The critical list

The essential weekley guide to the arts

Sunday 08 January 1995 19:02 EST
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Forty years after its premiere, Troilus and Cressida is back. The 1976 revival of the only full-length opera by William Walton (below) was a triumph for Janet Baker, for whom the score had been re-written. Opera North have kept Walton's revisions, but, bearing in mind that Cressida was created for Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, the role has been transposed back to the soprano range. Matthew Warchus's production opens at the Grand Theatre, Leeds, on Saturday and goes to Covent Garden at the end of the mon th.

There seems to be a mini-Strindberg festival this year. Some love his powerful women's roles, others consider him a hideous misogynist; audiences can make up their minds watching Katie Mitchell's production of Easter at the Barbican later this month, andfrom Thursday John Neville and Gemma Jones open in The Dance of Death at the Almeida.

Radio 3's "composer of the week" is Paul Hindemith, and the entire weekend at the Barbican is devoted to "Hindemith the Rebel". Ignore the doleful image on the posters and hurry down for a series of concerts from this eclectic composer. Where else will you find an opera-burlesque set in fairy-tale Burma, music for a mountaineering film and an opera about nuns' repressed sexuality?

Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet was the most profitable film of 1993. Two of its stars return in Lee's latest comedy East Drink Man Woman, which opens in London on Friday, as does La Reine Margot, with Isabel Adjani (above).

The Barbican: 071 638 8891

The Almeida: 071-359 4404

The Grand, Leeds: 0532-465 906

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