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

OPERA

Glyndebourne Touring Opera (0273 812321) begins its autumn tour with a season at Sadler's Wells, before moving on to Plymouth, Sheffield, Southampton, Manchester and Oxford. The programme includes a new production of Le Nozze di Figaro and revivals of two classic stagings — the Cox-Hockney version of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress and the Lehnhoff-Hoheisel version of Janacek's Kenya Kabanova. Not to be missed.

Porgy and Bess, Covent Garden (071 240 1066), 9 October. Another great Glyndebourne production on the move. Trevor Nunn's 1986 staging of Gershwin's sentimental, melody-filled masterpiece of life on Catfish Row transfers to Covent Garden, conducted by Andrew Litton. Cynthia Haymon and Willard White again lead the cast.

Julius Caesar, Theatre Royal, Glasgow (041 332 9000), 21 October. One of Handel's finer operas is given its first production by Scottish Opera, with Joan Rodgers as Cleopatra and the wonderful counter-tenor Michael Chance in the 'Janet Baker' title role. Samuel Bachli conducts, Willy Decker produces.

Rupert Christiansen

POP MUSIC

Bob Geldof, touring, till 5 November. Seeing Geldof play live May not be to everybody's taste, but its got to be better than watching him interview the Dalai Lama on breakfast TV.

Also recommended: k.d. lang, Royal Albert Hall, 6 October; Neville Brothers, Hammersmith Odeon, 3 October; Paul Weller on the comeback trail, Royal Albert Hall, 13 October; The Christians, mellifluous as ever, touring, 13-24 October; and, after releasing her best album for a while, Joan Armatrading, Town & Country, 25

October. Marcus Berkmann

THEATRE

Square Rounds, Olivier (071 928 2252), 2 October. Poet Tony Harrison and composer Dominic Muldowney return to the National with a new theatre piece exploring the creative and destructive powers of science.

l`wo Gentlemen of Verona, Barbican (071 638 8891), 14 October. Transfer from Stratford of David Thacker's generally acclaimed Twenties version.

Kiss of the Spider Woman, Shaftesbury (071 379 4444), 20 October. Hal Prince directing Kander-Ebb musical version of the Puig novel of South American cellmates.

Assassins, Warehouse (071 240 4882), 29 October. Stephen Sondheim musical about the killers and would-be killers of eight American Presidents: stunning

score. Sheridan Morley

GARDENS

Christie's are conducting an auction of architectural furnishings, much of them for the garden, from the stock of T.C. Crowther, at the latter's premises, 282 North End Road, London SW6, on 12-14 October, from 10.30 each day. Viewing is from 8 to 10 October, 10-6. Going under the hammer will be about 1,500 lots, including sundials, fountains, vases, statues and pedestals: an event not to be

missed. Ursula Buchan

EXHIBITIONS

Changing Places, Lesley Craze Gallery, 34 Clerkenwell Green, EC1, 7-24 October. Following a programme I advocated, a leading jeweller paints while an experienced painter makes attractive jewellery: Frances Bendixson and Philip Hughes.

Pendant by Philip Hughes

Igor Mitoraj: Carvings and Bronzes, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield. Weird work from German-born, Paris-living Pole, also at Accademia Italiana in London till 20 November.

The Swagger Portrait: Grand Manner Portraiture in Britain from Van Dyck to Augustus John, Tate London, from 14 October. The title explains.

Alan Ramsay 1713-1784, National Portrait Gallery, from 16 October. Prime portraits by 18th-century

poet of the genre. Giles Auty

CINEMA

Glengarry Glen Ross (15) has been adapted for the screen by David Mamet from his stage play. Al Pacino heads a strong cast including Jack Lemmon, Jonathan Pryce and Alec Baldwin.

Peter Kosminsky's new screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights is a glossy, noisy piece shot mostly on location in purpose-built Gothic castles in Yorkshire. RSC actor Ralph Fiennes makes a convincingly demonic Heathcliff.

The Crying Game (18) is an IRA thriller-with-a-shocking-twist by Neil Jordan, starring Forest Whitaker and Miranda Richardson.

Woody Allen's entertaining marriage comedy Husbands and Wives opens in London on 23

October. Vanessa Letts

DANCE

Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham Hippodrome (021 622 7488). Next to David Bintley's Scottish-style medley Flowers of the Forest and Ashton's first postwar work Symphonic Variations, Kurt Jooss's pacifist ballet The Green Table (created in 1932) provides an outlandish slice of Ausdruckstanz on the company's new triple bill (19-21 October). Jonathan Cope makes his debut with BRB on 28 October partnering Marion Tait in MacMillan's new production of Romeo and Juliet.

Dance Umbrella '92, 14 October-11 November, features 22 companies in performances at five venues. October highlights include the Merce Cunningham Company in a rare series of its open-ended collage pieces known as Events (23-25) and Stephen Petronio's seven- strong troupe from New York (27-28), both at Queen Elizabeth Hall (071 928 8800). Plus Second Stride's new dance-play, Why Things Happen (29-31) at the ICA (071

930 3647). Sophie Constanti

MUSIC

Festivals still left to run this season are: Bolton European Organ Festival, 10-17; Cardiff, finishing on the 10th; Swansea, 5-24; Norfolk and Norwich, 8-18; Canterbury, 10-24; Southwark, 2-10. All events in the Southwark Festival will take place in the Cathedral and feature Nishat Khan (sitar, 2nd), Nikolai Demidenko (piano, 7th), the Sixteen (singing Handel, 8th) and a performance of Messiah (10th).

The Revival of String Quartets in France is the theme of a festival at the Institut Francais, featuring the music of Hersant, Amy and Delaistier alongside that of some established masters. The concerts are on 2, 7, 16, 17, 23 October and 3 November, played by leading French quartets. Peter Phillips

CRAFTS

Martin Smith, Contemporary Applied Arts, London WC2, from 9 October. Sculpture for the home by this leading potter.

Twentieth Century Gallery, V & A, from 22 October. A radical re- presentation of international art and design since 1900.

Dancing Through Time, Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum. Two hundred years of women's wear in atmospheric setting. Tanya Harrod