Maria Callas – celebrated by Marina Abramovic at ENO

ONE of the most celebrated singers of all time, Maria Callas had a turbulent offstage life complemented by an onstage one in which she regularly died. The characters she sang were usually tragic, often dead by curtain-down. And the supercharged intensity with which she delivered them took its toll: she was dead herself at 53.

As this December marks her centenary, she’s back on the public agenda with a vengeance – not least at the Coliseum where English National Opera are staging, from Nov-11, a strangely hybrid tribute to her memory called 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. It’s based around a sequence of her famous dying scenes – in La Traviata and the like. And taking the role of Callas is the cult performance artist Marina Abramovic, who doesn’t sing but emotes (in her distinctive way) alongside a roll-call of sopranos who supply the music. Could be fascinating.

But you have to hope (a) that it ends up being about Callas rather than Abramovic, who is not a retiring figure, and (b) that Abramovic keeps her clothes on, having built a career on publicly removing them with slight excuse. eno.org

• When great artists collaborate, sparks fly. And they did in the 1930s when the young Benjamin Britten met the slightly older WH Auden, courtesy of the GPO Film Unit which engaged them both on projects. Auden fell in love with Britten, who was too intimidated by the poet’s overbearing self-assurance to reciprocate. But their relationship – which played out largely in West Hampstead where Britten was living– did result in some extraordinary settings of words to music. And the whole thing is explored in a dramatised concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Nov 5, featuring the City of London Sinfonia alongside actor Alex Jennings. southbankcentre.co.uk

• The organisation once known as Hampstead Garden Opera now calls itself HGO, but the initials could equally stand for Hansel and Gretel opera – its latest show, playing Jackson’s Lane, Highgate Nov 10-19, with all the feelgood fairytale ingredients to get you in the mood for Christmas. Hgo.org.uk

Feeling good, though, isn’t easy faced with the sheer horror of what’s happening in Gaza. And a disturbing reminder of endless conflict in that part of the world is Handel’s Old Testament oratorio Jephtha which gets a new staging at the Royal Opera House, 8-24 Nov (roh.org.uk) It’s a sensitive work to be doing right now, but cancelling every piece of music about warring Israelites (as happened recently with a production of Handel’s Saul) is as mindless as cancelling Tchaikovsky performances because of the invasion of Ukraine. So I’m glad the ROH are going ahead – and equally glad that Highgate Choral Society are proceeding with their Mendelssohn Elijah on Nov 11 (hcschoir.com). It takes place at All Hallows, Gospel Oak, where prayers for peace in Gaza resound every Sunday. If only they were heard.

• The atmospheric Spotlight Chamber Concerts resume Nov 3 at the now-restored church of St John Waterloo, starting with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor and violinist Hyeyoon Park in Grieg, Debussy and Vaughan Williams. Nov 11 brings another keyboard star, Steven Osborne, in Schubert. And so it goes on… with the classiest of artists, all unmissable. spotlightchamberconcerts.com