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

MUSIC

Highlights at the Proms this month: on the 19th the Moscow Soloists under Yuri Bashmet playing Schubert, Schnittke and Tchaikovsky (his Serenade for Strings); on the 20th the London Philharmonic under Tennstedt Playing a programme mostly of Wagner excerpts; and two concerts by the St Petersburgh Philharmonic, on the 25th (under Jansons) and 26th (under Temirkanov), including music by leading Russian composers.

The Three Choirs Festival, 22-29 August, is this year at Gloucester. The main events include a concert given by the Royal Philharmonic with the Festival Chorus (Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music and Beethoven's Ninth) on the 23rd; the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with the same Chorus performing Janacek's Glagolitic Mass on the 28th, and on the 29th these artists again in Elgar's Dream of Gerontius.

On the 29th Colin Carr, one of our best young cellists, will perform all six of Bach's solo cello suites in one concert at St Martin-in-the-Fields, starting at 6 p.m. Peter Phillips

. DANCE

English National Ballet, Royal Festival Hall (071 928 8800). A week of Ashton's Romeo and Juliet with ex-ENB principals Trinidad evillano and Koen Onzi guesting in the title roles on 11 and 15 August. The season draws to a close with a quartet of Fokine works (17-20 August), to mark the 50th anniversary of his death, and includes The Dying Swan (created for Pavlova in 1907), Les Sylphides, plus Ballets Russes novelties Le Spectre de la Rose and Scheherazade.

At the Edinburgh International Festival (031 225 5756) the Mark Morris Dance Group opens at the Playhouse with Dido and Aeneas (18-20 August). A mixed bill (22-24) features Ten Suggestions, a set of brief, playful solos, together with A Lake and Gloria set to music by Haydn and Vivaldi respectively. This is followed at the King's Theatre on 26, 28 and 29 August by Adventures in Motion Pictures' The Nutcracker, choreographed by Matthew Bourne in his first collaboration with Opera North.

Sophie Constanti

OPERA

La Roheme, Theatre Royal, Bath (0225 44844), 4-7 August. Bath City ,C1Pera's new production of ru_ ccinrs old chestnut includes the Mimi of a remarkable new American soprano, Renee Fleming,

and the intimacy of a charming theatre. Klaus Donath conducts, John Pascoe produces.

Operatic highlights at the Edinburgh Festival (031 225 5756) include a concert performance of Schoenberg's Moses and Aron (Usher Hall, 16 August) and Tchaikovsky's rarely heard Yolanta, presented by Opera North (King's Theatre, 26, 28, 28 August).

Ariadne on Naxos, Coliseum (071 836 3161), 28 August. A strongly cast ENO revival of the oddest of the Strauss/Hofmannsthal operas, in a production by Graham Vick, conducted by Alexander Sander. Rita Cullis sings the Composer and Janice Cairns the title role.

Rupert Christiansen

EXHIBITIONS

The Painted Nude: from Etty to Freud, Tate Gallery, from 10 August. Two dozen paintings and sculptures by leading artists show routes to nudity.

'The Reading Girl', 1886-7, by Theodore Roussel Dutch Art and Scotland: a Reflection of Taste, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, from 13 August. Over 80 Dutch masterpieces bought and sometimes sold by canny Scotsmen.

Elizabeth Blackadder: Prints, Monotypes, Watercolours, Oxford Gallery, Oxford, from 8 August. Restrained, intimiste images by esteemed Scottish artist.

Images of Tidmarsh, Museum of London. The streets of Edwardian London brought to life evocatively by H.E. Tidmarsh, watercolourist.

Joan Miro: Sculpture, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. The strange and beautiful surrealist sculpture of Spaniard seen too seldom. Giles Auty

GARDENS

The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and Arboretum, at Ampfield, near Romsey, Hampshire, is a very fine collection of trees and shrubs founded by one of the most knowledgeable plantsmen of his generation, the nurseryman Sir Harold Hillier, in 1953. In August there will be two organised walks, guided by members of staff, on the 12th at 7 p.m. and the 16th at 2.30

p.m. The theme is 'Summer Flowers, the Obvious and the

Obscure'. Ursula Buchan

POP MUSIC

Michael Jackson, Wembley Stadium, 1, 21, 22 August. Pop's very own one-man freak show returns, whiter than Persil white and twice as barmy. Expect him to put in an offer for London Zoo before the month's out.

Also recommended: the Cambridge Folk Festival, with acts including Nanci Griffith, Buddy Guy and Eddi Reader, till 2 August; Genesis and Lisa Stansfield at Knebworth '92, 1 and 2 August; and a one-off reunion by Madness at Finsbury Park, 8 August — at least, until the next one.. . . Marcus Berkman

THEATRE

Edinburgh Festival. The usual thousand or two shows on the Fringe plus, unusually for the main Festival, a co-ordinated drama programme centred on retrospective seasons dedicated to playwrights C.P. Taylor (Schippel, Good etc) and Harley Granville- Barker (Madras House, His Majesty etc), as performed by such London companies as those of the Orange Tree Richmond and Lyric Hammersmith, among others.

Mother Tongue, Greenwich (081 858 7755), 3 August. Prunella Scales in new Alan Franks comedy about expatriates in London.

Fallen Angels, Leatherhead (0732 377677), 4 August. Sisters Juliet and Hayley Mills together on stage for the first time in vintage Coward comedy of alcoholic socialites.

Richard III, Other Place, Stratford (0789 295623), 11 August. Start of the RSC small-scale tour, with Simon Russell Beale as Crookback.

She Stoops to Conquer, Chichester (0243 781312), 12 August. Denis Quilley in Goldsmith revival to end Sussex season.

Annie Get Your Gun, Plymouth (0752 669595), 22 August. Kim Criswell en route for London in the old Irving Berlin western.

Sheridan Morley

CINEMA

In Alien 3, the shaven-headed Sigoumey Weaver outfaces a redesigned, computer-generated alien emerging from the entrails of a barking rottweiler. The sequel was directed by pop-promo maker David Pincher and cost $50 million.

Lethal Weapon 3, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as a pair of violent and unconventional police officers, cost a mere $33 million. Rene Russo, as a martial arts expert and Internal Affairs detective, provides the requisite love interest. Vanessa Letts