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ARTS DIARY

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

OPERA

Vitalism in Alger!, Covent Garden (240 1066), 11 July. Marilyn Horne sings the title role in Ponnelle's joky production, with Frank Lopardo as Lindoro and Simone Alaimo as Mustafa. Donato Renzetti conducts.

Der fliegende Hollander. David Pountney produces Wagner's opera on the Floating Stage to open the Bregenz Festival on 21 July; Steven Pimlott's highly praised Samson et Dalila follows in the Festival Theatre from 27 July.

L'italiana in Londra. First British staging of Cimarosa's comedy at the Buxton Festival, opening on 27 July, then playing in repertory with the same composer's fl pittor parigino. Rodney Milnes

THEATRE

The Voysey Inheritance, Cot tesloe (928 2252). Richard Eyre directs Harley Granville-Barker's play, last seen 23 years ago. The playwright's skilful construction and civilised dialogue are again being appreciated.

Three Sisters, Old Vic (928 7616), 13-18 July. Hungarian version of Chekhov with 'simultaneous live audio description', from the Katona Jozsef Company.

The Man Who Came to Dinner. Barbican (638 8891), 20 July. Classic American farce by Kaufman and Hart first seen on Broadway 50 years ago. John Wood stars as the critic who stays and takes over the house.

Christopher Edwards

MUSIC

The Proms start on 21 July. Highlights this month include Bruckner's Third Symphony (23rd), Mahler's Fourth Symphony (26th, along with a new work by Torn Takemitsu), Brahms's German Requiem (27th), Broadway and Hollywood favourites (29th) and Handel's Orlando (30th).

Other festivals this month include the Lichfield Festival (7-16); the City of London Festival (9-26), culminating in a 25th anniversary concert in St Paul's Cathedral given by the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra (26th); the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Summer

Festival (11-15), celebrating their 30th anniversary, with the final concert conducted by Sir Neville Marriner; the Ryedale Festival (28 July-13 August); the Henley Festival (5-8) includes the Bournemouth SO, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the RPO; the Cheltenham Festival (1- 16) with Alun Hoddinott as composer-in-residence; and the York Early Music Festival (14-23), celebrating six centuries of Viennese music. Peter Phillips

EXHIBITIONS

Within These Shores: a Selection of Works from the Chantrey Bequest 1883-1985, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield. Bequest has helped emphasise the endearingly idiosyncratic nature of British art.

Posada: Messenger of Mortality, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. Satirical graphic's of Posada (1852- 1913) foreshadowed major Mexican muralists.

From Posada's 'Calavera of the Cyclists', at MoMA, Oxford.

Treasures from Abbot Hall, Kendal, Leger Galleries, 13 Old Bond Street, WI. Eighteenth- century masterpieces from famous Cumberland house.

Anthony Green's Mirror, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich. Weird-shaped works 1960-1986 by contemporary chronicler of domestic bliss.

Giles Auty

POP MUSIC

Pink Floyd, London Arena, 4-9 July. Chucking Dave Gilmour and his merry pals with three hours of guitar solos and flashing lights at l.ondon's newest (and least accessible) rock venue. Don't go by public transport — there isn't any.

Pet Shop Boys, touring. A very camp night out in store here Derek Jarman is in charge of the visuals — but Tennant's and Lowe's perfectionism (and good tunes) should make it worth the £15 asking price. Marcus Berkmann

CINEMA

Do the Right Thing (18). Twenty- four hours in stifling Brooklyn; slick mix of comedy and social comment from Spike Lee.

Two baseball movies: Bull Durham (15), a comedy with Susan Sarandon, and Eight Men Out (15), a more sober account of the 'throwing' of the 1919 World Series by the Chicago White Sox.

Running on Empty (15). The Pope family, political radicals. have been on the run for 15 years; Danny, aged 17, wants to stop running. Sidney Lumet directs.

The Cambridge Film Festival runs 13-30 July. Box office 0223 352001 from 3 July. Hilary Mantel

CRAFTS

Focus on Nigeria: Pots from West Africa, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, from 14 July. Fine selection from public and private collections.

The Sugared Imagination: an Art and a Trade, Usher Gallery, Lindum Road, Lincoln, 24 July-6 August, then touring. At last, real craftsmanship spun in sugar—an exhibition of iced cakes curated by brilliant sociologist Jane Freeman.

Tanya Harrod

GARDENS

At present, the garden is attracting considerable attention from craftsmen and artists. An indication of this is the exhibition being staged by the Oxford Gallery of work by several sculptors, including William Pye, furniture- makers such as Julienne Dolphin- Wilding, potters and a selection of other craftsmen. The Cultivated Garden is to be held in one designed by Harold Peto at High Wall, Pullen's Lane, Headington Hill, Oxford. Open daily 11-7.

7-30 July. Ursula Buchan

SALE-ROOMS

Timothy Clifford's collection of Old Master drawings (Bronzino, Parmigianino, Salviati, Veronese), . Sotheby's, 3 July; very rare Romanesque enamels, Sotheby's, 6 July; three-day sale of Count Giansanti-Coluzzi's collection of model trains: 3,000 items, Christie's, South Kensington, 20- Marklin clockwork train with rare disaster car, c.1902, in Christie's sale of the Coluzzi collection