The Tao of Glass is at Soho Place [Tristram Kenton]

PHILIP Glass is a divisive figure: either his simplistic, endlessly repeating musical ideas entrance you (and a trance-like state is what they aim for as they drug your senses) or they send you screaming to the door. But he’s been doing what he does for over half a century, in the course of which he’s managed to survive as a colossus of the avant-garde. He breathes and it’s a world event. And armed with that potential is The Tao of Glass which runs at Soho Place, July 25-Sep 12.

A collaboration with director Phelim McDermott, whose physical theatre company Improbable played a major part in the success of Glass’s operas Satyagraha and Akhnaten at the Coliseum, it’s billed as a sequence of meditations on life and death in which Glass scores provide a soundtrack to Buddhist-inspired story-telling. And as usual with McDermott, puppetry contributes. Something to surrender to, it could be life-changing. Or simply numbing. sohoplace.org

• Another blockbuster returning for a summer tour is Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man: a dance adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen (with some licence), relocated to a small-town American garage where the charismatic central character becomes a sultry spanner-wielding male. Bristling with violence, sex and sweat – as well as gravity-defying choreography – it plays Sadlers Wells July 28- Aug 29. sadlerswells.com

• Two minor composers I find fascinating happen to be paired in an operatic double-bill at the Arcola Theatre, July 29-Aug 1. Madeleine Dring functioned in mid-20th century London writing stylish cabaret songs, but also produced a farcical murder-mystery called Cupboard Love. Ned Rorem was the archetypal young American in Paris, moving in chic circles, writing wistful art songs and scandalous memoirs as well as an opera Three Sisters who are Not Sisters – another comedy whodunnit, libretto by Gertrude Stein. Collector’s pieces both. arcolatheatre.com

• We’re into Week 2 of the Proms, and a definite highlight comes July 28 when star cellist Guy Johnson plays Britten’s Cello Symphony (originally written for Rostropovich) with the BBCSO. Tough music but a must-hear. There’s also the promise of fireworks when the dashing young duo Lucas and Arthur Jussen play Poulenc’s Two-Piano Concerto with the CBSO, July 26. Strauss’s epic Alpine Symphony plays July 27. A major new commission from Australian composer Brett Dean premieres July 29. And there’s a choice programme of Korngold’s Violin Concerto alongside Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony, July 30.

But of special interest, if you can face Sunday morning concerts, is a July 26 recital on the mighty Albert Hall organ given by Olivier Latry. The world’s go-to player, Latry is based at Notre Dame in Paris, and I have cherished memories of spending a Sunday morning in the organ loft there – before the fire – watching him deliver the Grand Improvisation that’s the musical wow-factor at High Mass in Parisian basilicas. It was nothing less. His Proms date may be likewise. All events at the Royal Albert Hall but also broadcast live on Radio 3: bbc.co.uk/proms

• Finally, the Islington Festival starts July 24 with chamber music by Chausson, Mahler & Schubert at St Mary’s Upper Street where most of the concerts – spread across two weekends to Aug 2 – take place. With Poulenc and the rediscovered Dora Pejacevic July 25, and free open-air events at Angel Central piazza. islingtonfestival.com