HU KY ATS DIARY

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

OPERA

Don Carlos, Grand Theatre Leeds (0532 459351), 8 January. Verdi's grandest opera, based on Schiller's epic drama of 16th-century Spain, is given a new production by Opera North, conducted by Paul Daniel and directed by Tim Albery. Notable among the cast is Claire Powell, who sings Princess Eboli, and the baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore as the heroic Posa.

Stiffelio, Covent Garden (071 240 1066), 25 January. One of the most interesting of Verdi's earlier operas Will be given at Covent Garden for the first time, conducted by Edward Downes and directed by Elijah Moshinsky. Jose Carreras is scheduled to sing the title role of the Protestant minister racked by Jealousy of his unfaithful wife Lina (Catherine Malfitano).

-The Turn of the Screw, London Coliseum (071 836 3161), 25 January. Britten's masterly adaptation of Henry James's famous ghost story is revived by the English National Opera in a Production by Jonathan Miller. Philip Langridge sings the evil Peter Quint and Valerie Masterson makes a welcome return as the neurasthenic Governess. James Holmes conducts.

Rupert Christiansen

CINEMA

Reservoir Dogs (15). Brilliant new film by writer-director Quentin Tarantino about'a botched heist in Los Angeles. The screenplay is inventive and slangy, the directing fluid and original all through.

A Few Good Men (15). Hollywood's latest courtroom drama stars Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicolson in a story about miscarriages of justice and murder in the US Marines.

Schtonk! (15) is a satire from the German television director Helmut Dierl about the faking of the Hitler diaries. Vanessa Letts

THEATRE

Alice in Wonderland, Sadler's Wells (071 278 8916), 12 January. The Black Light Theatre of Prague in a rare London visit.

The Deep Blue Sea, Almeida (071 359 4404), 13 January. Penelope Wilton stars in Rattigan's vintage suicide drama for film director Karl Reisz.

Richard III, Donmar Warehouse (071 867 1150), 14 January. Simon Russell Beale completes a great trio of Richards (McKellen, Sher) with this Laughton-as-Mr-Toad

performance, first seen last autumn at Stratford.

King Lear, Royal Court (071 730 1745), 21 January. Tom Wilkinson for Max Stafford-Clark.

The Last Yankee, Young Vic (071 928 6363), 27 January. New Arthur Miller for David Thacker's farewell to the Young Vic. Sheridan Morley

EXHIBITIONS

Beardsley to Bomberg: British Drawings and Watercolours 1870-1920, Tate Gallery. Art front an era when to please was not thought despicable.

Steven Dilworth: Acts of Faith, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow. Assemblages of materials found on Hebrides.

Ruskin and Tuscany, Accademia Italiana, 24 Rutland Gate, SW7. Ruskin's love of Florence, Siena etc. is reflected via drawings and memorabilia.

Michael Ayrton in Greece, Austin/Desmond & Phipps, Pied Bull Yard, Great Russell Street, WC'. Ayrton's love affair with Greece relived.

'Maze Head', by Michael .4.1110a

Picasso: Late Etchings,

Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich, till 17 January. Picasso was in his late eighties when he began this superb period of printmaking. Giles Auty

POP MUSIC

Chris Rea, Wembley Arena, 25, 26 January. Ever gruffer, ever crosser, ever less willing to suffer fools, Rea represents the bad-tempered wing of rock's middle-aged warhorses. As a result he has kept his edge a lot longer than most of his contemporaries: his concerts remain stolidly good value.

Julian Cope, Town & Country, 24-27 January. Cope, meanwhile, remains as barmy and unpredictable as ever, but continues to make excellent, nervy records, full of jagged, half-finished songs that you shouldn't like but do. Rescheduled from November; tickets remain valid. Marcus Berkmann

DANCE

The Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Albert Hall (071 589 8212), front 9 January. The full company in a five- week season of standard fare, i.e. suites from Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet and Sleeping Beauty, single acts from Swan Lake and the obligatory chunks of Spartacus, The Golden Age, Stone Flower and Legend of Love. Only Giselle, relegated to the matinee slot (16, 23 and 30 January) appears to have escaped the trimming shears.

Adventures in Motion Pictures, Lyric Hammersmith (071 741 2311), 6-16 January. London premiere of new double bill: Matthew Bourne's Fitzrovia pokes fun at the bohemian, incestuous, arty 'Percys', high society darlings of 1920s London; The Infernal Galop is his half Piaf-half Doisneau picture of Paris, with something for lovers of all inclinations. AMP also gives four performances of its alternative Nutcracker (choreographed by Bourne in his first collaboration with Opera North) at Leeds Grand Theatre (0532 459351) on 20, 26, 28 and 30 January. Sophie Constanti

CRAFT'S

The Glass Show, Crafts Council, 44a Pentonville Road, N1, from 14 January. The best of British studio glass from the past 20 years.

Love Letters: an Exhibition of Calligraphy and Lettering, West Dean College, Chichester, from 11 January. Work by the romantically minded members of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators — definitely not for modernists.

Tanya Harrod

MUSIC

A major retrospective of the music of Janacek is lobe held at the Barbican Centre on 15-17 January, largely given by the BBC SO under Andrew Davis for broadcast on Radio Three. Works include The Diary of One who Disappeared (15th); From the House of the Dead (16th); Piano Music, a recital by the Lindsay String Quartet which recreates the programme of works which Janacek himself introduced to London audiences at the Wigmore Hall in 1926, and Elegy on the Death of Olga (17th).

Janacek also features prominently in the UK tour of the Prague Symphony Orchestra, under Martin Turnovsky. This fine orchestra will give eight concerts around the country: National Concert Hall, Dublin, 21st; Congress Theatre, Eastbourne, 22nd; Town Hall, Leeds, 23rd; Festival Hall, London, 24th; City Hall, Newcastle, 26th; Town Hall, Huddersfield, 28th; Town Hall, Middlesbrough, 29th; Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 30th. Programmes include music by Janacek, Dvorak and Smetana, and Brahms's Violin Concerto with Raphael Oleg as soloist.

Peter Phillips