Recommendations
Unexpected pleasures
The critics
OPERA The Proms, Royal Albert Hall. Purcell's magical, ridiculous, sublime King Arthur, conducted by Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert crew: 13 August. Glynde- bourne's superlative production of Janacek's The Makropoulos Case starring the astonishing Anja Silja: 28 August. Box office: 0171 589 8212.
Edinburgh International Festival. High- lights include Scottish Opera's new produc- tion of Dvorak's rarely heard The Jacobin (Festival Theatre, 14, 16 August) and the Kirov Opera in Rimsky-Korsakov's fairy tale, Sadko (Festival Theatre, 21, 22 August), conducted by the great Valery Gergiev. Box Office: 0131 225 5756.
Rupert Christiansen GARDENS The mark of a good garden is one open to visitors in August, which can be a trying and disappointing month in dry years. Stourton House, Stourton, near Mere in Wiltshire, is open for the National Gardens Scheme on 19th and 20th August, from 11 until 6. This large informal garden is well- known for the quality and quantity of its hydrangeas and, even more, the dried flow- ers produced there. Also open nearby on 20th August (2 - 6), is the well-known Ashtree Cottage at Kilmington Common.
Ursula Buchan CINEMA Carry On Up The Khyber (`PG', Barbican). A landmark of British film. Empire builders and natives battle it out on the North West Frontier. Kenneth Williams in particularly fine form as local potentate the Khazi.
Crumb (`18', selected cinemas). If you're sick of Batman and Judge Dredd and all the other lame comic book adaptations, try Terry Zwigoff's savagely acute portrait of the underground comic artist and psychedelic 60s' hangover Robert Crumb — and his beleaguered family. Mark Steyn DANCE Kirov Ballet: Fokine triple bill — fun but far from authentic (1 - 9 August); La Bayadere, the Kirov at its splendid best, returns (10 - 12 August). Coliseum 0171 632 8300.
Edinburgh Festival: all the main dance events are worth seeing (forget the fringe). If you enjoy musical choreography, go for Mark Morris's mixed bill of Balanchine's The Nutracker (both 14 - 16 August); if you prefer dance-theatre, Pina Bausch's Nelken is a must (31 August - 2 September). Festi- val box office 0131 225 5756. Jann Parry THEATRE Cavalcade (Sadler's Wells, 0171 278 8916), Noel Coward's epic account of one upstairs-downstairs London family from the Relief of Mafeking through the Titanic to the Jazz Age across 30 years of patrio- tism and betrayal: rarely seen on stage, not least because it requires a cast of hundreds to form Queen Victoria's funeral cortege: Unmissable.
Coriolanus (RSC, Barbican, 0171 638 8891). Another theatrical dynasty is born as Toby Stephens brings his mesmeric Consul into London from the Stratford Swan: catch it in the capital before the RSC takes, like Coriolanus, to the hills and becomes a regional roadshow.
Taking Sides (Criterion, 0171 369 1747) Daniel Massey in the performance of his career as Furtwangler in 1945 at a de-Nazi- fication tribunal. Sheridan Morley CRAFTS The Stuff of Dreams: Masterworks from the Victoria Tapestry Workshop at Australia House on the Strand shows tapestries from the workshop which has captured the loyal- ties of some fine painters, not least Patrick Heron. These are subtle interpretative translations of paint into weave by artists rather than textiles technicians.
Pandora's Box and the Tradition of Clay opens on 5 August at the Crafts Council, 44 Pentonville Road. Curated by potter Ewen Henderson, it promises to make the case for ceramics as sculpture and includes some of the most daring and magisterial potters working today. Tanya Harrod EXHIBITIONS Manet to Gauguin: Masterpieces from Swiss Private Collections. (Royal Academy, Lon- don Wi, until 8 October). Of the big sum- mer shows, this selection of mainly unfamiliar Impressionist and Post-Impres- sionist stunners offers the most refresh- ment to the eyes.
The Hellenistic World: Art and Culture. (British Museum, WC1). Traditionally, the Hellenistic period has been regarded as a fag-end decline from true classicism. This new permanent display encourages a fresh view of an opulent era in which Greek cul- ture took over most of the Mediterranean and near East. Martin Gayford POP MUSIC Procul Harum (Shepherds Bush Empire, August 12, £16). In a fearsomely poor month for live music the return of the reformed Procul Harum is at least a curios- ity. Their comeback album disappeared without a trace, but their back catalogue has a certain gnarled splendour.
Marcus Berkmann
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