What not to miss at the London 2012 Festival

Opera Mittwoch aus Licht Argyle Works, Birmingham 22-25 Aug The festival's overarching ethos is "once in a lifetime" and this staging of Karlheinz Stockhausen's epic five-hour opera unquestionably falls in to that category. It has never been staged in full before, for good reason. Among the challenging stipulations that Stockhausen made is that a string quartet should perform in four separate helicopters and other soloists must "fly" above the audience. Graham Vick, artistic director of the Birmingham Opera Company , admitted the piece was "bewilderingly difficult" and that is one reason there'll only be four performances, beginning at 4pm each day. Dance Michael Clark Glasgow Barrowlands 8-9 Sep Choreographer Michael Clark will mark the festival's finale in Glasgow as a kind of handover, since the city will be staging the 2014 Commonwealth Games. He is creating a work using his professional company as well as hundreds of locals who will take the famous venue back to its ballroom roots. He has recruited people who have a connection with the venue, either through going to gigs or those who remember it as a dancehall. Proms Daniel Barenboim's Beethoven symphony cycle Concludes 27 Jul The highlight of this year's Proms will be the performance of all of Beethoven's symphonies for the first time in nearly 60 years. Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra , made up of Arab and Israeli musicians, will make Proms history by being the first ever non-BBC orchestra-in-residence. The first two have gone so try not to miss the next seven and especially the ninth, with its universal message of brother and sisterhood, coinciding with the opening day of the Olympics. Music Africa Express Across the UK, 3-8 Sep Africa Express began when Damon Albarn took artists including Fatboy Slim and Martha Wainwright to Mali to collaborate with local musicians. Six years on and more than 100 African and European musicians – including Albarn and Baaba Maal – will travel the UK by train stopping for concerts and impromptu gigs in places such as Middlesbrough, Glasgow, Cardiff, Bristol and London. Albarn invited Noel Gallagher aboard – will he be there? Theatre Krapp's Last Tape at the Ardhowen Theatre Enniskillen, 24-27 Aug The visionary American director Robert Wilson , now 70, directs himself in his production of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape as part of Happy Days, the Enniskillen International Beckett Festival . After performances in Brazil, Austria and France, this will be its UK and Irish premiere. London 2012 Festival artistic director Ruth Mackenzie has promised we will be "amazed". Shakespeare Troilus and Cressida Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 3-18 Aug The RSC-organised World Shakespeare Festival has brought more Shakespeare than anyone would have thought possible. One of the most intriguing productions is this multi-media collaboration between the RSC (they'll be the Greeks) and New York experimental theatre company The Wooster Group (the Trojans). PThe playwright Mark Ravenhill directs the UK end. Comedy Playing the Games Criterion Theatre, London 26 Jul-12 Aug Stephen Fry is co-curating an Olympic and Paralympic-themed comedy and performance season in the West End. It will include lunchtime interviews (Fry meets hurdling legend Edwin Moses on the 6th); two new plays and appearances from Eddie Izzard, Alan Davies and Stephen K Amos. Art Martin Creed, Work No 1197 Everywhere, 27 Jul The man who won the Turner Prize by turning a light on and off marks the first day of the Olympics with a piece called: All the Bells in a Country Rung as Quickly and as Loudly as Possible for Three Minutes. He means what it says. At 8am he wants us all to ring a bell – perhaps a doorbell or a phone, for those without ones at the end of ropes. After initial disquiet, the group representing church bell ringers is now on board. Film The Genius of Hitchcock BFI London, Aug-Oct As part of the BFI's biggest ever project, all of Alfred Hitchcock's 58 surviving films will be shown over three months. He is a man that the BFI believes deserves to be taught in schools as much as Dickens or Shakespeare. As well as the films, from The 39 Steps to Psycho to Frenzy, there will be guest appearances from actors Tippi Hedren and Bruce Dern. Festival Générik Vapeur – Waterlitz St George's Park, Yarmouth, 8 Sep The Marseille-based street theatre company headline the Out There festival by creating an enormous scarecrow from shipping containers, and adding pyrotechnics, aerial ballet and giant blocks of ice. It should look awesome and it's free. Or something different Ping Pong At cinemas and streamed on theguardian.com, until 15 Sep This is a truly lovely, inspiring documentary filmed at the over-80s table tennis championships in Inner Mongolia. It is a world of intense passions and fierce rivalries which few will be aware of. Brothers, directors and producers Hugh and Anson Hartford follow eight pensioners as they compete for a prize. London live: free gigs in Hyde Park Fri 27 July* Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Duran Duran Sat 28 July Tom Jones, Newton Faulkner Sun 29 July Nell Bryden Mon 30 July Ren Harvieu, The Feeling Tue 31 July Rebecca Ferguson, Cover Drive Wed 1 Aug The Levellers, The Beat Thur 2 Aug Alexandra Burke Fri 3 Aug Amy Macdonald, Dodgy Sat 4 Aug McFly, Saint Etienne Sun 5 Aug Alyssa Reid Mon 6 Aug Lemar Tue 7 Aug Kenny Thomas Wed 8 Aug Nik Kershaw Thur 9 Aug The Overtones Fri 10 Aug The Temper Trap, Ocean Colour Scene, Feeder Sat 11 Aug Paul Carrack Sun 12 Aug* Blur, The Specials, New Order * Tickets need to be purchased, full details: http://www.btlondonlive.com