Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

IT’S an unfortunate problem for Vladimir Putin’s deeply homophobic regime that Tchaikovsky, probably Russia’s most famous composer, was famously gay. So the official line in the Kremlin these days is that he was nothing of the sort: it’s all a Western myth. As are the stories that he took his own life to avoid revelations about a same-sex affair with a member of the royal household.

Rest assured, Tchaikovsky was gay: there’s no doubt about it. But his death? Well, that is actually a mystery, something for musicologists to ponder, as they do. And pondering alongside them is a piece of music-theatre playing Opera Holland Park August 13-15.

Called Tchaikovsky, Child of Glass, it’s the work of stage director/actor/writer Tama Matheson, who specialises in the tricky business of turning the (usually tortured) life-stories of composers into hybrid performance events. He’s done it around the globe, with Bach, Britten, Beethoven (that’s just the Bs). And what he does isn’t the standard concert-with-readings format that’s common on the classical circuit. He integrates real theatre with real music – pointing out that, as the actor-son of the late conductor John Matheson, he has insight into both worlds.

Of necessity, things get scaled down. Tchaikovsky wrote primarily for orchestras, and there sadly won’t be one of those onstage at Holland Park. But there will be an orchestrally-minded pianist, the well-known Jayson Gillham, plus a company of actors and dancers that collectively promise a punchy, no-holds-barred show. Vladimir Putin might learn a thing or two from it if they send a video. operahollandpark.com

• It’s a punchy week at the Proms too, with blockbuster events like a two-day visit from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under their supremely sassy outgoing chief conductor Gustavo Dudamel (before he sassily relocates to New York). On August 11 they play Beethoven & Ades. On August 12 it’s more Beethoven paired with Revolucion Diamantina: a literally riotous dance-piece by composer Gabriela Ortiz that responds in music to feminist street protests in Mexico City known at the time as the Glitter Revolution. Should be good and noisy.

• Also at the Proms, August 10, is another Atlantic crossing in which an orchestra from the Juilliard School, New York, join forces with one from our own Royal Academy in London for a programme of modern classics: Stravinsky, Berg (his Violin Concerto) and Bartok (his always spectacular Concerto for Orchestra). Adding to the sense of event, the glamorous Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts.

• And American themes continue, August 13, with the UK premiere of a Concerto for Orchestra by jazz legend Wynton Marsalis. Paired with Samuel Barber’s not so often heard 1st Symphony and Gershwin’s splashy, arguably over-heard Piano Concerto, it’s all played by the BBCSO.

• Finally, the legend that is percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie – no stranger to the Proms, still turning a kitchenful of hittable objects into scintillating sound experiences (as she’s been doing for decades), and back for a late-nite appearance with the youthful, up-for-it Fantasia Orchestra, Aug 11. I doubt if many of this Orchestra’s players were born when Glennie launched her career, but suspect she’ll match their energy in a crazily eclectic programme of Vaughan Williams to Radiohead.

All Proms are at the Albert Hall, but also broadcast live on Radio 3. bbc.co.uk/proms