The Summer concerts in the Hampton Court Festival are a privilege worth enduring winters for. They offer a diversity of musical talent unimaginable in any other single showcase, in so short a period.

Gorgeous Hampton Court,replete with cobblestones and twirling Tudor chimneys is a backcloth worthy of any performer. And one evening it was irreplaceable Irishman, Van Morrison.

The 61 year old Belfast-born cowboy' and former leader of Thems' musical career, has delivered timeless songs, while proving an interesting journey for their creator.

Back on my Feet' began the 90-minute show of ballads, personal favourites, and footstomping hits. Bright side of the Road' and Moondance' were seized on from the first notes; the audience rapturously hand-clapping and aisle-dancing throughout.

In dark glasses and wide-brimmed hat, Van's face may have seemed expressionless as he delivered: Have I Told You Lately' and Ray Charles' I Can't Stop Loving You', but the reaction could hardly have been more animated. In the growing chill you could warm to Brown-Eyed Girl' and back to G.L.O.R.I.A. Glorious!

Glyndebourne on Tour's performance of Die Fledermaus in the same Hampton Court Festival programme as Eric Clapton and Van Morrison, proves kaleidoscopic variety is the hallmark of this magnificent musical season.

Swathed in glorious tunes, Strauss's hilarious comic opera tells the story of Gabriel von Eisenstein, a middle-aged lothario, fretting over an eight-day prison sentence, while his wife, Rosalinde, and chambermaid, Adele, each have plans to make the most of his absence; the former with Alfredo, her former lover, and Adele, by attending the villa party given by the extraordinary Count Orlovsky. While Eisenstein's old friend, Dr Falke, appears to be his only source of consolation, all is in fact his own elaborate, but benign hoax; cold revenge' for humiliation by Eisenstein many years earlier.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra literally needed little direction, even under the feather light baton of Vladimir Jurowski.

Witty performances by Bonaventura Bottone as Alfred, and Alan Opie as Dr Falke, together with the effortless vocal perfection of Stacey Tappan as Adele, gave every moment a magnetism, pace and sparkle that left its three and a half hour duration entirely unnoticed.

Mellifluous sound, sensitive lighting and architectural magnificence -surely reasons enough reason to look forward to next summer.

Gary Fahy