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

OPERA

The Jewel Box, Grand Theatre, Leeds (0532 459351), from 7 January. Opera North mounts an enterprising novelty for the Mozart bicentenary: music critic and novelist Paul Griffiths has devised and compiled this opera from various of the master's lesser- known and fugitive works. A cast of young singers is led by conductor Elgar Howarth.

Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Oedipus Rex, London Coliseum (071 836 3161), from 23 January. Mark Elder conducts, David Alden directs and superb casts (including Sally Burgess, Gwynne Howell, and Philip Langridge) perform this double bill of Bartok's and Stravinsky's operatic masterpieces. One of the most promising prospects of the ENO's 20th- century season.

Rupert Christiansen

DANCE

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden (071 240 1066). Irek Mukhamedov makes his debut in Kenneth MacMillan's Manon, alternating in the roles of Des Grieux and Lescaut.

London International Mime Festival, Battersea Arts Centre (071 223 2223), 15-27 January. This year the Festival features companies from Europe, South America and Australia.

Deirdre McMahon

MUSIC

The Mozart bicentennial gets under way at the Barbican Centre on the 25th with a performance of Mitridate, re di Pomo, an early opera directed by Jeffrey-Tate. On the 30th this series continues under the same conductor with an early 'dramatic oratorio' entitled La Baulk, liberata. These concerts will form part of a series of 21 concerts, running throughout the year, which will present a selection of Mozart's masterworks in their chronological order of composition.

A different tribute to Mozart will be given at the South Bank under the baton and auspices of Sir Georg Solti. This will include a concert performance of The Marriage of Figaro (20th); chamber music with Solti at the piano accompanied by the Takacs Quartet (21st); and the Haffner and Jupiter symphonies with the A major violin concerto, performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter, on the 22nd.

The BBC is presenting a festival of the music of Hans Werner Henze at the Barbican between 10 and 15 January. This series will culminate in a performance of Henze's Seventh Symphony on the 15th, preceded by a public dialogue between the composer and John Drummond. Peter Phillips

EXHIBITIONS

Charles Keene of Punch, Christie's, London, 4-27 January. A show sponsored by Punch to mark the centenary of the death of one of Britain's finest illustrators.

'Milkmaid', by Charles Keene The Victorian Landscape — a Continuing Tradition? City Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on- Trent, from 19 January. Constable, Cox and co. react to the changing face of Victorian Britain.

The London Original Print Fair, Royal Academy, London 11-14 January. Top print dealers show major works from five centuries.

Turner's Watercolours, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. A chance for Scots to reacquaint themselves with England's greatest water-colourist. Giles Auty

POP MUSIC

Robert Cray, touring, 18-27 January. January is never the most gripping month in the pop music calendar, but Cray would be worth a look at any time of the year. Blues purists may smart at his eclectic, almost soulful approach to the genre, but for the rest of us he's excellent value.

Paul Young, Hammersmith Odeon, 10-11 January. Still on the comeback trail, which is where he'll remain until he makes a decent record again. Marcus Berkmann

CINEMA

Reversal of Fortune (15). Based on the true story of Claus von Bulow who was put on trial for attempting to murder his (very rich) wife Sunny. Billed as a tragi-comedy with Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons.

Cyrano de Bergerac (U). A French version of Rostand's play about a man with a big nose but the heart of a poet, in verse with subtitles by Anthony Burgess. Gerard Depardieu won the prize for best actor at Cannes.

Postcards from the Edge (15). Ageing actress Meryl Streep copes with drink, drugs and mother (Shirley Maclaine) in Hollywood. The author, Carrie Fisher, daughter of Debbie Reynolds, says that it is not autobiographical. Mike Nichols directed.

Mark Amory

THEATRE

The Homecoming, Comedy Theatre (071 930 2578), 10 January. A revival of one of Harold Pinter's more uncomfortable plays which even the playwright himself called 'rum'. Peter Hall directs an extremely strong cast which includes Warren Mitchell, Greg Flicks and Cherie Lunghi.

Betrayal, Almeida (071 359 4404), 20 January. More Pinter. Here the playwright follows a triangular relationship in time through nine years. Again there is a strong cast which includes Cheryl Campbell, Martin Shaw and Bill Nighy. The director is David Levaux.

A Free Country, Tricycle (071 328 1000), 23 January. Translation of a play by one of France's leading playwrights, Jean-Claude Grumberg, set in 1942 in a small village near Limoges in Vichy France. A Jewish family seek refuge from the Nazi occupation of Paris. Christopher Edwards

CRAFTS

Can't Stop Me Now, Crafts Council, from 9 January. Survey show looking at makers given setting-up grants over 20 years. Extraordinary diversity.

Scotland Creates: 5,000 Years of Art and Design, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, till 1 April. Starts with a horn spoon and moves boldly to the present. A mad idea beautifully executed.

Owen Jones: the Grammar of Ornament, Ruskin Gallery, Sheffield, till 19 January. The man who categorised something that perhaps should not be categorised.

Tanya Harrod

GARDENS

The National Trust is keeping open about 40 of the gardens in its care during the winter. This enlightened initiative will appeal to everyone with winter weekend guests to entertain. I recommend a January walk at Blickling (Norfolk), Wallington (Northumberland), Montacute (Somerset), Overhecks and Killerton in Devon, and Lyme Park (Cheshire). Check the NT Handbook for times.

Ursula Buchan