Discos and clubs
Berlin's clubs and discos are smaller, cheaper and less exclusive than their counterparts in London or New York - and fewer in number. You don't need much nous to work out that the places along the Ku'damm are tourist rip-offs: the real all-night sweats take place in the newer dance-music clubs that have opened up, mainly in the former East Berlin, where glitz is out and raving is in. For the slightly older, post-punk crowd, Schöneberg and Kreuzberg tend to be where it's happening. Don't bother turning up until midnight at the earliest, since few places get going much before then. Admission is often free - when you do pay, it shouldn't be much more than DM15/¬7.50. Some of the ravey places have strict door policies, but if you look the part you'll probably get in. Like most cities, Berlin's turnover in nightspots is rapid: expect the following listings to have changed at least slightly by the time you arrive - this applies particularly to the newer places on the east side of town.

Casino , corner of Saarbrücker Strasse and Prenzlauer Allee, Prenzlauer Berg. Housed on grounds of a former baked-goods factory, Casino is the rave joint du jour , with star DJs like Paul Van Dyk packing them in.

El Barrio , Potsdamer Str. 84, Tiergarten. An irresistable salsa/lambada disco precedes weekend bands.

Knaack-Club , Greifswalder Str. 224, Prenzlauer Berg. Rock (David Byrne to Nirvana) in the cellar and dance on the first floor of a big old club building in a Prenzlauer Berg courtyard, drawing a young, mainly East Berlin crowd. Nightly from 10pm.

Kurvenstar , Kleine Präsidentenstr. 3, Mitte. Beautifully decorated retro Seventies club with a front bar and dancefloor in the back. Caters now to a young, not very gregarious hip-hop crowd on Wednesdays and Saturdays, although other nights feature drum'n'bass or triphop.

Ostgut , Mühlenstr. 26-30 (entrance Rummelsburger Platz), Friedrichshain. Generous space for raves, often featuring big name DJs such as Westbam. Also home of Laboratory gay fetish evenings.

Soda , Knaackstr. 97, Prenzlauer Berg. Recently opened club in the newly renovated KulturBrauerei cultural centre located on the grounds of a former brewery. The eclectic club-cum-literary salon-cum-restaurant concept is still finding its feet. Check out the GDR rock disco Fridays at the neighbouring Alte Kantine .

WMF , Ziegelstr. 22, Mitte. Legendary post-Wall club now at its fifth location, still worth checking out if you're into any flavour of house.

Live rock and pop music
In the big venues, you should book well in advance for anything even vaguely popular. Invariably you can't buy tickets from the places themselves, but need to go to a ticket office. It's also worth remembering that, in addition to the places listed below, many bars and cafés put on live music.

Arena , Eichenstr. 4, Treptow (tel 0 30/5 33 73 33, www.arena-berlin.de ). Located almost in the middle of nowhere, this medium-sized hall usually offers rappers, teenie groups and other popular bands for a young audience. The adjacent Glashaus hosts regular Sunday morning house breakfasts and hip-hop jams.

ColumbiaFritz , Columbiadamm 9-11, Tempelhof (tel 0 30/69 81 28 28). A former US-army movie theatre, this place now serves as a snug though smoky venue for local and (minor) international rock and punk bands.

Columbiahalle , Columbiadamm 13-21, Tempelhof (tel 0 30/6 98 09 80). Right across the street from the Tempelhof airport, this venue hosts crowd-pleasing international acts.

Eierschale Zenner , Alt-Treptow 14-17, Treptow (tel 0 30/5 33 73 70). A large and popular beer garden by the shore of the River Spree, with 1950s and 1960s rock and roll and other summery music.

ICC Berlin , Messedamm 26, Charlottenburg (tel 0 30/3 03 81). Vast, soulless hall for trade fairs that often hosts gigs.

