Bit of a difference in the size of the case there, Sara!

While waiting in Hollywood for the big time to strike, Benjamin Britten was offered a commission by Lincoln Kirstein, director of the American Ballet Company. 

It was an appealing prospect. Britten was to provide a companion piece to his 1936 piece Soirées musicales – a set of orchestrations of pieces by Rossini. Matinées musicales continues the Rossini theme and includes excerpts from William Tell.  

Juan Diego Flórez closes his opening trio of arias with On Mount Ida from the opera The Beautiful Hélène. Florez sings the part of Prince Paris who has the enviable task of judging a beauty contest, three Greek Goddesses are competing for a golden apple. Although the music has been performed at the Proms, this is the first time that this aria has been performed in Proms history.   

We grabbed a few minutes with star tenor Juan Diego Flórez as he rehearsed at BBC Maida Vale Studios. Watch him talk about how he tackles some of the toughest repertoire a tenor can sing.

Watch the Facebook video here, external

While 'Una furtiva lagrima' (a furtive tear) might sound plaintive and sad, it's actually filled with hope for future love. Nemorino, a local peasant (and butt of many a joke) is drunk in love with the ice-queen Adina. He has signed up to the army so that he can have enough money to buy a love potion from a travelling quack. 

Unaware that this elixir of love is just common wine, Nemorino is convinced his distant love's heart will melt. Moved by Nemorino's great gesture of devotion – and perhaps a little excited by his recent inheritence – Adina is moved to tears. Nemorino witnesses the show of emotion and senses that hope is in the air.   

It's another athletic and dizzyingly high aria for tenor Juan Diego Flórez in Rossini's twist on the classic Cinderalla tale. Prince Ramiro has fallen for the beautiful Cinderella (Cenerentola). 

When they meet again at the ball, she gives the Prince one of two matching bracelets telling him he must find her and reunite the jewellery. Perhaps relieved not to be squeezing the feet of the local women into a glass shoe, 'Si, ritrovarla io giuro' (I swear to find her again) is Prince Ramiro's buoyant response. Listen out for some very high and fast vocal work (coluratura) from Juan Diego Flórez.  

As part of tonight's celebrations, Marin Alsop conducts an orchestra like no other, created by the British public. From banjos to bagpipes, 1,200 amateur musicians from across the UK dusted off their old instruments – or learned new ones from scratch – and united to form the BBC's first ever Virtual Orchestra.  

Watch this incredible performance of Toreador's Song from Bizet's Carmen...

If this inspired you, then find out more about how you can get involved in music making at bbc.co.uk/getplaying   

Tonight's superstar tenor Juan Diego Flórez is looking as cool as a cucumber in his dressing room with minutes to go...   

If you're enjoying this piece, then you'll probably like this programme all about the piece's composer.

Presenter Donald Macleod celebrates the life and work of the "Talented Dr Borodin". His melodies were as brilliant and beguiling as his scientific discoveries. Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) was one of history's great polymaths – who combined a career as one of Russia's great research chemists with an equally dazzling creative life as one of the 19th Century's most enchanting composers. Happily married, loved by his friends and also a noted writer, philanthropist and linguist, Borodin's life was high on talent, short on crisis – and full of extraordinary, bewitching music.  

Composer of the Week: Alexander Borodin

Prince Igor was Russian composer Alexander Borodin's most ambitious work. Based on the 12th anonymous epic The Lay of Igor's Army, Borodin wanted to capture heroism, landscape and war. 

But when the composer died suddenly while dancing at a ball, the task of completing the opera fell to his friend Rimsky-Korsakov and the 22 year old Alexander Glazunov. 

Borodin's Russian epic was a big hit with Proms audiences in the early 20th Century. Something from Prince Igor was played at every season from 1911 to 1939.  

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The BBC Symphony Orchestra have returned to the stage for the next piece written by George Butterworth.

Like his contemporary Vaughan Williams, George Butterworth was heavily influenced by English folk music and was also a keen morris dancer. The Banks of the Green Willow is based on two folk songs and was written just before the outbreak of the First World War in 1913. Its premiere was the first professional engagement for the 24 year old conductor Adrian Boult. 

Butterworth was killed during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 at the age of just 31. He was awarded the military cross for his service. A century later, his music is still being performed.

Since its inception in 1895, the Proms has aimed to bring classical music to a wide audience in a relaxed atmosphere, and from the very beginning, part of the audience has always stood in the ‘promenade’ area.  

Every day, hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people queue outside the Royal Albert Hall for 'Promming' tickets which are released on the day of prom. Why? Each ticket is only £6, you can get as close as possible to the performers. Standing is what makes the Proms the Proms!

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has partnered with the BBC to take feeds of the Last Night of the Proms across Europe. It you're outside the UK and want to listen to the action, take a look at this very handy list, external to find out how to tune in.

Sir Henry Wood is a towering figure in the history of the Proms and his bust (on loan from the Royal Academy of Music) looks down on every concert on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall. 

Each year, two prommers are selected to place a chaplet of laurels on the bust of Sir Henry. This year's lucky pair are John and Liz Woodhouse. Mr and Mrs Woodhouse met in the Philharmonia Chorus in 1973 and have attended countless proms over the years.  

Tom Harrold is a 25 year old Scottish composer rapidly making a name for himself – and someone who has previous with the Proms. In 2007, he won the BBC Proms Young Composers Competition. 

He's also a world record breaker. Tom's piece ‘Ticcatoccatina’ got him into the Guinness Book of World Records for writing the piece with the greatest number of players on a single instruments: 32 hands at one piano!   

Image source, Richard Ion

On stage now is the Proms Youth Ensemble, led by Amy Lovejoy performing alongside members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.