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

OPERA

La Rondine, Grand Theatre, Leeds (0532 459351) from 14 April. Long overdue airing of one of Puccini's lesser known operas — a bitter sweet romance, short on show- stopping histrionics but full of charm. Opera North's production is conducted by David Lloyd-Jones and directed by Francesca Zambello. Helen Field and Tito Beltran lead the cast.

Blond Eckbert, London Coliseum (071 836 3161), from 20 April. World Premiere of an opera by Judith Weir, inspired by a playful novella of little known German Romantic, Ludwig Tieck. Sian Edwards conducts and Tim Hopkins directs this intriguing prospect. Rupert Christiansen

DANCE

Yolande Snaith Dance Theatre, the Place Theatre (071 387 0031), 22. 23 April. Revival of Snaith's clever and venturesome Diction, in which eight performers, instructed by a pair of tyrannical umpires, engage in a series of frantic games and strange rituals on a chequer-board floor.

Jonathan Burrows Group, Phoenix Arts, Leicester (0533 554854), 15 - 16 April. Premiere of new show, Our, featuring six dancers in an exploration of the sculptural interplay between movement and light. Music by Matteo Fargion, designs by Craig Givens and, more likely than not, wantonly impenetrable — but effective — choreography from Burrows.

Sophie Constanti

GARDENS

Those who grow auriculas (those enchanting primulas with the lace- edged, striped and powdered flowers) will probably already know that the southern section of the National Auricula and Primula Society is holding its Auricula Show on Saturday, 30 April at Church House, Holy Trinity Church, Brompton, London SW7, from 2.30 until 5 p.m. Anyone is welcome for an entrance fee of £1.00.

Ursula Buchan

CRAFTS

The New Glass Gallery opens at the V & A, 29 April. A redisplay creating new emphases and juxtapositions in a fine new gallery designed by Penny Richards. The new museology at its most adventurous.

Jim Malone, Galerie Besson, 15 Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond Street,

13 April - 13 May. The finest British interpreter of the classical Korean sensibility in ceramics.

Designed in One — Made in the Other: new products of collaboration between Britain and Japan, Design Museum, Shad Thames, SE1 till 5 June. Case studies in globalisation focusing on the export of the British designer.

Tanya Harrod

EXHIBITIONS

Jacob and His Twelve Sons by Zurbaran, National Gallery. A little known set of full-length figures 7ft high by Spanish 17th-Century master.

David Humphreys: Magical Realism , the Museum of Modem Art, Wales, Heol Penrallt, Machynlleth, Powys till 23rd. Fine figure painter promoted by enterprising museum.

Patrick Symons 1925-1993: Commemorative Exhibition, Browse and Darby, 19 Cork Street, W1 till 16th. Tribute to respected painter and teacher killed tragically last year.

Ash Trees at Melbuiy Bubb, by Patrick Symons

Stella Benjamin: Navaho Technique Rugs Contemporary Applied Arts, 43, Earlham Street, WC2 from 15th. Unusual hand- crafted rugs by English artist with facility in unusual medium.

C. D. Mistry: Paintings of Indian Mythology, Commonwealth Institute, W8. Paintings of popular epics from Indian folklore in traditional style. Giles Auty

POP MUSIC

The Beautiful South (touring 2-22 April). Falling between 23 stools as ever. Paul Heaton and David Rotheray's songs are too tuneful for some, too misanthropic for others, but their new album, Miaow, is a savagely slick piece of work. Live, they're more shambolic but no less entertaining.

Also recommended: The Proclaimers (touring 17 April .5 May); the remarkably persistent

Wonder Stuff (touring till 22 April); Mick Ronson Memorial Concert (Hammersmith Apollo, 29 April); Michelle Shocked (London Forum, 2 April); and, showing off their new Rolling Stones fixation, Primal Scream (Academy Brixton, 8, 10, 11 April). Marcus Berkmann

CINEMA

The Thing Called Love: Peter Bogdanovich, director of The Last Picture Show, directs River Phoenix in what proved to be his last picture show. The story of a trio of young musicians swingin' their partners in Nashville.

And The Band Played On: the title is a forlorn echo of the Sixties gay play, The Boys in the Band. But now it's the Eighties and Aids is on the march. Less hedged about than Philadelphia, it also has a quirkier cast — including Phil Collins as a gay bath-house owner.

The Scent of Green Papaya: Vietnam's first Oscar-nominated movie, following the progress of a young village girl. Inventive shots of insects, though it's hard to say what

for. Mark Steyn

MUSIC

The exceptional parade of international symphony orchestras playing in London continues this month with: the Vienna Philharmonic under Muti (25 April, RFH) playing Beethoven's Eighth Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Fifth; the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Masur (21and 22 April, Barbican) playing Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schumann and Schubert; the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Chailly, the Montreal SO under Dutoit and still more. What riches!

The Motorola Festival of American music continues in several London venues. The high-point comes on 9 April with the Philharmonia in the RFH playing Ives, Glass and Gershwin; this programme is to include the UK premiere of Philip Glass's Violin Concerto played by

Gidon Kremer. Peter Phillips

THEATRE

Dead Funny (6 April, Vaudeville, 071 836 9987), Best new comedy of the Nineties thus far: a weekend with moribund members of a deceased comics' fan club.

Brecht In Hollywood (7 April, Bridge Lane, 071 228 8828). The Redgrave season in Battersea continues with a new play about Bert on Sunset Boulevard: ready for my Galileo, Mr deMille?

Rope (11 April, Wyndhams 071 867 1115) Brilliant rediscovery of Hamilton's gay Twenties thriller.

Sheridan Morley