AS part of this year's Heritage Open Days, poet and novelist Clare Pollard premiered her new translation of 'Sir Orfeo' in the Great Hall last Saturday (September 16), accompanied by the band inVerse.

The striking setting of Winchester's Great Hall, beneath the Round Table, was perfect for this haunting, sinister and romantic Middle English poem since the poem relocates the Greek Myth - of Orpheus rescuing Eurydice from the Underworld - to Arthurian Winchester.

Music was provided by inVerse who played the traditional ballad 'King Orfeo' based on the poem, as well as music specially commissioned for the occasion.

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Clare is the current artistic director of Winchester Poetry Festival and has published five collections of poetry with Bloodaxe, has written the play 'The Weather' and has been involved in numerous translation projects. Her latest book is the adult novel Delphi.

inVerse is made up of the poet, flautist and banjo player Jon Whitfield, guitarist and member of a capella group 3p Suite Colin Eglin and Northumbrian piper and clarinettist in Big Fiddle and the Squawks Jon Shurlock.

They’ll next be playing at The Arc, in Jewry Street, on Friday, October 13 at 5.30pm, when the musicians team up with pianist Vanessa Martin to open this year's Winchester Poetry Festival.