Top Opera: La Boheme

Christian Badea takes the baton as John Copley directs Puccini's ironic romantic tragedy for Covent Garden

Top Five Events: Cheltenham Literature Festival

The prestigious annual book lovers' festival continues with appearances from Charlie Higson and Richard Attenborough

Top Five Gigs: The Streets

New album has the Streets' Mike Skinner in philosophical mood, but the use of a full band should ensure plenty of spectacle

Top Films in Rep: Times BFI London Film Festival

The mammoth annual celebration of international cinema returns, with almost 200 features and more than 100 shorts

Top Museums: Dan Dare

A look at the technological transformation of Britain in the postwar period, and how wartime research boosted the quality of life

Top Five Kids: Thomas the Tank Engine

Meet Thomas the Tank Engine and friends for tea and a train ride at this classic railway extravaganza, at Spa Valley Railway

Alfred Brendel bows out

Of all the virtuosos of our age, the pianist has been the most self-effacing, says Richard Morrison

Top Comedy: The Big Joke

Featuring the internet sensation Bo Burnham, Liverpudlian comic John Bishop and Dickensian sketch troupe Penny Dreadfuls

Top Five Theatre: Alan Ayckbourn

Alan Strachan directs Alan Ayckbourn's bravura comedy Absurd Person Singular, charting the changing fortunes of three couples

Top Galleries: Lucian Freud

The cold, hard scrutiny of the young Freud is captured in this excellent show of paintings created in the 1940s and 1950s

Top Five Jazz: Stacey Kent

The cultured swing singer performs tracks from her album Breakfast on the Morning Tram, at the Indigo at O2 Arena

City gloom, arts boom: so invest in culture

The City may be in meltdown, but away from the grim news lie cultural riches in abundance. Here's the best performers

Top Five Clubs: Chew The Fat

Duke Dumont, Micky Slim and pals stir a cauldroof electro, bassline, and house as Chew the Fat celebrate their 11th birthday

Top Five Theatre: Mine

Shared Experience’s production of Polly Teale’s story of a couple who have everything - except the baby they so yearn

Top Five Comedy: Dylan Moran

Dry humour from the Perrier Award-winning comic and star of Black Books, at the Corn Exchange, Cambridge

Top Five Kids: Festival of Models

A family event with steam models of all shapes and sizes, plus a range of activities and competitions for children of all ages

Top Five Galleries: Lucian Freud

The precision of Freud's scrutiny in his early paintings analyses everything from the individual eyelash to dreams inside the skull

Top Five Dance: Richard Alston

Alston celebrates his 60th birthday and the 40th anniversary of his first created work, at Arts Theatre, Cambridge

Top Five Gigs: Elbow

Guy Garvey and his deserving fellow Mercury victors step out to soak up the love for their arrestingly beautiful fourth album

Top Five Classical: BBC Symphony Orchestra

Kazushi Ono conducts the premiere of Pourquoi L’azur by the German composer Matthias Pintscher, at the Barbican Hall