... The Pearl Fishers WELSH NATIONAL OPERA THE DECISION of the Welsh National Opera to revive its production of The Pearl Fishers, is a happy one indeed. With what amounts to a new cast and a dynamic French conductor making his debut with the company, the John Moody production has not only? been given a new lease of life, but improved enormously. Opera buffs tend to be a trifle patronising about ...

... Paco Pena EDINBURGH IN ALL the portentous phraseology of artistic criticism from the Edin burgh Festival two words rarely appear. They are happy and entertainment. Let us acknowledge nrstly that in tne late night performance given by Paco Pena's Flamenco Puro at the Royal Lyceum there is rich entertainment and that the singers, dancers and guitarists are happy in their work. Like all folk ...

... Livingstone +Sechele EDINBURGH THAT MOST attractive and intelligent playwright David Pownall has written a keen examination of Livingstone + Sechele for the Traverse Theatre Club which questions humorously and provokingly the worth of the man Livingstone and his message. The problems of religious conviction for the white man and the black gets an exam in a tion which is by no means one ...

... Faust COMPANY OF THREE HOW satisfying it is to see that an unsubsidised fringe company with a purpose, a standard and an ideal can earn themselves the sort of audiences which extend runs by a further two weeks. Company of Three at the White Hart at the Chiswick end of Ham mersmith's King Street are con tinuing their assault on the neglected theatre of ideas and verse speech with the Penguin ...

... Asami Maki Classical Ballet WIMBLEDON NOW 22 years old. the Asami Maki Classical Ballet of Tokyo is at present on its first visit to London, with a fortnight's season at Wimbledon. Miss Maki, who was herself a dancer until she took over from her mother seven years ago as a director of both company and school, is also a budding choreographer A duet from one of her works. Kakubei-Jishi, was ...

... FENELLA FIELDING CURRENTLY delighting Chichester Festival Theatre audiences with a beautifully over-acted Duchess of Clausonnes in Coward's Look after Lulu, the eager, insatiable Fenella Fielding showed off to audiences at Rogate's Fair Oak Theatre. It was a welcome return, tor Miss Fielding appeared in Fair Oak's pilot season last summer. A flowing orange silk trouser suit, together with ...

... 'Metamorphosis' THE second programme by the New London Ballet at Wimbledon introduced a new work, Metamorphosis by Jonathan Thorpe, principal choreographer of Norther Dance Theatre and his first work for an outside company. Set to the first three movements of the Mendelssohn Octet, thus giving the lively Scherzo finale status, it shows Mr Thorpe's regard for the music in classical steps that ...

... Harlow 'Swan Lake' THE ENTERPRISING Harlow Ballet Club under Leo Kersley mounted an eight-day run of Swan Lake between May 28 and June 5. As well as dancers from the club itself, the season drew on guest artists Margot Miklosy and Peter Mallek from the London Festival Ballet and guest students Vivienne Ro berts. James Sutherland and Michael Worswick from the Ballet Rambert School. The ...

... Collegiate 'Dance Prisms' DANCE PRISMS, a collaboration between dancer-choreographers Jane-Elizabeth Roberts and Gideon Avrahams, gave a London showing of their work at the Collegiate on June 8. Both dancers are former members of Ballet Rambert and tnat company s influence is evident in their choreography, but their programme of six dance works was quite varied in its range. Most ...

... MERMAID THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA' Opened April 21 THE MERMAID has another successful production in its revival of Bernard Shaw's The Doctor's Dilemma, impeccably directed by Robert Chetwyn. The profound drama of the work, the glowing wit, the rich characterisation are all liantly realised. The beautifully composed speeches are beauti fully spoken, though not merely as arias but as naturally ...

... Orpheus in the Underworld ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA WENDY TOYE'S absurd, enchanting. ridiculous, anachronistic, ingenious, occasionally fussy and childish English National Opera production of Orpheus in the Underworld, with its lively dancing culminating in a furious can-can that stops the show before its real? curtain-time, came to the Coliseum again on December 14. It took some time to reach ...

... 'Yatran' Ukrainian Dance Company WEMBLEY THE Wembley Conference Centre, with its very large platform stage, was the setting for the first appearance in London, on December 17, of the Yatran Ukrainian Dance Company. They have just completed a short tour of five other towns and. to judge from their reception in London, will be welcome any time they care to return. It is basically a folk-dance ...