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

regular critics

EXHIBITIONS

Sculpture at Goodwood, Hat Hill Copse, Goodwood, West Sussex, open Thursday, Friday, Saturday from 4th. Superb sculpture collection of Mr and Mrs W. Cass in beautiful grounds with views through to Chichester cathedral.

Peter Randall-Page: Boulders and Banners, Reed's Wharf Gallery, Mill Street, SE1, from 15th. One of Britain's better carvers of stone who re-invents organic forms.

Kitty North, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, 35 Windmill Street, Wl, till 10th. A young Chelsea-trained painter experiences Australia.

Signals: Festival of Women Photographers, Interchange Studios, Dalby Street, NW5. Women photographers from Europe forgather in force.

Giles Auty

OPERA

British Youth Opera, Sadler's Wells, (071 278 8916), 1 September — 17 September. Valiant organization, which has already provided experience for several notable young singers, gives a short London season, alternating Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin with Rossini's wonderful The Thieving Magpie.

Tosca, London Coliseum, (071 632 8300), from 12 September. New ENO production by Keith Warner of Puccini's most effective melodrama. Rosalind Ploy/right sings the title-role, with David Rendall as her lover, Cavaradossi, and I ienk Smit as her antagonist, Scarpia. Scottish Opera veteran, Sir Alexander Gibson, conducts.

Rupert Christiansen

GARDENS

Longstock Park Water Garden (created by the founder of the John Lewis Partnership) is said, I am sure with justice, to have one of the finest collections of water plants in Europe. The lakes are fed by the River Test. The garden will be open on 4 and 18 September from 2 till 5 p.m. It is two miles north of Stockbridge in Hampshire. Admission is £2, and 50p for children, with all proceeds to local

charities. Ursula Buchan

CINEMA

Clear And Present Danger. Harrison Ford stars as a CIA man who discovers his boys are engaged in an illegal operation in the Columbian cocaine industry: the whole thing's been going on right under his nose, apparently. Joaquim de Almeida plays a mad bomber.

Blown Away. Tommy Lee Jones plays a, er, mad bomber.

Speed. You know how it is with mad bombers. You wait ages for one and then three come along all at once. This time, it's Dennis Hopper, wiring the explosives to the undercarriage of a Los Angeles 'bus. For the passengers, it looks like a one-way ticket. For the producers, a first-class return.

Mark Steyn

CRAFTS

Tribal textiles of Afghanistan, Blackthorpe Barn, Rougham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. 16 September — 9 October. The sufferings of war reflected in these textiles. Guns and tanks replace traditional designs. Also a full-sized tent or yurt, home for Uzbeki nomads.

British Studio Furniture, The Gallery in Cork Street, 28 Cork Street, W1 till 14 September. A chance to become a patron or to wonder what happened to the Modern Movement.

Illingworth and Partridge, Desk and Stool, Ash

The Currency of Fame: Portrait Medals of the Renaissance, National Gallery of Scotland, The Mound, Edinburgh. 22 September till 8 January. The medalic interests of Mark Jones, the Gallery's new Director, reflected in this fascinating exhibition.

Tanya Harrod

MUSIC

The Proms end on 10th. Before then you can hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Salonen play Ilindemith's Mathis der Maier and Bruckner's Third (1st); the BBC SO under the veteran Gunter Wand in Schubert's Eighth and Ninth (3rd); the Dresden Staatskapelle under Cohn Davis in a programme'of Weber, Dvorak and Berlioz (Symphonic faniastique') (6th) and the Pittsburgh SO under Maazel on 8th (Rakmaninov, Prokofiev and Ravel) and on the 9th (Beethoven's Eighth and Ninth).

The Cardiff Festival begins on the 8th. Under the artistic direction of Odaline de la Martinez it carries the theme: 'A celebration of Women in the Arts' and has commissioned a new opera, Hilary Tann's With the heather and small birds, and a new production of Nicola LeFanu's Dawnpath. The European Women's Orchestra will

be featured in several of the

concerts. Peter Phillips

DANCE

The Rhythm Method, Purcell Room (071 928 8800), 10 and 11 September. A weekend showcase for new collaborative work. Saturday night's programme includes Tank, a piece for Ben Wright, Andrew Robinson and a 13' gauze cube. On Sunday, the Betty Trump Academy unveils Jacob Marley and Claire Eastman's Shimmi Gimme More!

Cumbre Flamenco, Sadler's Wells (071 8916), from 20 September. The finest exponents of flamenco dance, back in town for another sell-out season.

Sophie Constanti

THEATRE

Design for Living, Donmar Warehouse (071 369 1732), 6 , September. Sean Mathias strikes camp again: after Cocteau's terrible parents, Coward's troilism classic of the same 1930s.

The Devil's Disciple, National Olivier (071 928 2252), 8 September. Christopher Morahan continues his long-running Shaw festival with the one about the War of Independence.

The Slab Boys Trilogy, Young Vic (071 928 6363), 9 September. Tim Supple directs the full John Byrne epic.

Moby Dick, RSC Barbican Pit, (071 638 8891), 13th September. Ishmael in from Stratford, Ahab et al, said to be rather wooden whale of a tale, The Children's Hour, National Lyttleton (071 928 2552), 22nd September in a vintage Broadway season on South Bank, Hellman's drama of the falsely-accused lesbian schoolmistresses.

Hamlet, Old Rep, Birmingham (021 616 1519), 26 September. Richard Dreyfuss in from Hollywood to direct the Dane.

Sheridan Morley

POP MUSIC

The Pretenders (touring Sept 19- 29). The new album is Chrissie Hynde's best in a decade: after years of moping about, she's finally taken an interest again. All these shows are at medium-sized venues, with one London date at the Brixton Academy on 28 September.

Also recommended: David Byrne, floppy hair but still sharp of brain (touring Sept 9 — 21); Lyle Lovett (Royal Festival Hall, Sept 3, 4); the resuscitated Traffic (Hammersmith Apollo, Sept 20); Ian McNabb (Borderline, Sept 26, 27, 28) and those lovable old skirties The Proclaimers (Shepherds Bush Empire, 22 Sept).

Marcus Herlunann