What to do this weekend, from art in a Peckham carpark to opera for children

Five minutes 

Gloria from JS Bach’s Missa in F, BWV 233

A shot of bank holiday joy: the Gloria from JS Bach’s short Mass in F. Chortling horns, rocking rhythms and a choir that darts around, soaring, leaping, revelling, unstoppable. Just when you fear it’s over, it starts up again. And if you’re anything like me, when it does end, you still have to play it a few more times – so this may in fact take longer than five minutes.

Half an hour

Legend, BBC Radio 4/BBC Sounds

A new series of Legend (Saturday, 10.30am) features the trumpeter-bandleader Miles Davies and coincides with the week of his centenary. In September 1944 he arrived in New York aged 18 to go to the revered Juilliard School of Music, but instead spent his time in smoky 52nd Street dives jazzing with his heroes Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It’s a dark story of riches, abuse and incredible musical genius. 

An hour  

Three operas for the young on Saturday

You’ll have to find a child or two first. When you do, take your pick from:

Henny Penny at the Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield, at 11am. This world premiere tells the story of Chicken-Licken and the sky falling in, with the charismatic soprano-actor Claire Booth, Ensemble 360 and a choir of local children. 

Shipwrecked! at Swansea Grand Theatre, 3pm. The orchestra and singers from Welsh National Opera promise a swashbuckling, hands-on afternoon in which they introduce children to orchestral instruments and opera, with Tom Redmond presenting/narrating.

Ada and the Code Crusaders at Acomb Library, York, 3pm. In English Touring Opera’s short, interactive opera about Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer, a bunch of mathematical superheroes travel back in time to visit her in Victorian England.

An evening

Enjoy Shakespeare, three ways

With hot weather promised, take the opportunity to go to London’s Globe theatre for Emily Lim’s staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Book a £10 groundling (standing) ticket – you’re on your feet for two and a half hours but it’s worth it. If you’d rather be off your feet at home, choose from top Shakespeare stagings and more on Digital Theatre (£9.99 pcm). Or go analogue and read If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation by Daniel Hahn (Canongate), which is fascinating. That’s all bases covered. It’s a four-evening weekend so don’t be a slouch. Do them all.

A day

Oxford

Spend the day in Oxford. You can simply walk around this city of dreaming spires (credit: Matthew Arnold’s Thyrsis, if anyone asks) but here’s a plan: first, head for the Bodleian’s Weston Library. After coffee in the cafe, go to the new Wonder of Birds exhibition. This collaboration with nature writer Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris features ornithological treasures from the library’s collection, from Audubon’s Birds of America to Shelley’s drafts of Ode to a Skylark (runs until 3 January 2027). It’s free and you can go at leisure, no booking needed.

I also recommend Sculpture in the Garden: The Storytellers at Worcester College (free, but book a time slot), set in the college’s stunning and normally private gardens, which includes works by Antony Gormley, Elisabeth Frink and more (to 5 July). The Ashmolean’s general collection is free but its exhibition In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World (until 16 August) needs pre-booking (£16.20). Go and look at plants for real in the Botanical Gardens (£9, concessions) or Christ Church Meadow (free) where you might spot English Longhorn cattle grazing, or muntjac trying to hide. Or join the herd and go on the trail of Harry Potter (options online), 25 years on. That is your prerogative.

Illustration by Charlotte Durance