AATS DIARI

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

OPERA

Cosi fan tulle, Covent Garden (071 240 1066), from 9 January. Johannes Schaafs dark perspective on Mozart's great comedy, conducted by the brilliant young Italian Carlo Rizzi and strongly cast with Margaret Marshall as Fiordiligi, Kurt Streit as Ferrando.

Der Ferric Kiang, Grand Theatre Leeds (0532 459351), from 14 January. Opera North at its most enterprising presents Schreker's first and most powerful opera, rarely seen in this country. The great German mezzo soprano Brigitte Fassbaendcr makes her debut as producer.

Konigskinder, or The Prince and the Goose Girl, London Coliseum (071 836 3161), from 30 January. The same ENO team — conductor Mark Elder, producer David Pountncy, designer Stefanos Lazaridis — which triumphed with Humperdinck's most famous opera Hansel and Gretat now turns its attentions to the composer's neglected masterpiece. Taking principal roles in this post- Wagnerian fairy tale arc Cathryn Pope, Sally Burgess, Bonaventura Bottonc and Alan Opie. An exciting prospect. Rupert Christiansen

DANCE

Resolutions, The Place ((171 367 (11)31), 10-29 January. A two-week season which The Place has offered to any young company willing to take on the challenge of promoting their work at their own risk. Two of the companies will be invited to present their work in Lille, Cologne, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Giselle, The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden (071 240 1066), 18 January (evening). Viviana Durantc and Irek Mukhamedev make their company debuts. Deirdre McMahon

CINEMA

Directed and starred in by Jodie Foster, Little Man Tate tells of a seven-year-old boy whose genius is complicated by an acute sensitivity. Guaranteed not to he insufferably cute.

Year of the Gun is directed by John Frankenheimer, who also directed the classic The Manchurian Candidate and French Connection 11. It is a political thriller set in Rome in 1978 when the Red Brigade was rife. Bound to be good.

Then there is Oliver Stone's three- hour blockbuster OK, starring Kevin Costncr and Sissy Spacek. It re-examines John Kennedy's assassination and discovers, surprise surprise, that it was a conspiracy.

The film is already causing considerable controversy in America. Harriet Waugh

EXHIBITIONS

New Patrons: 20th-century Art from Corporate Collections, Christie's, SW I, 3-24 January. The National Art Collections Fund presents work from 22 corporate collections.

Engineers of the Human Soul: Socialist Realist Painting in Russia 1930-60, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, from 12 January. Art under the Party, atheism and five-year plans.

Leonora Carrington, Serpentine Gallery. Works by chumette of Max Ernst. A must for those who can hear surrealism and learning about other people's dreams.

Leonora Carrington's 'Portrait oldie Late Mrs Partridge', 1947

Yelim Ladizhinsky (1911-1982), Barbican Concourse Gallery, from 12 January. This Russian Jewish artist escaped finally in 1978 without 2,000 of his paintings. See

the remainder. Giles Auty

GARDENS

Those who find themselves in Belgium in January have the chance to see the finest collection of winter-flowering witch hazels (Han:am/is) that I know of, at the Arboretum Kalmthout, north of Antwerp. Guided tours arc to he held on 19 and 26 January and 9 February. For reservations and information telephone 01323 666 6741, Ursula Buchan

CRAFT

The Material World of Tintin, Design Museum. Small, choice exhibition that investigates Herge's precise use of contemporary product, industrial and interior design.

The Art of Death: Objects from the English Death Ritual 1500-1800, V & A, from 7 January. Postponed due to the Gulf War, a splendid, scholarly exhibition of memento moris, death masks, posthumous portraits, coffin designs — all the paraphernalia of death over two centuries.

Epic Dream Satire: Puppetry in Asia and Europe, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. From ancient Greece to Spitting Image, charting the use of puppets td subvert and offend the Establishment. Tanya Harrod

THEATRE

The Gigli Concert, Almcida (071 359 4404). British premiere of an interesting play by Tom Murphy about two men struggling for salvation. The action is punctuated by the music of Verdi and Puccini. Barry Foster plays the lead. Karel Reisz directs.

Painting Churches, Playhouse 0171 839 44(11), 22 January. A comedy by the American playwright Tina Howe about a young artist who returns to Boston to paint her eccentric parents, played by Leslie Phillips and Sian Phillips.

Angels in America, Cottesloc ((171 928 2252), 23 January. British premiere of the American playwright Tony Kushner's play about Aids. The action switches from Ncw York to Moscow, Heaven and Antarctica. Directed by Declan Donnellun and Nick Ormerod of Check by Jowl fame.

Christopher Edwards

POP MUSIC

Simply Red, touring 16-27 January. The usual dismal January on the live circuit, but Mick Hucknall's polished pop-soul outfit would he worth seeing any time of year. Only snag: they're much loved by Essex Man. Don't forget the tasselled loafers.

Andrew Strong, Town & Country, I)) January. The fat boy with the voice from The Commitments, already branching out on the inevitable solo career. The backlash begins on 11 January.

Marcus Berkmann

MUSIC

Twentieth-century music is well represented in January. At the Barbican Centre, 17-19 January, is An Affair with Numbers: the Music of Alban Berg, featuring an array of leading interpreters hosted by the BBC SO under Andrew Davis. Philip Glass is highlighted at the Royal Festival Hall on the 22nd in Music for Piano, which summarises his music over the last 15 years.

The Young Artists Concerts Series, 6-10 January, in the Purcell Room, is sponsored by the Park Lane Group. Also new to many concert- goers will he the Docklands Sinfonietta, appearing at the QEH under Sir Edward Downes on the 3rd (Bartok and Shostakovich) and at the Barbican Centre on the 13th (Ravel, Britten and Dvorak).

Peter Phillips