Opera: bolshoi

Compared to the enormous strides made by its St Petersburg rival, the Kirov Opera, the Moscow-based Bolshoi has often appeared too rooted in its great traditions to accommodate change. But the company has been undergoing something of a rebirth of late, so it will be interesting to see what it makes of Peter Ustinov's staging of Prokofiev's quirkily comic The Love of Three Oranges (right) and that greatest of all Russian epics - Mussorgky's Boris Godunov. Mark Ermler conducts the old Rimsky-Korsakov version of the score (an indication that tradition still rules, perhaps), with a huge cast that includes Vladimir Matorin as the tortured Tsar. For sheer spectacle, this will be hard to beat.

Bolshoi Opera, Coliseum, St Martin's Lane, London WC2 (0171-632 8300); 'Boris Godunov' 3,4 & 5 Aug, 'The Love of Three Oranges' 7 Aug

Andrew Clarke