u g ust to ts xi) :I iy• A monthly selection of

forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics

OPERA

Le Huron, Buxton Festival from 2 August. Rarely performed opera by 18th-century Belgian composer Gretry, with a young cast led by Christopher Gillett and Clare Daniels. A collector's item.

The Betrothal in a Monastery , Edinburgh Festival, Playhouse Theatre, 14-16 August. Another rarity, Prokofiev's comic opera based on Sheridan's play, The Duenna, presented by Moscow's Bolshoi Opera, on their first visit to Britain.

Orfe ed Eurldice, Royal Albert Hall, 15 August. Gluck's masterpiece presented in a concert version as part of this year's Proms season. John Eliot Gardiner conducts, and the title roles are sung by the sensational American counter-tenor Derek Lee Ragin and Sylvia McNair.

Tosea, London Coliseum (071 836 3161) from 23 August. ENO's 1990-1 season opens with a revival of Jonathan Miller's production of Puccini's warhorse, updated to the Mussolini era. Jane Eaglen sings Tons, Neil Howlett Scarpia.

Rupert Christiansen

POP MUSIC

David Bowie Milton Keynes Bowl, 4, 5 August, Manchester, Maine Road, 7 August.

Fleetwood Mac Manchester Maine Road, 25 August, Wembley Stadium, 1 September.

Marcus Berkmann

CINEMA

Crimes and Misdemeanours (15). Intricate new Woody Allen film with several sub-plots, a murder, Angelica Houston, Claire Bloom, Mia Farrow and the director himself as a documentary film maker.

Cold Light of Day (no ccrt). Not for the squeamish — this ambitious and chilling debut film from director Fhiona Louise is a portrait of the multiple murderer Dennis Nilsen. ICA for two weeks from 3 August.

Milan en Mal (15). RSC actress Harriet Walter is among the cast of Louis Malle's comedy-drama, set on a rundown family estate in southern France in the eventful month of May, 1968.

Hilary Mantel

GARDENS

Maenan Hall, Conway Valley, North Wales, has 10 acres of lawns, shrubs, roses and a walled garden, as well as woodland. It is open under the National Gardens Scheme on Sunday, 26 August, from 11 to 5.

Ursula Buchan

CRAFTS

Tigers round the Thorne, the Court of the Tipu Sultan 1750-1709, Zamana Gallery, 1 Cromwell Gardens (opposite the V&A) 2 August-14 October. Decorative arts from tipu Sultan's court at Seringapatam — the spoils of imperial conquest.

Indonesian Batik, Royal Festival Hall till 26 August. Part of the Island to Island Festival of Indonesian arts. A magnificent survey of Javanese batiks from the collection of Jonathan Hope.

Diverse Cultures: An open exhibition of inter-cultural craft. Crafts Council Gallery, 12 Waterloo Place 8 August-14 October, African, Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Middle and Far Eastern no, not South American — a broad swathe of the "other".

Graphic Design in America: A Visual Primer, Design Museum, Butlers Wharf, SE', 9 August-21 October. This could be the Design Museum's best exhibition so far: a mammoth survey that emphasises the brash commercial roots of US graphic design. Tanya Harrod

EXHIBITIONS

Dod Procter RA 1892-1972, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne till 26 August. One of the best and most underrated female painters of this century.

Elisabeth Prink, Compass Gallery, Glasgow. Large scale show by the widely admired but oddly uneven sculptor.

Madame Yevonde: Colour, Fantasy and Myth, National Portrait Gallery, London. Largely forgotten of a famous portrait photographer brought back to focus.

Cezanne & Poussin, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh from 9th August. 19th century meets 17th century in varying approaches to landscape by famous French duo.

The Subjective City, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham till 25th. Fifteen interesting artists respond variously to the glitz and grimness of urban life.

Giles Auty

DANCE

The Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House (071-240 1066) 1-3 August. Premiere of The Planets by David Bintley and Enclosure by William Tuckett. Also on the programme is a new pas de deux, Farewell by Kenneth MacMillan created for Darccy Bussell and Ira Mukhamedov, Coppelia and Swan Lake, English National Ballet, Royal Festival Hall (071 928 8800). 6-25 August.

Deirdre McMahon

THEATRE

Piano, Cottesloe (071-928 2252). A new play by Trevor Griffiths based upon a Russian film made in the early 1980s, Unfinished Piece For A Mechanical Piano. Like the film it is a meditation upon some themes from Chekhov and draw upon various stories and plays including Platonov. A very strong cast includes Stephen Rae, Penelope Wilton, Oliver Cotton, Stephen Moore. Howard Davies directs. Opens 8 August.

Partners in Crime, New End Theatre Hampstead (071-794 0022) A new play by F. G. Callan based upon an argument between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his brother-in-law E. W. Hornung— the creators, respectively, of Sherlock Holmes and Raffles.

The Mystery of Irma Vep, Leicester Haymarket (0533-539 797) Charles Ludlum's recently composed spoof horror/ mystery. Opens 21 August.

Christopher Edwards

MUSIC

Highlights at the Proms this month include: the Swedish Radio SO under Esa-Pekka Salonen playing Mahler's Seventh Symphony on the 6 August and a programme of Ravel, Shostakovitch, Sandstrom and Nielson (Third Symphony) on 7 August; Yuri Bashmet (viola) playing Tertis's transcription of Elgar's Cello Concerto on 9 August; the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists under John Eliot Gardiner performing Gluck's Orfeo on 15 August; the Moscow Virtuosi on 18 August; the Glyndebourne Festival Opera production of Janacek's Katya Kabanova on 24 August; the Rotterdam Philharmonic under James Conlon playing Mahler's Sixth on 28 August and Shostakovich's Fifth on 29 August.

Other festivals include: the Glasgow Early Music Festival 4-11 August, which culminates in a recital by Melvyn Tan in the Royal Scottish Academy, Renfrew Street; the Harrogate International Festival which ends on 9 August with a concert by the RPO under Charles Groves; the Deal Festival, which runs until the 11th; and the Lake District Summer Music Festival and School, based in Ambleside, from 4-17 August. The Maitings Proms last all month with a rich variety of events in and around the Mailings, Snape (0800 5857891.

Peter Phillips