T5 DIA flY

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

DANCE

Rambert Dance Company, Riverside Studios, Hammersmith (081 748 3354), 16-27 April. London premieres of new works by Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies and William Tuckett.

Royal Ballet, Covent Garden (071 240 1066), 10-27 April. Triple bill of AgonlMonth in the Countryl Requiem. Kirov star Altynai Assylmuratova makes an eagerly awaited debut in Ashton's A Month in The Country on 12 April.

Deirdre McMahon

CINEMA

The Ballad of the Sad Café is based on the novel by Carson McCullers. It is produced by Ismail Merchant and the director is Simon Callow. Callow has directed plays and opera, but this is his first film. He has got together a starry cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine and Rod Steiger.

The cast of Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet is starry too. Mel Gibson plays the Prince, Glenn Close the Queen. The presence of Alan Bates, Paul Schofield, Ian Holm and Helena Bonham-Carter as Ophelia is not so surprising.

Golden Braid is an interesting Australian film by Paul Cox. It's an adult movie: not just because it is about sex but because it seems to be addressing an intelligent audience.

Gabriele Annan

CRAFTS

Raymond Loewy: Pioneer of American Industrial Design, Design Museum, SEL till 19 May. Loewy was a consummate self- publicist, king of streamlining and responsible for some nosialia- provoking design classic — the Greyhound bus, the S-1 locomotive and the Lucky Strike cigarette pack.

Andrew Logan: An Artistic Adventure, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 7 April-30 June. Another skilled self-publicist whose Alternative Miss World events brought happiness to many. Jewellery, sculpture, installations.

Yoruba: A Celebration of African Art, Horniman Museum, SE23, till Spring 1992. A unique collection Of ancient and modem West African art. Highly recommended — a creative energy long vanished from Europe.

John Maltby: Recent Work, Galcric Wesson. WI, till 26 April. A curious, thoughtful potter who owes something to the St Ives primitive Alfred Wallis. Tanya Harrod

POP MUSIC

Rod Stewart, Wembley Arena, 1, 2, 4 , 5 April; Birmingham NEC, 6, 9-11 April. Rod's music is much like his hair these days, thin and bleached, but the old songs make up for it — assuming, of course, that you liked them in the first place. A trusty old trouper.

Gloria Estefan, Wembley Arena 6-13 April, Birmingham NEC 16-20 April. Following Rod around the circuit, another of pop's more notable hairstyles. Her shows are great fun if you can get past the showbiz presentation and the band's astonishing dress sense. Latin high jinks given mass appeal. Marcus Berkmann

OPERA

Boris Godunoy, Covent Garden (071 240 1066), from 6 April. Mussorgsky's epic comes up in a strongly cast revival, led by Paata Burchuladze in the title role, of Andrei Tarkovsky's celebrated production. Gennadi Rozhdestvensky conducts.

Paula Burchuladze aiil sar us Boris Gotharov at Corns Garden

Peter Grimes, Coliseum (071 836 3161), frorn 17 April. David Atherton conducts and Tim Albery directs a new production of Britten's most famous opera, with Philip Langridgc in the title role.

Carmen, Grand Theatre, Leeds (0532 459351), from 20 April. Richard Jones's individualistic vision of Bizet's popular masterpiece, with the blazing Sally Burgess as the cause of all the trouble and Edmund Barham as the victim of her wiles.

Rupert Christiansen

GARDENS

Those who have been following the fate of the National Fruit Trials at Brogdalc, Faversham, Kent. saved from closure and now administered by the newly formed Brogdale Horticultural Trust, will be pleased to know that the Visitor Centre will be open to the public for the first time from 27 April. Wednesdays to Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.. until December. Ursula Buchan

EXHIBITIONS

6th International Contemporary Art Fair, Olympia, London, 18-21 April only: 120 galleries from 16 countries provide vast annual survey of recent work.

History and Identity, Norwich Gallery, Norwich. Seven artists from African and Asian cultures explore perceived sensations of otherness.

John Bellany in Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The city was the scene of the artist's 11th-hour kidney transplant four years ago; his art shows his gratitude.

Nursery Rhymes: Etchings by Paula Rego, Welholme Galleries, Grimsby, till 21 April. New interpretations of old themes by brilliant Anglo-Portuguese artist.

Giles Auty

THEATRE

Henry IV Part 1, RSC Stratford (0789 295623), 16 April. Adrian Noble opens his first season with this popular history play. A strong cast includes Robert Stephens as Falstaff, Sylvestra Le Touzel as Lady Percy, Michael Maloney as Hal and Joanne Pearce as Doll. Part Il follows in May.

Black Snow, Cottesloe (071 928 2252), 25 April. An adaptation by Keith Dewhurst of the Russian author Bulgakov's satirical theatrical novel. Cast includes Robin Bailey, Gillian Barge, Ron Cook and Karl Johnson.

Coriolanus/Winter's Tale, Aldwych (071 836 6404), 9 April. The English Shakespeare Company bring their touring productions to London, with Michael Pennington in the lead in the Roman play.

Christopher Edwards

MUSIC

The new Symphony Hall in Birmingham (box office tel: 021 782 8282) opens oii 15 April with two concerts by Simon Rattle,and the CBSO. The CBSO returns on the 23rd under Mark Elder; Cleo Laine and John Dankworth appear on the 24th; Opera Gala Night is on the 25th, with Josephine Barstow, and 26th, with Elizabeth Connell.

The South Bank launches its Russian Spring Festival on 6 April. Artists taking part include the Moscow Soloists and Yuri Bashmet (15th), Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and Viktoria Postnikova (17th), Vladimir Ashkcnazy (21st), John Lill playing Prokofiev (2 lst), and the Moscow Radio SO performing Scriabin (30th).

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe are giving four concerts at the Barbican to celebrate their tenth birthday, from 20 April.

Peter Phillips