Glyndebourne's Ariadne and Mahler at the Proms: this week's big nights

This summer's Proms are built around American music, but the week ahead at the Royal Albert Hall belongs to opera and the great European symphonies. Between Monday and Friday there is a complete Strauss opera straight from Glyndebourne, one of the most powerful symphonies of the 20th century, and Mahler's extraordinary farewell to life. If you have been waiting for the right night to try the Proms, one of these should be it.

Wednesday: Ariadne auf Naxos from Glyndebourne

The headline is Wednesday 19 August at 7pm, when Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the London Philharmonic Orchestra bring Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos to the Hall under Robin Ticciati. The premise is gloriously absurd: the richest man in Vienna commissions an evening's entertainment, and an opera company and a comedy troupe are forced to share the same stage. Part farce, part dreamlike fantasy, it is set to one of Strauss's most luscious scores. The cast includes Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Ariadne, David Butt Philip as Bacchus, Alina Wunderlin as Zerbinetta and Samantha Hankey as the Composer, with Mikhail Timoshenko as Harlequin and Michael Kraus as the Music Master. It is semi-staged and sung in German with English surtitles, runs about two hours with one interval, and, as the BBC listing notes, is the first complete performance of the opera at the Proms in nearly half a century. There is audio description too.

Tuesday: Shostakovich's Tenth

On Tuesday 18 August at 7pm, Cristian Măcelaru, who grew up in communist Romania, conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10, premiered after Stalin's death in 1953 and shot through with the composer's musical signature. The evening opens with the UK premiere of Édith Canat de Chizy's Skyline, a concerto for three percussionists, timpani and orchestra.

Friday: Mahler's Song of the Earth

On Friday 21 August at 7pm, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and tenor Clay Hilley join Anja Bihlmaier and the BBC Philharmonic for Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, a collision of symphony and song written in the wake of personal and professional loss. Before the interval comes Haydn's witty 'Farewell' Symphony, with its famous final movement of ever-shrinking forces, and Bushra El-Turk's Mosaic. Programme details are on the BBC Proms page.

Also this week

• Monday 17 August, 7pm: Ryan Bancroft and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Copland's Billy the Kid and Stravinsky's Petrushka, with a new Clarinet Concerto by Gabriel Kahane.
• Thursday 20 August, 7pm: the Miles Davis centenary concert, with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, Miho Hazama and the BBC Concert Orchestra, pairing his influences, Rodrigo and Gershwin, with his own hits.

Getting there

The Hall is a short walk from South Kensington station or along Kensington Road from Knightsbridge. Glyndebourne visits are always a highlight of the Proms calendar, so check availability early, and leave time for an early supper nearby: with a two-hour running time and an interval, Wednesday will finish later than most.

Lead image: Gareth1953 All Right Now via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.