The Murmuring/ Metheus/ Mesmerics, BalletBoyz, Linbury Studio Theatre

BALLETBOYZ TRIPLE BILL, LINBURY STUDIO THEATRE New works show all-male company on top form

New works show all-male company on top form

The fabulous dancers known as BalletBoyz The Talent 2014 looked so at home in the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio Theatre last night that it was hard to believe they had never performed there before. The BalletBoyz themselves, Michael Nunn and Billy Trevitt, were Royal Ballet leading men back in the day, and they have been back to Covent Garden since leaving in 1999 to explore new avenues in contemporary ballet for men, but this was the first time that their new company of young dancers (now 10-strong) had been invited into the inner sanctum of British ballet.

Sampling the Myth, Royal Ballet

SAMPLING THE MYTH, ROYAL BALLET Mixture of old and new makes for a colourful journey through mythology

Mixture of old and new makes for a colourful journey through mythology

The Royal Opera House is on fire this month. Not literally (unless someone knocks over the flaming braziers outside) but with the varied illuminations of the Deloitte Ignite Festival, co-curated by the Royal Ballet and Minna Moore Ede of the National Gallery. The theme this year is Myth, and specifically Leda's rape by Zeus in swan form, and Prometheus's gift of fire to humanity.

Ariadne auf Naxos, Royal Opera

ARIADNE AUF NAXOS, ROYAL OPERA Two nymphs are the real revelation in this revival of Strauss's evergreen hybrid

Two nymphs are the real revelation in this revival of Richard Strauss's evergreen hybrid

Can it really be 12 years since Antonio Pappano inaugurated his transformative era as the Royal Opera’s Music Director conducting Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos? Christof Loy’s production seemed so radical at the time.

King Priam, English Touring Opera, Linbury Studio Theatre

KING PRIAM, LINBURY THEATRE Too much feathers and paint in English Touring Opera's awkward take on tough Tippett

Cluttered production doesn't help Tippett's tough approach to Trojan War mythology

Tippett’s selective, often compelling and mostly well-structured take on Trojan War myths will never capture the wider public’s imagination as much as even the least of Britten’s operas. His ideas sometimes pierce the soul but don’t stick there in the same way, and the human interest level never goes so deep. The sounds, though, are something else: a splintering of interest groups, or even a single instrument, to flank each character.

The Banner Saga

Human frailty and a dread enemy give this beautiful tactical battle game an edge

Set in an icy, fantasy Norse-influenced world, with an art style based on the 1950s work of Disney artist Eyvind Earle, The Banner Saga is immediately, aesthetically, vastly different from most videogame fare. But it's not just in visuals that it strikes out.

The Banner Saga's key innovation is in making the player feel far less heroic. This isn't about saving the universe, it's about surviving the next battle.

Parsifal, Royal Opera

PARSIFAL, ROYAL OPERA Did yesterday's Livescreening redeem the repulsive?

Passing musical pleasures can't redeem a bloody betrayal of Wagner's holier intentions

Is anyone else sick of creepy brotherhoods skewering the transcendent in Mozart’s and Wagner’s late operas? Both Sarastro’s cult and the company of the grail are in sore need of change - "fresh blood" would be an unfortunate term under the circumstances - when we first encounter them. But both Simon McBurney’s production of The Magic Flute at English National Opera and now Stephen Langridge’s unleavened Royal Opera Parsifal suggest that these are sects not worth joining or saving.

DVD: Riddles of the Sphinx

Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen's feminist film and its precursor are difficult but rewarding

The new BFI release takes its title from the 1977 essay movie directed by Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen; the package includes its more speculative predecessor, 1974's Penthiselea: Queen of the Amazons. Each is a demanding feminist work that destabilises a Greek myth, thereby challenging the patriarchal oppression of women ingrained in it.

Prom 15: Die Walküre, Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim

PROM 15: DIE WALKÜRE, STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, BARENBOIM Anja Kampe is electrifying in a top line-up for Wagner's second Ring opera

Anja Kampe is electrifying in a top line-up for Wagner's second Ring opera

Things may be falling apart, a storm now rages but new broods of humans and demigoddesses have been fathered by chief god Wotan, who has undergone a Doctor Who like transformation from Iain Paterson into Bryn Terfel.

Aquatopia: The Imaginary of the Ocean Deep, Nottingham Contemporary

AQUATOPIA: THE IMAGINARY OF THE OCEAN DEEP, NOTTINGHAM CONTEMPORARY Watery myths and legends explored in a beguiling exhibition

Watery myths and legends explored in a beguiling exhibition

Undines, mermaids, selkies, nixies, kraken. You’ll encounter such imaginary creatures in Aquatopia, an exhibition which delves into the myths of the ocean deep, and thereby to the murky, fathomless depths of our subconscious. But more often than imaginary beings you’ll encounter real ones who’ve touched our imaginations by their unearthly appearance and tapped into our deepest fears and desires, which means, naturally, our sexual desires. There’s a lot of octopus love going on.