Knaack , Greifswalderstr. 224, Prenzlauer Berg (tel 0 30/4 42 70 60, www.knaack-berlin.de ). Mostly local rock bands, plus the odd visiting post-punk legend.

Kesselhaus@KulturBrauerei , Knaackstr. 97, Prenzlauer Berg (tel 0 30/4 41 92 69). Sharing space in a nineteenth-century brewery with an arts and cultural centre, this club offers local and mid-level bands.

Tacheles , Oranienburger Str. 53-56, Mitte (tel 0 30/2 81 61 19, www.tacheles.de ). Concerts from around 10pm. The performers are likely to be pretty eclectic, ranging from guitar bands to industrial noise merchants.

Tempodrom , Str. der Pariser Kommune 8, Friedrichshain ( www.tempodrom-berlin.de ). Tent venue hosting mid-level rock and world-music acts. Hosts a free music festival each summer.

Tränenpalast , Reichstagsufer 17, Mitte (tel 0 30/2 38 62 11). A former waiting room at the border between east and west is now a medium-sized hall featuring rock, soul and jazz.

Velodrom , Paul-Heyse-Str. 29, Prenzlauer Berg, (tel 0 30/44 30 44 30). Home of mega sports events such as the six-day bicycle race, this is also the place to go to see the likes of Britney Spears or Janet Jackson.

Waldbühne , Glockenturmstrasse, Charlottenburg (tel 0 30/3 04 06 76). Open-air spot in a natural amphitheatre near the Olympia-Stadion that features movies, bands, classical concerts and other entertainments. Great fun on summer evenings, but arrive early as it often gets crowded.

Jazz and world music
Berlin offers a good range of live jazz venues, and is an important centre for the burgeoning world music movement.

A-Trane , Bleibtreustr. 1, Charlottenburg (tel 0 30/3 13 25 50). Presents up-and-coming and well-known jazz artists in a comfortable, intimate setting. Weekends from 10pm.

b-flat , Rosenthaler Str. 13, Mitte (tel 0 30/2 80 63 49). Small jazz club with live groups on weekends and a serious audience - don't talk during sets. Open from 10pm.

Flöz , Nassauische Str. 37, Wilmersdorf (tel 0 30/8 61 10 00). Basement club that's the meeting point for Berlin's jazz musicians and a testing ground for the city's new bands. Also offers occasional salsa and cabaret. Can be wild.

Haus der Kulturen der Welt , John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, Tiergarten (tel 0 30/39 78 71 75, www.hkw.de ). The city's number one venue for world music. Always worth checking out.

Pfefferberg , Schönhauser Allee 176, Prenzlauer Berg (tel 0 30/44 38 31 10). A converted East Berlin industrial space offering world-music-themed concerts and club nights. Grooving to non-European sounds in the summer beer garden takes you away from hectic atmosphere of Berlin.

Podewil , Klosterstr. 68-70, Mitte (tel 0 30/24 74 96, www.podewil.bkv.org ). Contemporary jazz, world music and occasional classical concerts. Less lively than some other venues but dedicated to the music.

Quasimodo , Kantstr. 12a, Charlottenburg (tel 0 30/3 12 80 86). Berlin's best jazz spot, with nightly programmes starting at 10pm. A high-quality mix of international (usually American) stars and up-and-coming names. Small, with a good atmosphere. Often free on weekdays.

