violinist Hilary Hahn on Sept 13 (Prokofiev programmed with music by the colourful Russian-American Lera Auerbach, a featured composer at the Wigmore this autumn). wigmore-hall.org.uk

• The Royal Opera House is positively in overdrive with a revival of its David McVicar staging of Strauss’s Salome (the one with a stark naked executioner: take opera glasses if you’re brazen enough) running September 9-October 1, alongside another revival of its Madam Butterfly (rigorously purged of cultural offence) September 12-October 1. roh.org.uk

• Monteverdi’s operatic scena Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda retells a Crusader romance about a Christian knight and Saracen girl who are lovers but meet in battle, not recognising each other because of their armour. Needless to say, it ends in tragedy. But the Shobana Jeyasingh Company have adapted the story for dance, with a 21st-century update and new title: Clorinda Agonistes. It plays Sadlers Wells, September 9 & 10 and has to be worth seeing. sadlerswells.com

Jess Dandy performs at the Islington Proms on September 10. Photo by Clare Park©

• Meanwhile, with one set of Proms over, another one starts – namely the Islington Proms which run at St James’, Prebend Street N1 and opens September 9. Not quite so lavish as their BBC counterpart they nonetheless have things of note, starting with a recital on September 10 by the young British contralto everyone is talking about, Jess Dandy. Hear her in this programme of Schubert and Tchaikovsky and understand why. islingtonproms.com