Top Classical: Chelsea Schubert Festival

This enterprising venture includes chamber music and songs by the prolific Schubert and other composers influenced by him

Top Comedy: Chris Rock

The stand-up addresses awkward areas - sex, politics, race - with a swinging confidence and exciting intelligence

Top Theatre: Kicking a Dead Horse

Stephen Rea stars in Sam Shepard’s production of his own play about a Manhattan art dealer in the American west

Top Five Opera: The Mikado

Sylvester McCoy joins the Carl Rosa Company to play the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan’s masterpiece, at Richmond Theatre

Top Films in Rep: Badlands

Terrence Malick maintains a dreamlike, dispassionate distance in his superb directorial debut from 1973, at BFI Southbank

Top Five for Kids: Horrible Histories Day

Free day of workshops and re-enactments inspired by Terry Deary's books, including Gory Gladiators and Medieval Mayhem

Top Five Clubs: Hospitality

Guaranteed jump-up rinse-out from drum'n'bass superstar Fabio, with support coming from London Elektricity and High Contrast

Top Five Dance: Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde’s novel provides the starting point for Bourne’s latest dance-theatre production, at Sadler’s Wells

Which orchestra is best?

Is there a pecking order for the best orchestras in the world? The results could be surprising, says Richard Morrison

Top Five Galleries: Francis Bacon

A magnificent retrospective of this greatest of postwar British painters puts our human flesh in the gladiator’s arena

Top Five Events: Regent Street Festival

This year’s theme is a Great British Experience. The street will be closed to traffic in order to host film screenings, live music

Top Five Museums: Aquarium

Captivating creatures from around the globe, with jellyfish, seahorses and tropical monkey frogs, at Horniman Museum & Gardens

Top Five Jazz: The Bad Plus

Ethan Iverson’s jazz-meets-pomp rock power trio has a knack of dividing listeners into armed camps. Geniuses or jokers?

Top Five Gigs: Stevie Wonder

The Motown legend brings his greatest hits marathon across the Atlantic for the first time in a decade, at the O2 Arena

The Agenda: Autumn arts calendar

From Swan Lake at the Royal Ballet to Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann's Australia, don't miss these

Top Five for Kids: Bond’s Baddies

Explore the fiendish world of 007’s antagonists with dressing-up and a whole range of espionage-themed art activities

Autumn Stage Choice

The best shows from The Mighty Boosh to Rain Man promise laughs and tears, too - especially if you don’t book quickly

Top Five Clubs: Prom Night

Heather and Duckie host one of their occasional celebrations of 1980s nuggets, John Hughes movie classics and air guitar anthems

Top Films in Rep: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Terry Gilliam’s take on Hunter S. Thompson’s cult classic of Seventies gonzo journalism, at Prince Charles Cinema

The best exhibitions of the autumn

From the work of one of the world’s best-known portrait photographers, Annie Leibowitz, to sculptures and installations