44 0A February rtsDiary A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The

Spectator's regular critics

OPERA

Street Scene, Coliseum (071 836 3161), from 13 February. An interesting score from Kurt Weill's Broadway years, set in a Manhattan tenement. David Pountney's production is revived by the ENO, conducted by James Holmes, with a cast led by Janice Cairns.

Billy Budd, Theatre Royal, Glasgow (041 332 9000), from 19 February. Graham Vick's intelligent production for Scottish Opera of Britten's most problematic theatrical score, with a superb young bariton Simon Keenlyside in the title role and Laurence Dale as Captain Vern.

Pellet's et Mellsande, New Theatre, Cardiff (0222 394844), from 21 February. The most exciting operatic event of the year — WNO's new production of Debussy's masterpiece, directed by Peter Stein, conducted by Pierre Boulez, with a cast led by Alison Hagley, Neill Archer and Donald Maxwell. Nobody seriously interested in opera should miss this.

Rupert Christiansen

DANCE

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden (071 240 1066), 13, 17, 20 February. A triple bill featuring the revival of two Ashton masterworks, Scenes de Ballet and Monotones, and the company premiere of William Forsythe's In the middle, somewhat elevated, first created for the Paris Opera in 1967. There are also some stellar casts in MacMillan's Manon: Durante and Mukhamedov on 26 February and Assylmuratova and Hill on 29 February.

Spring Loaded, Queen Elizabeth Hall (071 9288800) and The Place (071 387 0031). Festival of independent choreography featuring 28 events, among them a new production from Laurie Booth and a joint production from the Cholmondeleys and the Feather- stonehaughs. Deirdre McMahon

POP MUSIC

Eric Clapton, Royal Albert Hall, 12-14, 16-18, 22-24, 26-28 February. As beloved a feature of the British winter as burst pipes, Clapton's annual series of concerts has also become a hot ticket on the corporate hospitality circuit: the rumble of photocopier salesmen making deals is almost loud enough to obscure the music.

Also recommended: Seal, Hammersmith Odeon, 14th; Everything But The Girl, Queen's 'theatre, 13th, 14th; Thomas Lang, Ronnie Scott's, 16th, 23rd ; Little Village, an intriguing new group featuring John Hiatt, Nick Lowe and Ry Cooder, Hammersmith Odeon, 25th, 26th ; and They Might Be Giants, Bloomsbury Theatre, 4th. Marcus Berkma n n

EXHIBITIONS

Solo: the Alan Davie Retrospective, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow. A hundred works by senior Scottish artist of perennially youthful spirit.

Lucian Freud, Tate Gallery, Liverpool, from 4 February. Britain's most eminent living artist represented in depth.

Ready Steady Go, Royal Festival Hall, till 23 February. Works by 30 artists from the decadent decade of the flared trouser.

'Movement in Squares; 1962, by Bridget Riley

Crossing Black Waters, City Art Gallery, Leicester. Traditional and barrier-breaking work by Asian artists from UK and Indian sub- continent. Giles Auty

CINEMA

This month you may shed a tear or two for Captain James Tiberius Kirk, who tussles valiantly against the Klingons for the last time ever on celluloid, in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (PG).

The Cannes prize-winner Barton Fink (15) is another peculiar black comedy by the Coen brothers, creators of Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing. John Turturro is a Jewish playwright who sells out and moves to Hollywood, only to find himself incarcerated in a stuffy Los Angeles hotel with writer's block and a disgustingly fat salesman played by John Goodman.

The most polemical release of the month comes from Canada. Directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Lothaire Bluteau (Jesus in Jesus of Montreal), Black Robe describes the travels of a white Jesuit missionary through 17th.

century Quebec. Vanessa Letts

CRAFTS

Lucie Rie, Crafts Council Gallery, till 5 April. Dame Lucie Rie is 90 this year — a celebratory exhibition.

Creativity and Industry: 25 Years of the Queensberry Hunt Design Group, V & A, from 6 February. Quiet good taste, mainly designs for ceramics.

Janice Tchalenko: a Retrospective Exhibition, Ruskin Craft Gallery, Sheffield, till 7 March. The opposite of the tasteful modernism of above; this studio potter has had an enormous influence on her peers and on the industry. Tanya Harrod

MUSIC

Concerts for the Lunch Hour are presented at the Purcell Room beginning at 1.05 every Thursday during February and early March, preceded or succeeded by a light lunch. The artists are Domus (Mahler and Mendelssohn) on the 6th ; Eileen Hulse (Rossini), on the 13th; the Haffner Wind Ensemble (Ravel and Walton), on the 20th; and the Delme Quartet with lain Burnside (Faure and Franck), on the 27th.

The South Bank Centre is featuring Michael Collins (clarinet) in a concerto (Nielsen's, backed by the Philharmonia) on the 15th, a recital, which includes the Brahms clarinet sonata, on the 17th; chamber music by Robert Saxton and Jonathan Harvey with 'London Winds' on the 20th, and a master class in the Purcell Room on the 22nd.

The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra will make its only appearance in London this season at St John's Smith Square on 14 February, conducted by Ton Koopman. The programme includes two Haydn symphonies (nos 83 and 85), a Haydn keyboard concerto (very rare) and Mozart's Bassoon Concerto. Peter Phillips

THEATRE

Caesar and Cleopatra, Greenwich (081 858 7755), 4 February. Alec McCowen stars as Caesar in this revival of Shaw's work which deals with his ideas of the 'Superman'. Amanda Root plays Cleopatra, Matthew Francis directs.

The Night of the Iguana, Lyttelton (071 928 2252), 6 February. The National Theatre revives another of Tennessee Williams's heated dramas under the directorship of Richard Eyre and starring Alfred Molina and Eileen Atkins.

Uncle Vanya, Cottesloe (071 928 2252), 25 February. Chekhov's masterpiece, starring Ian McKellen and Antony Sher, directed by Sean Mathias. Christopher Edwards

GARDENS

The Weir, at Swainshill, near Hereford, is a National Trust garden which is naturally 'early' because it is set on a steeply sloping south-facing bank next to the River Wye and planted extensively with bulbs. It will be open from 14 February, Wednesdays to Sundays and Bank Holidays, until October,