February ArtsDiary

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

EXHIBITIONS

Lucian Freud, Hayward Gallery, from 3 February. Long-awaited chance to reassess one of this century's more important British artists. Also photographs from 1850s by Roger Fenton.

Phuvra Mistry sculpture, plus Himalayan photographs by Jimmy Holmes, Cleveland Gallery, Middlesbrough, till 20 February. Indian sculptor in Britain, British photographer looks at Himalayas.

Masters of Cubism, Tate Gallery, from 17 February. Masters of the quadruple take, plus David Boniberg.

Sir Hugh Casson, Beaux Arts, York Street, Bath. Charming watercolours plus work by other accomplished artists at this enterprising gallery. Giles Auty

DANCE

Manon, Royal Opera House (240 1066). The 24 February Performance will probably be the last that Antoinette Sibley and Antony Dowell will dance together. From 17 February Ashton's luminous Symphonic Variations, MacMillan's jazzy Fin du Jour and David Bintley's Sons 91 Horus in interesting triple bill.

On tour: Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet With The Sleeping Beauty, Liverpool, 16-19 February and Plymouth, 23-27 February; London Contemporary Dance Theatre quadruple bill at Swindon, 11-13 February and Leeds, 26-27

February. Deirdre McMahon

OPERA

Siegfried, Metropolitan, New York, 12 February. Continuation of new Ring cycle with Peter Hofrnann in the title role.

Billy Budd, Coliseum, 24 February. Thomas Allen sings the title role in new ENO production by Tim Nbery. David Atherton conducts.

Un hallo In niaschera, Covent Garden, 26 February. Margaret Price and Irina Arkhipova head the cast in Royal Opera revival.

Rodney Milnes

CRAFTS

Mu Jupp, Contemporary Applied Arts, 43 Earlham Street, 5 February-5 March. Six-foot terracotta figures and exquisite Small pieces by potter who is Primarily interested in women'.

Shoji Hamada 1894-1978, Japanese Potter, City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent, till 8 May. Welcome tribute to one of the greatest members of the Japanese arts and crafts movement.

Tanya Harrod

THEATRE

South Pacific, Prince of Wales (839 5987). A first-rate revival of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. A strong cast and some fine singing. Great fun.

Happy talk: Bertice Reading in 'South Pacific'

Easy Virtue, King's Head (226 1916): A rare Noel Coward revival. A witty piece, excellently acted and sumptuously staged in this tiny theatre. Until 20 February, then watch out for a West End transfer.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Lyttelton (928 2252), opens 3 February. Tennessee Williams revival with strong cast including Ian Charleson, Lindsay Duncan and hdison Steadman.

The Best of Friends, Apollo (437 2663), opens 10 February. Sir John Gielgud returns to live theatre for the first time in many years in a perfect part for his unique talents.

Christopher Edwards

POP MUSIC

Aztec Camera (touring). Roddy Frame's third album, Love, seems to have made no impact whatsoever— a pity, as his songwriting and guitar playing are still as fine as ever.

Warren Zevon, Hammersmith Odeon, 25 February. Another favourite of mine, whose consistent gargle problems (and fairly staggering sloth) have brought an increasingly harder feel to his distinctive American rock.

Marcus Berkmann

MUSIC

A Theme, with Variations — a Celebration of British Music continues in London this month. Highlights (all in the Barbican Hall) are: Paul Tortelier playing Elgar's Cello Concerto with the LSO on the 7th; Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius with the LSO under Hickox on the 13th; the BBC SO playing music by Walton, Musgrave and Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations under James Loughran on the 20th, and Tippett's Symphony No. 1 under Zagrosek on the 24th.

The Albion Ensemble will play a rare work of Richard Strauss — the Sonatina in F Major for 16 wind instruments — in St John's, Smith Square on 5 February. The Strauss work is a late one (1943), richly scored on the scale of a symphony.

The London Festival Orchestra under Ross Pople will celebrate Handel's birthday this year on 23 February in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The Handel on offer includes the Water Music and a Concerto Grosso. Peter Phillips

CINEMA

White Mischief (18). Who killed the Earl of Erroll? Glossy version of James Fox's book about the nasty folk of 'Happy Valley' in Kenya. Charles Dance, Greta Scacchi, Joss Ackland.

The Last Emperor (15).

Bertolucci's spectacular re-creation of the strange life and times of Pu Yi, who came to the throne in 1908 at the age of three, and was forced to abdicate when he was six; the Japanese made him a puppet ruler, the communists locked him up for ten years, and he ended his life as a gardener.

Shattered Dreams: Picking up the Pieces. Victor Schonfeld has made this documentary about Israel's `national identity crisis'; over a five-year period, he follows citizen's contrasting lives, and finds something to be optimistic about. Ritzy Brixton, 21 February, Hampstead Everyman, 28 February, and regional screenings with discussion afterwards.

Hilary Mantel

SALE-ROOMS

A Dickens of a month: the best of times and the worst of times. Lord Chesterfield's wine coolers are the stars of Sotheby's silver sale on the 11th. Avoid the textile sale in Bond Street on the 11th, when Sotheby's will try to pretend that Marilyn Monroe's blouse is art. It ought to be retitled the misfit sale.

Thirty pictures by Noel Coward come under the gavel at Chrisde's on the 18th, ranging from £2,000 to £36,000; Victorian pictures, on the 12th, has works by Atkinson Grimshaw and Edwin Henry Boddington. Even the names are Dickensian. Peter Watson

GARDENS

Gardeners chased indoors by the weather, or by the uninteresting nature of many winter jobs outside, might like an exhibition being staged by the Liverpool Museum, called Australia 1788 — a mine of botanical novelty. This looks at the plants and animals which so fascinated the convicts and their keepers when the Sydney Cove settlement was established, as well as a British public thirsty for knowledge of this strange