James Way as Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Garsington Opera’s semi-staging at the Albert Hall [Craig Fuller]

It’s a proven fact: singing is good for you. It ought to be available in doctors’ surgeries, and merely listening to other people sing can be a tonic in itself. So think of what is happening at the Proms this Saturday, September 7, as therapy.

It’s a whole day of choral singing in the voice-enhancing Albert Hall. During the morning the elite The Sixteen perform classic English anthems. In the afternoon the foot-tapping Jason Max Ferdinand Singers, over from America, sing jazz and gospel. And at night the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, with massed voices, perform Handel’s Messiah – using the colourful Mozart edition that used to be dismissed as inauthentic but has now acquired authenticity of its own. Temptation to join in the Hallelujah Chorus will be great, and possibly not discouraged by conductor John Butt.

Another big date at the Proms is September 10 when Garsington Opera brings its new production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: a magical piece, though I admit to mixed feelings about the way Garsington staged it during the summer. I thought the set clinical and some of the roles miscast. That said, there won’t be too much in the way of set at the Albert Hall – it’s a semi-staging. And there are fantastic performances from James Newby (as Lysander) and James Way (who all but steals the show in the normally modest role of Flute: bellows-mender by day but full-on diva by night. I hope the semi-staging lets you see him in his red frock. It’s a killer).

Red frock moments won’t be to the fore when Sir András Schiff plays Bach’s Art of Fugue at the late-night Prom on September 12; but then, you wouldn’t expect them from so august a pianist in such a serious repertoire. And though it takes a lot for an unaccompanied solo instrumentalist to command the Albert Hall, Schiff’s total mastery can do it. Pin-drops will be heard against the held breath of 5,000 or more people.

All Proms are broadcast live on Radio 3. Details: bbc.co.uk/proms

• Meanwhile, the incoming autumn season starts up elsewhere – not least at the Barbican where the LSO premiere James MacMillan’s new Concerto for Orchestra on September 11, conducted by Antonio Pappano (barbican.org.uk). Also at the Barbican, September 8, is a new opera based on Sufi mysticism by composer/pianist Rolf Hind. Called Sky in a Small Cage, it features the capacious lungs of charismatic mezzo Lore Lixenberg: an icon of contemporary performance art, not to be missed (barbican.org.uk).

• More mainstream is the umpteenth revival of Richard Eyre’s indestructible Traviata at the Royal Opera House (now restyled Royal Ballet & Opera), playing September 7-21: rbo.org.uk. And more modest is a little Magic Flute at St Mary’s Primrose Hill, September 12 & 14: tealeafoperaproductions.co.uk

• City Music Foundation’s new season starts September 11 with an unusual duo, singer/cellist Eleanor Grant and guitarist Gus McQuade, at Baker’s Hall. citymusicfoundation.org.

• And last but by no means least, the countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski sings a baroque programme with period group Il Pomo d’Oro at Wigmore Hall, September 12. The Wigmore’s platform space is probably too small for him to demonstrate his other talent, break-dancing, but who knows? He’s resourceful. wigmore-hall.org.uk