Classical music
For centuries, Berlin's standing in the musical world lagged well behind that of other major German cities such as Leipzig, Dresden, Munich and Hamburg. That situation began to change with the foundation in 1882 of the Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester, which established a position of global pre-eminence in the field of large-scale orchestral music under its principal conductor Hans von Bülow and his successors Arthur Nikitsch, Wilhelm Fürtwängler and Herbert von Karajan. The current incumbent, Claudio Abbado, will soon be succeeded by the Englishman Sir Simon Rattle, who secured the appointment on the basis of the extraordinary rapport he had built up with the players during his appearances as a guest conductor. Of the other full-sized symphony orchestras based in the city, the oldest is the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, which was until recently directed by the Spaniard Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos; being attached to the local radio station, it tends to have a more adventurous repertoire than its rivals. The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester built up a formidable reputation under the directorship of the Russian-born pianist-conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, who has now been succeeded by the American Kent Nagano. East Berlin's old orchestra, the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester, has likewise just had a change of conductor, with Eliahu Inbal replacing Michael Schønvandt. The city also has numerous smaller orchestras, usually specializing in music of a particular period: they include the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Berliner Bach-Akademie, the Barock Orchester Berlin, the Haydn-Ensemble Berlin, the Kammerorchester Berlin and the Neues Berliner Kammerorchester.

As a legacy of the decades of division, Berlin still operates three opera houses . This is probably one more than it needs, and the downside is that several other German cities have houses which currently enjoy higher critical standing than any of the trio in the capital. The city is home to several highly distinguished choirs , two of the finest being those attached to the Protestant and Catholic cathedrals, the Dom and St-Hedwigs-Kathedrale, where their liturgical contributions are supplemented by regular concerts. Among the many chamber music groups based in Berlin are the Berliner Oktett and one of the world's leading string quartets, the Brandis-Quartett.

Theatre
Throughout the the first three decades of the twentieth century, Berlin's theatrical life enjoyed an unparalleled international reputation, thanks in large measure to the inspired tutelage of the seemingly omnipresent figure of Max Reinhardt. He emigrated on the eve of the Nazi takeover of power, which soon led to the collapse of the proud tradition he had built up. However, after the war another prominent exile, Bertolt Brecht, returned to settle in East Berlin, and his celebrity status - he was then almost universally regarded as the most influential playwright of the century - ensured that theatre played a prominent role in the cultural life of the GDR capital. It retained a privileged status right up to the regime's demise, by which time Brecht's own standing, at least in the dramatic field, had suffered a huge posthumous slump. Nowadays, Berlin's theatres face a tough task living up to the heady golden eras of the not so distant past. Within Germany, however, their standing remains generally high, and the city is a major venue not only for the performance of established classics, but also for experimental work. That said, English-speakers often find much of the favoured repertoire, as well as the production and performance styles, rather heavy going

Cabaret, variety and dance
Sadly, Berlin's legendary prewar cabaret scene is little more than a memory. However, a few establishments gamely strive to keep alive the tradition of political satire, while old-style variety shows have made something of a comeback in the city (as elsewhere in Germany) in the past decade. In addition to the ballet companies attached the opera houses, a number of high-quality dance groups are based in the city.

Ballhaus Naunynstrasse , Naunynstr. 27, Kreuzberg (tel 0 30/25 88 66 44). Renovated former ballroom in the heart of Kreuzberg. Repertoire of events includes mixed-media performances and fringe theatre as well as dance.

BKA ( Berliner Kabarett Anstalt ), Mehringdamm 32, Kreuzberg (tel 0 30/2 51 01 12). Cabaret and one-person shows, often dealing with political themes and current events.

Friedrichstadtpalast , Friedrichstr. 107, Mitte (tel 0 30/23 26 24 74). Big flashy variety theatre with leggy chorus girls, but the real stuff is to be found in their small café-theatre.

Tanzfabrik Berlin , Möckernstr. 68, Kreuzberg (tel 0 30/786 58 61). Attached to Berlin's biggest contemporary dance school, this place stages experimental and modern works.

Varieté Chamäleon , Rosenthaler Str. 40-41, Mitte (tel 0 30/2 82 71 18). Cabaret and variety theatre. Check out the Mitternachtshow at midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Wintergarten , Potsdamer Str. 96, Tiergarten (tel 0 30/23 08 82 30). A glitzy attempt to re-create the Berlin of the 1920s, with acts from all over the world - cabaret, musicians, dance, mime, etc. Much the most expensive venue in town.