The Moth-Ghost by Nicola LeFanu is a 10-minute dramatic scena for soprano and piano, setting a poem by James Harpur. The work tells the story of Thetis, a sea-goddess of Greek mythology, who knew that her son Achilles must die.

In the poem, she is a grief-stricken mother, mourning his death in the Trojan war. The imagery of the poem and the music is of the sea: the sonority of its turbulence, the rhythm of its tides.

The Moth-Ghost was written for soprano Gabriella di Laccio, who commiss...