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

regular critics.

DANCE

English National Ballet (formerly Festival Ballet), Dominion Theatre (5809562), 12 Junc-1 July. Repertory includes Napoli, Coppelia, La Sylphide, Onegin and Swan Lake. Guest artists include Lynn Seymour, Valentina Kozlova and Andris Licpa.

Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet, Birminghatn Hippodrome (021 622 7486), 15-24 June. Repertory includes a revival of Ashton's The Two Pigeons and new works by Vincent Redmon and William Tuckett.

Rambert Dance Company, Sadlcrs Wells (278 8916), 21-24 June. New works by Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies and Mary Evelyn.

Deirdre McMahon

POP MUSIC

Lou Reed, (touring). After all these years, it came as a surprise when his recent album New York turned out to he one of the most energetic and enjoyable albums of his career. Rumour hag it, though, that these live shows will showcase only the song's on that album - no more, no less. And stuff from Transformer (the non-purists favourite) is apparently right out. Shame.

Frazier Chorus (touring). It'll be interesting to see how they manage to reproduce the subtle shades of their luscious debut album Sue on stage. Will thcy just rock out? Seems unlikely. Listen out for their excellent new single 'Sloppy

Heart'. Marcus Berkmann

GARDENS

The gardens belonging to two of Lloyd-Georges houses (Bryn Awelon and Ty NeWydd) and one created by Clough Williams-Ellis (Plas Brondanw), arc among a variety of Gwynnedd gardens which will be open to coincide with the second Criccicth Music Festival in north-west Wales (22-26 June). All are interesting, usually private gardens and include four perched on hillsides in Snowdonia. Send a foolscap s.a.e. to Criccicth Festival Office, PO Box 3, Criccicth, Gwynedd, LL52 OBW for details or ring 0766 522778. Ursula Buchan

CRAFTS

International Ceramics Fair. Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly, WI, 8-12 June, Exceptional range and quality with spectacular Tang loan exhibition and lecture series.

Lucie Rie: White Pots, Galcrie Besson, 15 Royal Arcade, WI, till 7 July. Pure form by our greatest potter. Carol McNicoll: New Ceramics, Crafts Council Shop, V & A, 6 Junc-6 July. Dashing carapacial howls and vases.

The Garden Show, Gainshorough's !louse, Sudbury, Suffolk, till 9 July. Fine selection of furniture, ceramics, carved inscriptions for the horticulluralist. Tanya Harrod

EXHIBITIONS

The Nude: a New Perspective, V & A. Rendering of human flesh 1450 till now. 'the 'new perspective' hit brings us expressions such as 'rigid gendered categories'.

Seated female nude, by Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788)

The Cutting Edge, Manchester City Art Gallery. Artists carving wood and stone on the spot. Finished works also on view.

Emile Antoine Bourdelle, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Bretton Hall, West Bretton, Wakefield. Over 70 large works by magnificent French sculptor who died in 1929.

John Player Portrait Award 1989, National Portrait Gallery, from 9 June. Large prize encourages young artists to observe their fellow man once more.

Pre-Raphaelite Drawings, Ashmolcan, Oxford, from 16 June. This fine shoW coincides with that of drawings by PRB's mentor, John

Ruskin, from 6 June. Giles Auty

CINEMA

Little Vera (15). Soviet shocker: eponymous 17-year-old rebel goes in for drugs and sex and all manner of social evils till now supposed non-existent in USSR.

The Lion's Den (15). A group of Peruvian soldiers seeks out and destroys guerrillas in a remote mountain region. Based on a real- life incident, and billed as the Latin-American Platoon.

The Sixth Piccadilly Film and Video Festival runs 22-29 June (box office id: 437 0757). This year's theme: 'Nothing's Sacred'. . . .

Hilary Mantel

MUSIC

A number of our most established festivals take place this month: Spitalfields, 6-28 (all the concerts take place in Christ Church): Aldeburgh, 9-25 (mainly in the Mailings, Snapc); Bath, till 11 June; Nottingham, till 15 June; Almeida, June-July: Greenwich, 2-18 June.

Andre Previn will conduct the cycle of Beethoven symphonies in seven concerts at the Royal Festival Hall with the RPO. The dates arc: 18th (no. 3); 20th (nos. 2 and 5); 22nd (nos. 6 and 7); 25th (no. 1); 27th (no. 4); I and 2 July (nos. 8 and 9).

The London Festival Orchestra under Ross Poplc will give another season of Cathedral Classics. Main dates arc: 6th (Winchester), 8th (Canterbury), 10th (Liverpool), 13th (Durham), 17th (Southwell), 23rd (York), 28th (Salisbury), 30th

(GlouCester). Peter Phillips

OPERA

II trovatore,.Covent Garden (240 1066). Bernard Haitink conducts Piero Faggioni's new production for the Royal Opera, with Rosalind Plowright, Eva Randova, Placid() Domingo, Scrgey Leifcrkus and Willard Whitein the leading roles.

Golem, Almeida Theatre (359 4404), 28 June. World premiere of John Caskcn's new opera. conducted by Richard Bcrnas and directed by Pierre Audi. Cast includes Patricia Rozario, Christopher Robson and Adrian

Clarke. Rodney Wines

THEATRE

The Merchant of Venice, Phoenix (240 9661). Dustin Hoffman takes the role of Shylock, directed by Sir Peter Hall. Advance ticket sales rumourcd to be in the region of £2,000,000 suggest this production has caught the public imagination.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre (4862431). Promising-sounding first production in the open-air season.

The Grapes of Wrath, Lyttelton (928 2252). This adaptation of John Steinbeck's best-known novel by Chicago's Stcppcnwolf Company visits the National Theatre. Advance reports suggest a sensitive and dramatic production. Opens 22 June for 6 performances only, until 27 June. Christopher Edwards

SALE-ROOMS

Fairs come first this month: Fine Art & Antiques Fair, Olympia, 8-18 June; International Ceramics Fair, Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly, 9-12 June; Grosvenor House Antiquei Fair, Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, 14-24 June.

Peter Watson