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ARTS DIARY ver

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

OPERA

Les Boreades, Nottingham Playhouse (0602 419419), 7 May; Goldsmiths Leisure Centre, Crowborough (0273 326894), 11 and 12 May, as part of the Brighton Festival. The enterprising City of Birmingham Touring Opera tackles one of Rameau's late masterpieces. Simon Halsey conducts a large cast, Graham Vick is the producer. One of the most intriguing operatic events of the year.

Wozzeck, Grand Theatre Leeds (0532 459351), from 13 May. Deborah Warner makes her debut as an opera producer with this new Opera North staging of Berg's astonishing adaptation of Biichner's play. Andrew Shore sings the title role and Paul Daniel conducts.

Macbeth, London Coliseum (071 836 3161), from 20 May. Revival of David Pountney's bold and lively production of Verdi's first Shakespearean opera. Malcolm Donnelly takes the title role and that first-class Verdian Mark Elder conducts. Rupert Christiansen

POP MUSIC

Michael Bolton, touring, 9-22 May. Few less likely figures can ever have become rock 'n' roll heart-throbs. Perhaps it's the piggy eyes. Maybe it's the deep-fried hairstyle. Perhaps it's the strained, anguished voice. More likely still, it's because millions of people have absolutely no taste at all.

A far better bet would be one of the following: Nanci Griffith, touring from 10 May; famed blues show-off Buddy Guy, touring 22-26 May; a rejuvenated Joan Baez, Glasgow Royal, 19 May; London Dominion, 21 May; and, for sad heavy metal persons, Bon Jovi, touring 10-19 May. Marcus Berlunann

THEATRE

Getting Married, Chichester (0243 781312), 5 May. The season opens with Tony Britton and Dorothy Tutin in Shaw revival.

Search and Destroy, Royal Court (071 730 1745), 6 May. Incoming director Stephen Daldry debuts in Theatre Upstairs with Howard Korder's play, another in the current Sloane Square season of American dreams turned into nightmares of showbiz violence.

The Showman, Almeida (071 359 4404), 12 May. Alan Bates in the British premiere of Thomas Bernard's backstage satire.

The Changeling, Barbican Pit (071 638 8891), 25 May. Stratford transfer from the Swan of the Middleton/Rowley shocker. Cheryl Campbell stars for Michael Attenborough.

Antony and Cleopatra, Barbican (071 638 8891), 26 May. Richard Johnson and Claire Higgins, also in from Stratford. Sheridan Morley

MUSIC

The Parkhouse Award for piano and string ensembles was won this year by the Bartholdy Trio from Paris. They will be playing at St John's Smith Square on 5 May; their programme includes Haydn, Mendelssohn (Trio No. 1 in D minor) and Chausson (Op. 3 in G minor).

The London Sinfonietta celebrates the birthdays of two leading contemporary composers at the Barbican Hall: Gyorgy Ligeti's 70th on 15 May and Witold Lutoslawski's 80th on 22 May. Lutoslawski will conduct most of the performances to be given on his day; the Ligeti fare includes hisAll Clouds are Clocks with the cartoon films it was written for.

Gyorgy Ligeti at 70

The Vienna Philharmonic come to the Royal Festival Hall on 30 May under Riccardo Muti to play Faure, Ravel's Rhapsodie Espagnole and Beethoven's Eroica . Peter Phillips

EXHIBITIONS

Eugene Impey: a Passage through India, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, till 23 May. Nineteenth-century India through the camera of a career soldier.

Botswana Live, Commonwealth Institute, London W8, from 12 May. Contemporary work includes textiles, ceramics and toys as well as paintings.

Nature's Way: Romantic Landscapes from Norway, Fitzwilliam, Cambridge. Direct studies from life in 19th-century Norway by Dahl and Fearnley.

Annual Spring Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings, Spink & Son, London SW1, 5-28 May. High-quality offerings from some of the best in our history. Giles Auty

CINEMA

Groundhog Day (PG) is an unlikely Hollywood comedy co-written and directed by Harold Ramis, famous for his work on Animal House and Ghostbusters. Bill Murray stars as a TV weatherman who finds himself stuck in time, doomed endlessly to repeat the same day, 2 February.

Wild West (15) is a feverishly lighthearted new British comedy set in Southall about a country-and- western band run by three Pakistani brothers.

The first ever British Animation Week, at the ICA till 6 May (071 930 3647), showcases work by the Quay Brothers, Bob Godfrey and Nick 'Creature Comforts' Park.

Vanessa Letts

CRAFTS

Putting Slovenia on the Map, Liberty, Wl, till 8 May. Wide- ranging exhibition of Slovenian design and fashion.

Feet of Ingenuity, Horniman Museum, SE23, till August. An inspired little exhibition making ingenious use of the museum's extensive collection of footwear. Witty and illuminating.

Lucienne Day: a Career in Design, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, till 26 June. Surveys the career of Britain's most inventive post-war pattern designer — her famous Cal)tr, inspired by Klee and Miro, now seems the quintessence of the

Fifties. Tanya Harrod

DANCE

%Allan Davies Dance Company, Gardner Centre, Brighton (0273 585861), 13-15 May. World premiere of Wanting to Tell Stories, the latest work from Olivier award- winner Davies set to an original score by Kevin Volans.

NDT2, Sadler's Wells (071 276 8916), 18-22 May. The youth offshoot of Julr Kylian's Nederlands Dans Theater performs works by Hans van Manen, Ohad Naharin and Kylian.

Rambert Dancers' Season, Lilian Baylis Theatre (071 837 4104), 26-29 May. For its first (and perhaps only) London dates this year, Rambert presents two programmes of choreography created by company members.

Sophie Constanti

GARDENS

It looks as if this may be a very good year for rhododendron flower, especially in the acid gardens of the south. Three Sussex gardens worth visiting in May are: Borde Hill, near ulaywards Heath, open daily, 10-8; High Beeches, near Hand-cross, daily except Wednesdays and Sundays, 1-5; and Leonardslee, four miles south-west of Handcross, open daily, 10-6. Ursula Buchan