Smart arts

The music scene is all about beats; people are raving about Afro Melt – tribal bass with an electro edge (like Buddha Bar), a compilation of world dance music, fusing with traditional hip African sounds. In theatre, not to be missed is Poul Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale (London Coliseum), based on Margaret Atwood’s famous novel, with an explosive score mixing original composition with fragments of a Bach chorale and gospel music.

Art lovers had reason to rejoice. Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics at the Tate Britain presented over 100 watercolours and paintings. The Tate Modern celebrated the work of figurative painter Max Beckmann (1884-1950), with an exhibition of 75 paintings and several sculptures as well as Anish Kapoor’s sculpture Marsyas. David Hockney’s first departure into the world of watercolours, Painting on Paper, held viewers mesmerised at the National Portrait Gallery. Also worth checking out were Ingres, Delacroix, Homer, Sargent and Whistler among the 19th Century Painting and Drawings, on all summer at the National Gallery, on tour from the Winthrop Collection, Harvard University.

The Classics: The Royal Festival Hall, Royal Opera House – the home of the Royal Ballet, Sadler’s Wells, Barbican, The Royal Albert Hall. West End Winners: The Lion King, Mamma Mia! The Phantom of the Opera, Fame, My Fair Lady. Eccentricities: Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, Fan Museum , Saatchi Gallery, Museum of Garden History, Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum, Dickens House Museum, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Florence Nightingale Museum.