According to the formula of: (weather + debt + time since Christmas) ÷ motivational levels, this week is the most depressing of the year. Fact. So how to beat those January doldrums? Cambridge classical music has the answer this Lent-tide: the breadth and volume of music-making this term hasn’t been so exciting in years. Leave those blues in college and get down to one of these . . .

If opera’s your thing then this term is practically the Garden of Eden. Without the nasty snake. Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress (about a notorious player who gets tricked by the devil) opens in week four and features a bearded Turkish lady. The flagship opera of the term, and perhaps even the year, is Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. I’ve heard they’re setting it in a giant doll’s house. If this, along with the fact that they’re using a super-modern English translation, isn’t enough to tempt you, go and see The King’s Speech, listen out for the opera’s overture (played to Bbbbbertie through Geoffrey Rush’s headphones) and try not to spill your popcorn. Then, newly inspired, rush to buy a ticket for the real-deal - seats will sell fast.

If you prefer instrumental music then the Brahms piano concerto No.1, with an orchestra comprised of Cambridge’s starriest players and Kate Whitley on keys, is a must. The Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde also features, which might be some of the best music ever written - it’s been known to make Music academics cry in lectures. Equally, no one should miss out on the chance to attend a concert in Senate House, particularly those fellow finalists for whom dissertations are so non-existent that graduation may not be an option this year. Harry Ogg conducts an orchestra led by Maggie Faultless, in a programme of Mozart and Haydn.

Finally, if none of the above has managed to whet your appetite, then try a choral compline with a difference. As part of their 500th Anniversary celebrations, the gents of St. John’s will perform a candlelit service of music exclusively from 1511, ie the college’s foundation year. This promises to be truly special, with the evening beginning in the remains of the old chapel outdoors. Plus there’ll be hot chocolate and port (afterwards).

Rumors also abound that the team who bought us opera in the zoology museum are planning an evening of music in the Lion Yard multi-story car park. Watch this space.