Benjamin Britten [Szalay Zoltán_Fortepan_137711]

IT’S a largely truthful cliché that composers, when they die, go out of fashion. But with Benjamin Britten that never happened: his reputation soared post-mortem. And this year, the 50th anniversary of his death, he’s everywhere.

Last week I caught a production of his Rape of Lucretia done with searing conviction and impressive vocal heft by Hampstead Garden Opera at Jackson’s Lane, Highgate.

Only a few months before that, the same piece was done by English Touring Opera at Hackney Empire. There’s yet another production coming up at the Royal Academy of Music, May 13 & 15 (ram.ac.uk).

And meanwhile, the Royal Opera is reviving its acclaimed Deborah Warner staging of his Peter Grimes, May 5-28. When this show premiered at the Royal Opera House four years ago, it was a cancel-all-engagements event, with a cast led by Allan Clayton as Grimes (a social misfit who attracts the hatred of a smug, small-town community) and Bryn Terfel as Balstrode the local sea-captain. Those two giants of British singing are back to reprise their roles. And though Warner’s vision of the piece as a parable of bleak contemporary life won’t send you out into Drury Lane with joy in your heart, it offers a cathartic encounter with a story that needs telling. rbo.org.uk

Britten’s score, of course, has gut-wrenching power. And should you want to follow it up with a full Grimesian experience, the opera is set in Britten’s home town of Aldeburgh – which these days is a seaside gem, totally unlike the grim backwater that Warner creates onstage, and home to the Aldeburgh Festival which runs June 12-28.

To my mind it’s the best music festival in the UK. As you’d expect, there’s plenty of Britten in the 2026 programme – but with plenty besides, including Debussy’s opera Pelleas et Melisande. Now is the time to book. brittenpearsarts.org

• If the idea of a piano duo doesn’t thrill you, try Arthur and Lucas Jussen, the golden-haired Dutch brothers with film-star looks who thunder their way through double-keyboard repertoire like Viking warriors. They take no prisoners. They know how to dazzle. And they’re playing Bach and Mozart with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, in the church of the same name, May 2. stmartin-in-the-fields.org

• Two other dazzlers in London this week are violinist Johan Dalene playing Grieg at Wigmore Hall, May 3 (wigmore-hall.org.uk); and pianist Gabriela Montero at Milton Court, May 1 (barbican.org.uk). Montero will apply her fiery Venezuelan temperament to a Spanish-related programme. But she’ll almost certainly include her speciality of spontaneous keyboard improvisations based on ideas thrown at her by the audience: a party trick she does spectacularly.

• It’s hard to be spectacular when you play the viola, but Leonidas Kavakos has done his best over the years; and now he’s in the more obviously extrovert business of conducting – at the Festival Hall, May 7, taking the Philharmonia Orchestra through works by Dvorak and Schumann. An interesting transformation. southbankcentre.co.uk

• It’s also interesting to see how keen classical musicians are these days to play relaxed concerts in non-classical venues – an example being Magnus Johnston, the violinist who leads the Royal Opera orchestra. On May 4 he’s at Ronnie Scott’s with colleagues from the ROH, playing Mozart and Puccini. Cool. ronniescotts.co.uk