ceARTS DIART

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

OPERA

L'incoronazione di Poppea, Spitalfields (236 5086), from 11 July. Richard Hickox conducts Stefan Janski's new production as part of the City of London Festival; cast includes Arleen Auger, Della Jones and James Bowman.

Armida, Buxton Opera House (0298 72190), 21 July. First UK staging of Haydn's opera launches the 10th Buxton Festival, conducted by Anthony Hose and Produced by Christopher Renshaw. Donizetti's rare-ish Torquato Tasso follows on 28 July.

La clemenza di Tito, Felsenreit- schule, Salzburg, 27 July. 1988 Festival opens with Riccardo Muti conducting Mozart's last opera seria, with Carol Vane.ss, Susanne Mentzer and G6sta Winbergh

heading the cast. Rodney Milnes

DANCE

Moscow Classical Ballet, Theatre Royal, Glasgow (041-331 1234), 11-16 July; Palace Theatre, Manchester (061-236 9922), 18-23 July; Hippodrome, Bristol (0272 299444), 25-30 July. The first Performances of a new Anglo- Soviet production of Swan Lake and a programme of divertissements.

Kirov Ballet, Coliseum (836 3161), 25-30 July. The first visit to

London from this incomparable company for 18 years. There are eight performances of Giselle.

Australian Ballet, Royal Opera House (240 1066), 26 July-6 August. Performances of The Sleeping Beauty and works by Tetley, Kylian, Mart, Lifar and Others, Deirdre McMahon

CINEMA

Throw Momma From the Train (15). Danny Dc Vito stars in and directs a black comedy about an aspiring writer of murder mysteries Who plans to get rid of his revolting mother.

Sherman's March (15), ICA. Marching through (contemporary) Georgia with quirky documentary- maker Ross McElwee.

September (PG). Melodrama in a Vermont country house: Elaine Stritch, Denholm Elliot and Mia Farrow are directed by Woody Allen in his Bergman mood.

The NFT have real Bergman — four films to mark the director's 70th birthday. It is 90 years since Sergei Eisenstein was born, and an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (17 July-28 August) celebrates his life and limes. Hilary Mantel

EXHIBITIONS

Mackintosh Flower Drawings, Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, from 9 July. Little-known drawings by the famous architect and designer.

An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, from 12 July. Very popular when exhibited in Leningrad last year. Works by N.C., Andrew and James Wyeth.

Royal Society of British Artists, Mall Galleries, London SW1, 8-18 July. Long-established understudy for Royal Academy Summer Show.

Sculpture by Claus Oldenburg, Serpentine Gallery, from 9 July. The everyday object wittily transposed to museum proportions. Giant toothbrush etc for billionaires who have everything.

Renoir's 'Enfants au bord de la mer, Guernsey' Renoir in Guernsey, Guernsey Museum, St Peter Port, Guernsey. Six works by Impressionist master painted on the island in pre-tax haven days. Giles Auty

CRAFTS

Pablo Picasso: Ceramics, Odette Gilbert Gallery, 5 Cork Street, WI, till 30 July. Picasso's pots, often over-rated but always very interesting.

Fashion and Surrealism, V & A, till 7 August. How surrealism found its level as high fashion, with programme of surrealist films every Tuesday and Friday at 1 p.m. Painted and Stained, Parnham House, Beaminster, Dorset, till 31 August. Work in wood: good selection including Guy Taplin and Gerard Rigot. A Celebration of Ceramics, Rufford Craft Centre, 011erton, Nr Newark, Notts, till 17 July. Work by members of the Craftsmen Potters Association. Tanya Harrod

THEATRE

Titus Andronicus, Pit (638 8891). RSC transfer from Stratford of thrilling chamber production of Shakespeare's flawed blood-and- guts piece. Brian Cox very good in title role. Deborah Warner directs.

Too Clever by Half, Old Vic (928 7616). Season continues with Rodney Ackland adaptation of Ostrovsky's 19th-century comic classic which plots the manipulative rise in Russian society of a young schemer.

Greek, Wyndham's (836 3028). Steven Berkoff acting and directing in a revival of his own 1980 version of Oedipus myth set in Britain.

Christopher Edwards

POP MUSIC

Everything but the Girl, touring. Their latest album Idlewild seems to have made little commercial impact, but perhaps these shows and a luscious new single, 'I Don't Want to Talk About It', will prod it into life.

Michael Jackson, Wembley Stadium, 14, 15, 16, 22, 23 July. Though potty to the core, Jacko is renowned for his spectacularly lavish stage shows. Tickets will be scarcer than for the Centre Court on Sunday. Marcus Berkmatm

SALE-ROOMS

Canaletto's 'The Redentore in a Capriccio Setting' is among a series of eight lost Old Master paintings at Sotheby's on 6 July.

The Fermor-Hesketh collection — furniture, ceramics, silver and Old Masters — is dispersed over five days at Christic's (4, 6, 7, 8 and 15 July).

Outside London there is golflana at Christie's in Glasgow on 14 July and aeronautics at Phillips at Shuttleworth on the 20th.

Peter Watson

GARDENS

A garden which will be looking very good in July is that belonging to Docwra's Manor, Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, developed by the gifted field botanist, the late Dr John Raven, and his wife Faith. There arc two acres of choice plants, many of which come from seed collected abroad by the Ravens. Excellent plants like A rtemesia arborescens 'Faith Raven' can be acquired from the small nursery attached to the garden. Open on the first Sunday of every month, bank holidays, and Wednesdays and Fridays in summer. Mrs Raven's other garden, Ardtonish, Lochaline, Morvern, Highland Region, is open every day in summer.

Nearby and also well worth a visit is The Crossing House, Meldreth Road, Shepreth, the most colourful level crossing in Britain. Visitors arc welcome there on any day in the year. Ursula Buchan