What’s on in Europe this month

Conductor Daniel Barenboim playing piano works by Schubert will be among the big attractions at the Salzburg Festival, while a new production of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman takes the spotlight at the Bayreuth Festival. Art lovers can look forward to a retrospective of Catalan avant-garde painter and sculptor Antoni Tapies in Barcelona while for film buffs, there is the Venice film festival and the Odense short film festival in Denmark.

Austria

Music: The annual classical music, opera and drama extravaganza that is the 92nd Salzburg Festival, this year under home-grown new artistic director Alexander Pereira. Highlights include a new production of Puccini’s opera La Bohème with Anna Netrebko in the lead role and Daniel Barenboim, better known as a conductor, performing piano works by Schubert. Until September 2.

www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/e

Denmark

Cinema: Off12, the annual international short film festival in the central Danish town of Odense, claims to “strive to be the most courageous short film festival that dares the audience while encouraging them to immerse themselves in something unfamiliar”. In a converted old clothing factory, it presents a long line of Danish and international films from August 20 to 25.

http://filmfestival.dk/en/

The Netherlands

Festival: The annual Noorderzon Festival featuring art, music, theatre and dance is expected to attract around 135,000 people at Groningen, northeast of the country.

www.noorderzon.nl

Spain

Circus acts: Soap! The Show, comes to Madrid: A mix of circus acts, musical theatre and comedy by eight acrobats from Cirque du Soleil and other top international companies who perform on bathtubs.

Part circus, part burlesque cabaret, the wet touring show includes acrobatics and juggling acts set to music by the likes of The Doors and Ben Harper.

At the Teatro Caser Calderon until September 2.

www.teatrocalderon.com

Art: Barcelona’s Antoni Tapies Museum mounts a retrospective of works by the Catalan avant-garde painter and sculptor made in the decade before his death last year.

Antoni Tapies. Head Arms Legs Body includes works on wood and paper in a show focussed on the artist’s spiritual reflections on the human body. Until November 4.

www.fundaciotapies.org

France

Art: The Louvre hosts an exhibition of drawings and watercolours by Germany’s Gerhard Richter as a counterpoint to the major travelling retrospective initiated by Tate Modern. The exhibition, which runs until September 24, includes about a hundred works.

Born in 1932 in Dresden, Richter fled to Dusseldorf from East Germany in 1961. He is considered one of the most important painters of the last 50 years.

Switzerland

Music: The annual Geneva Fair sees the city’s lakefront given over to 100 free concerts, including everything from jazz to reggae, with other attractions including fairground rides and a giant fondue. Until August 12.

Cinema: The Locarno Film Festival celebrates its 65th edition with nightly screenings of mainstream releases on the huge screen in Locarno’s Piazza Grande, a massive town square in the idyllic setting of the northern shores of Lake Maggiore.

This year the festival’s international jury president is Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weer­asethakul, director of the award-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. From August 1 to August 11.

Estonia

Music: Estonia’s new Jarvi ­Summer Festival of classical music promises to draw around 300 musicians from more than a dozen countries for a week of music in the Baltic port city of Parnu in south-western Estonia from July 26 to August 8.

The event is founded by and conducted under the baton of globally renowned Estonian conductors Paavo Jarvi – currently music director for the Orchestre de Paris – and his father Neeme Jarvi.

http://jarvifestival.ee/

Italy

Film: The 69th edition of the world’s oldest film festival opens in Venice, featuring 51 world premieres and drawing Hollywood’s elite to the red carpet, from Ben Affleck to Terrence Malick and Robert Redford.

The main theme of the festival, which runs from August 29 to September 8, is the devastating social effects of the economic crisis, and the line-up features many unknown young directors from countries without cinematic traditions.

www.labiennale.org/it/cinema/

Portugal

Music/theatre: Productions of Shakespeare and open-air music concerts are part of the summer cultural programme in the ancient Portuguese city of Guimaraes, the 2012 European capital of culture.

www.guimaraes2012.pt

Germany

Opera: The legendary Bayreuth Festival, the annual month-long summer festival dedicated exclusively to the works of Richard Wagner, opened on July 25.

With just a year to go before the mammoth Wagner bicentenary celebrations in 2013, this year’s festival has just one new production, The Flying Dutchman, while four other productions of Tristan and Isolde, Lohengrin, Tannhaeuser and Parsifal, are being revived. Tickets are among the hardest to come by in the classical music world, with fans having to wait at least 10 years for a chance to enter the hallowed Festspielhaus, the opera house built to the composer’s own designs. Until August 28.

www.bayreuther-festspiele.de

Opera: Award-winning German film director Volker Schloendorff (The Tin Drum) stages the Georges Bizet opera Carmen at Berlin’s Wannsee lake. From August 16 to September 2.

www.seefestspiele-berlin.de

Music and dance: Potsdam’s spectacular Baroque Sanssouci palace and its lush gardens form the backdrop for an open-air night festival. Take in dance recitals and concerts, including a performance of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on the eve of the main event, at the opulent summer retreat of the Prussian kings. A fireworks display will cap this year’s edition. August 17 and 18.

www.potsdamerschloessernacht.de

Britain

Concert: Top British band Blur reunite for a special concert in Hyde Park to mark the closing ceremony of the London Olympics. They will be joined by legendary rockers New Order and The Specials. On August 12.

Festival: Notting Hill Carnival, London’s annual fiesta of Caribbean culture and the largest party of its kind in Europe, takes to the streets with colourful floats, sound systems and food stalls. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend. On August 26 and 27.