Classical
#OperaHarmony
More than 100 international opera makers, led by director Ella Marchment, have formed #OperaHarmony, an online community to create 20 new operas. The first five have world premieres this week. Fiona Maddocks
Film
Papicha
Algerian director Mounia Meddour beat stiff competition, including from Mati Diop and Ladj Ly, to win the best debut film César award for this vibrant story of a female fashion student standing up to the patriarchy against the backdrop of civil war. On release from Friday. Guy Lodge
An American Pickle
Seth Rogen stars as Herschel Greenbaum, an immigrant to America in 1920 who falls into a vat of pickles and is found, perfectly preserved and very much alive, 100 years later. Rogen also stars as Greenbaum’s only surviving relative, his great grandson, Ben. Released in cinemas from Friday. Wendy Ide
Art
Cao Fei: Blueprints, Serpentine Gallery; 4 August until 13 September
The Serpentine Gallery reopens with Chinese artist Cao Fei’s marvellously eerie immersive sequence of installations that take you from her Beijing studio to factories past and present, landscapes with giant turtles and, ultimately, cyberspace, using virtual reality as well as old-fashioned props. Laura Cumming
Pop
The Streets
Thursday sees a full-band, live-streamed performance of the Streets’ masterful return to form, None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive, from the atmospheric EartH in north London. Kitty Empire
Washed Out
Chillwave seems aeons ago now, but Friday sees the return of chill pioneer Washed Out, with Purple Noon, an album of heady Balearic-early 1980s crossovers. KE
Theatre
Blindness
The Donmar, reconfigured by designer Lizzie Clachan, reopens from tomorrow until 22 August for a “socially distanced sound installation” directed by Walter Meierjohann. Simon Stephens adapts José Saramago’s novel about a global pandemic, with Juliet Stevenson’s voice, heard on headphones and an immersive sound design by Ben and Max Ringham. Susannah Clapp
The Secret Love Life of Ophelia
Young love: a universal experience facing particular challenges. Steven Berkoff’s imagined exchange of letters between Hamlet and Ophelia is reframed by director James Haddrell as a set of video messages delivered by 39 young, emerging or marginalised actors – with Helen Mirren as Gertrude. Free to watch via Greenwich theatre’s YouTube channel until 14 August. Clare Brennan
Dance
Mea Culpa, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen
The Belgian-Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui was inspired by composer Heinrich Schütz’s plea for reconciliation in his oratory Die Sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz and by Belgium’s colonial past to make this serious, questioning and challenging full-length piece about the legacy of slavery and inequality. It’s available as part of the excellent Opera Ballet Vlaanderen archive; new short dance pieces made in lockdown are also online. Sarah Crompton
Comedy
Chattin’ Shit
Freshly launched, this is a new podcast by best friends Allan Mustafa and Hugo Chegwin, co-creators and stars of Bafta-winning comedy People Just Do Nothing, in which they air their everyday thoughts on feelings alongside famous friends, delving into their personal and professional lives. Listen on Acast. Kadish Morris
