ARTS DIARY 4 . 7 " w 419 A monthly selection of forthcoming

events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics

OPERA

Fedora, Royal Opera House (071 240 1066), from 9 May. Barn- storming verism opera by Giordano in which a nihilist Count (Jose Carreras) falls in love with the eponymous princess (Mirella Freni). Edward Downes conducts.

Playing Away, Grand Theatre, Leeds (0532459351) 13 and 31 May. Premiere of a new opera by Benedict Mason, with a libretto by Howard Brenton, set intriguingly at the European Cup Final in Munich. David Pountney directs this Opera North production, Paul Daniel conducts.

Peter Grimes, London Coliseum (071 836 3161) from May 20. Welcome ENO revival of Tim Albery's production of Britten's early masterpiece, with Philip Langridge repeating his powerful portrayal of the title-role. David Atherton conducts.

Rupert Christiansen

THEATRE

Love's Labour's Lost, Barbican (071 638 8891), 3 May. The Brideshead version: Ian Judge's Oxbridge revcival in from Stratford.

The Man Who, National/ Cottesloe (071 928 2252), 5 May. Peter Brook's staging of the Oliver Sacks therapy sessions.

Falling over England, Greenwich (081 858 7755), 9 May. Another anatomy of Britain from Julian (Another Country) Mitchell.

The Count of Monte Cristo, Royal Exchange, Manchester (061833 9833), 18 May. Delayed for years, Braham Murray's hugely ambitious two-part epic opens at last with David Threlfall.

King Lear, Barbican (071 638 8891), 31 May. Robert Stephens in one of the return-to-greatness performances of his career Sheridan Morley

DANCE

Wonderlawn, The Gardner Centre, University of Sussex (0273 685861), 6 and 7 May; Royal Court Theatre (071 730 1745) 13, 14, 16 and 17 May. Laurie Booth and Michael Clark are the main dance attractions in this year's Brighton Festival. Joined by the Gavin Bryars Ensemble, Booth's company kicks off the festival with this new work.

0, Brighton's Theatre Royal (0273 328488), 24 and 25 May. Performed by Michael Clark and his audacious troupe, with 0, Clark returns to Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps

— the score which fuelled Mmm his 1992 comeback success.

Sophie Constanti

CINEMA

M. Butterfly (15). Based on David Henry Hwang's Broadway hit of the Eighties, this is the trueish story of a western diplomat in the Far East and his affair with an operatic prima donna, who, underneath the geisha gear, turns out to be a man. Grumpy Old Men (12). Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau reunited in a film with the best title of the month.

Mark Steyn

CRAFTS

Botanical paintings and Intaglio Glass Engravings, Marryat, 88 Sheen Road, Richmond, Surrey from 20 May till 1 June.

Verde: The Nordic Design Exhibition, Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, SW7, 6 May till 27 May. Design from seven Scandinavian art schools Layered textures: 'Clothes for Changing Climates' Stella Benjamin, Contemporary Applied Art, 43 Earlham Street, Covent Garden, till 14 May. Rugs that can bear comparison with the best of traditional non-European weaving. Tanya Harrod

MUSIC

Two splendid concerts from the Landon International Orchestral Season: on the 3rd, Mozart's Coal fan tutte under Solti with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and on the 8th, the new Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev, including Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. Both events at the Festival Hall.

'Renderings — the music of Luciano Betio' continues this month at the South Bank Centre. High points will include Sinfonia on the 4th with the New Swingle Singers; Requies followed by Mahlees Second on the 10th (both played by the LPO) and La vera stone, conducted by Berio and the BBC SO on the 14th.

The 'BOC Covent Garden Festival of Opera and the Musical Arts' runs from the 9th to the 22nd. It includes performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Handel's Saul, Peter Phillips

POP MUSIC

The Proclaimers, Forum, 5 May. Six years on from their superb Sunshine On Leith, their new album Hit The Highway is a mild disappointment, but Craig and Charlie Reid's distinctive combination of folk, country and Motown is still a taste worth acquiring.

Also recommended: the newly single Billy Joel, Earls Court, 7, 9, 11 May; Birmingham NEC, 15 Ma • Julia Fordham touring May 16-31; Crowded House, tour starts 27 May; Richard Thompson, London Palladium, 12, 13 May„ and, for the truly tragic, Jethro Tull, Brentwood Centre, 26 May.

Marcus Berkmann

GARDENS

This year, for its annual Garden Plant Heritage Week, the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens is encouraging gardeners to explore that bit of their garden heritage which comes from the Himalayas. There are a number of associated events around the country. For example, at Greenbank Gardens, Clarkston, Glasgow, Cameron Carmichael will give a talk on 'Himalayan Plants in Cultivation' on 1 May at 2.30 p.m., while on 2 May at 2 p.m. Mike Hirst will lecture on 'Meconopsis in the Wild and in Cultivation' at the Conference Hall, Durham College of Agriculture and Horticulture, Houghall, Durham.

Ursula Buchan

EXHIBITIONS

BT New Contemporaries, Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Road, NW3, from 6 May. A chance to talent-spot amid work by students and newly graduated artists.

Thangkas: Buddhist scroll paintings from Tibet, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford from 17 May. Extraordinary aids to meditation from the great culture China has tried to destroy.

Raphael: the Pursuit of Perfection, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh from 5 May.

Claude Garache: Paintings and Sanguines, Institut Francais, 17 Queensberry Place, SW7 from 5th. First UK show of fashionable French limner of female flesh.

Anthony Bream: Oil Paintings & Watercolours from Recent Trips Abroad, David Messum, 8 Cork Street, WI, till 14 May. The artist/back-packer in Tunisia.

Giles Auty