So cheap it cannot be legal

The first three nights of the 2010 BBC Proms, announced today, consist of

– Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand, conducted by Jiri Belohlavek;

– Bryn Terfel singing Hans Sachs in a Welsh concert staging of Wagner’s Mastersingers of Nuremberg;

– and Placido Domingo as Simon Boccanegra in a production transferred from the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

The cost of a weekend ticket for these three shows – if you’re quick and lucky enough to land one – is as little as £12.50 ($19). Nowhere on earth can prime performance be heard for such a minimal outlay. Booking opens on May 4, right here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2010/booking/

If you don’t manage to score these top tickets, here are the ten Lebrecht unmissables from this year’s 76 events, priced from £5 upwards:

Prom 19    31 July   Sondheim at 80, with Terfel, Maria Friedman, Simon Russell Beale

Prom 26    5 Aug     Gergiev conducts Mahler 4, followed by Mahler 5

Prom 34    10 Aug   Vienna Night: Schreker, Korngold, Mahler 7; cond Metzmacher

Bach Day  14 Aug   Complete Brandenburg concertos, cond J E Gardiner

Prom 42    17 Aug    Pärt, Britten, Huw Watkins, Shostakovich, cond. Ed Gardner

Prom 46    20 Aug   Mosolov, Pärt, Ravel, Scriabin, cond. Salonen

Prom 47    20 Aug   Cage, Cardew, Skempton, Feldman, cond. Volkov

Prom 52    24 Aug   Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Grimaud and Ashkenazy

Prom 61    31 Aug   Glyndebourne’s Hansel and Gretel with Alice Coote and Lydia Teuscher

Prom 66    4 Sep     Rattle and Berlin Phil in Strauss 4 Last Songs (Mattila), Schoenberg, Berg and Webern.