MARCH

irw

ARTS

A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics

MUSIC

It promises to be a very good month for symphony concerts. The highest spot goes to Jessye Norman and the LSO under Cohn Davis in the Barbican on the 14th, 17th and 21st. On the 24th two great orchestras compete for an audience, the Vienna Philharmonic under Mehta at the Festival Hall (Wagner, Schubert and Strauss) and the LSO under Davis at the Barbican (Burt, Mozart and Sibelius). The Philhanmonia will appear at the RFH on the 22nd under Dohnanyi (Bruckner's Eighth) and the 26th under Giulini (Beethoven's Ninth).

Twentieth-century music is equally well represented: the Nash Ensemble are running a 20th- Century Music Series at the Purcell Room with concerts on the 1st, 5th and 8th, featuring music by John Casken, Poul Ruders and Detlev Muller-Siemens respectively. A major retrospective of Alfred Schnittke's music will take place at the Royal Academy of Music between the 22nd and 25th in the presence of the composer, who is 60 this year. Peter Phillips

OPERA

Katya Kabanova, Royal Opera House (071 240 1066), from 4 March. Janacek's moving opera, based on Ostrovosky's tragedy The Storm, comes to Covent Garden in a new production by Trevor Nunn, designed by Maria Bjornson. Elena Prokina sings the title-role, Bernard Haitink conducts.

The Maid of Orleans, Royal Northern College of Music (061 273 6283), from 8 March. Rarely performed Tchaikovsky opera has a welcome airing in Stefan Janski's production, conducted by Paul McGrath.

Pelleas et Melisande, Hippodrome, Birmingham (021 622 7486), from 10 March. Debussy"s peerless opera in Peter Stein's magnificent production for Welsh National Opera, conducted by Pierre Boulez, with Neill Archer and Alison Hagley in the title-roles.

Lulu, Royal Festival Hall (071 928 8800), 11 March. Concert Performance of Berg's Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box, great adaptation of Wedekind's plays. Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Rupert Christiansen

DANCE

Twyla Tharp Dance, Riverside Studios (081 748 3354), 1-12 March. After 11 years, this celebrated New York troupe returns with two programmes which show the dazzling range of Tharp's choreography.

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden (071 240 1911), 23 and 26 March. Penultimate triple bill of the

current season featuring two of Ashton's best — The Dream and A Month in the Country — plus David Bintley's abstract Tombeaux, set to music by William Walton and designed by Jasper Conran.

Sophie Constanti

EXHIBITIONS

Masterpieces from Yorkshire Houses, York City Art Gallery, till 20 December. A welcome get- together of major works of art from the county's great houses.

Ansel Krut: New Paintings, Gillian Jason, 42, Inverness Street, NW1, from 3 December. One of the country's top flight of young painters. A name not to forget.

Salvador Dail, the Early Years, Hayward Gallery, from 3 December. Over 100 works trace the rise to fame and fortune of Spain's self-promoting surrealist.

'Femme Couchee, 1926, by Salvador Dali Ice and Fire: Paintings by Keith Grant, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Untamed Iceland, Norway and Greenland.

Giles Auty

CINEMA

Shadowlands (U). Richard Attenborough's screen version of CS. Lewis and Joy Davidman's true romance is a production line tear- jerker. Not for the first time, Debra Winger plays terminally ill and radiates more life than anyone else on screen. Anthony Hopkins tries to keep up.

Short Cuts (18). A clutch of stories by blue-collar America's poet laureate, Raymond Carver, meshed together not entirely convincingly by Robert Altman.

Beethoven's Second (U). Beethoven is a dog. This is his second movie.

Mark Steyn

GARDENS

Every day until 4 April, visitors to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, are able to visit an exhibition — entitled 'Cornucopia' — of botanical watercolours by three accomplished artists, Jill Coombs, Brigid Edwards and Ann Farrer. The exhibition is in the Kew Gardens Gallery, and is open from 9.30 a.m. until 4.30 p.m. Paintings are for sale. Ursula Buchan

THEATRE

Peer Gynt, Barbican (071 638 8891), 3 March. Ninagawa directs Ibsen as adapted by Frank McGuinness in rare Japan/Norway/Ireland theatrical alliance much acclaimed elsewhere.

The Old Ladies, Greenwich (081 858 7755), 7 March. Geriatric creepy from Rodney Ackland with Faith Brook, Miriam Karlin.

The Birthday Party, National (071 928 2252), 17 March. Early Pinter brings Sam Mendes and Dora Bryan to the Lyttelton.

The Queen and I, Haymarket, Leicester (0533 539797), 23 March. Max Stafford-Clark launches his post-Royal Court company Out of Joint with the Sue Townsend bestseller about HM on a housing estate: Pam Ferris is the Darling Bud royal.

A Month in the Country, Albery (071 867 1115), 29 March. Helen Mirren leads the all-stars in past-

oral Turgenev. Sheridan Morlet,

POP MUSIC

Tori Amos touring, Feb 24–March 7. The new album isn't a patch on 1991's Little Earthquakes , but fans of emotional turmoil and angst should be well served by this brief tour. Extra dates have been added at the London Palladium, April 28, 29, should you miss out.

Also recommended: The Wonder Stuff, touring March 8-22; the achingly hip Kristin Hersh, Cambridge Theatre, March 27; Womack and Womack, or whatever they're called this week, Forum, March 11; Penguin Cafe Orchestra London Palladium, March 3; and still grinding it out at the Albert Hall, Eric Clapton March 1-2,4-6. Marcus Berlunann

CRAFTS

Works for '94, Crafts Council, 44a Pentonville Road, Ni, till 3 April. Over-designed show with 15 young makers chosen from a submissionof 500. Some delights and surprises nonetheless.

Gillian Lowndes: New Ceramic Sculpture, Contemporary Applied Art, 43 Earlham Street, 4 March till 9 April. Unpredictable, curious sculpture for the home.

Vertical Poems: Rugs and Kelims designed by Josef Herman, Christopher Farr, 115 Regent's Park Road, NW1, 3-31 March. Powerful abstract designs that recall the best of the 'art' rugs of the