... Carmen SCOTTISH OPERA GRAHAM Vick's production of Carmen, restaged by Paul Maloney for Scottish Opera, fills the stage with life, love and death from the first notes of the overture. It is a very theatrical staging, imaginative and visually exciting. English mezzo Jean Rigby is a bold and bonny Carmen, with a rich dark voice which sounds almost laid back, as if there is an enormous sound wait ...

... Blithe Spirit BASINGSTOKE PEOPLE love tame ghosts, especially when they're slaves of Noel Coward's own particular brand of insubstantiality. Unfortunately, this Horseshoe revival, while wholehearted and entertaining, only fitfully exhibits the veneer of high-gloss chic the Coward trademark which would make it truly worthy of the Master. What we have instead is a mid dling production, pleasing ...

... Scottish Jazz funding cut Next week-The Secret Agent, the columnist with an inside view of light entertainment By HELEN GOULD SCOTLAND'S national jazz agency has lost its funding from the Scottish Arts Council after just two years of operation, and the cash has been diverted to back a commercial music promoter. The Scottish Jazz Network has been told that its £50,500 grant has been axed from ...

... Puppet master has his strings cut THUNDERBIRDS maestro Gerry Anderson and Roland Rat creator David Claridge were this week among those to voice their support for British puppet master John Blundall, whose Birmingham operation is under threat after almost 24 years. Blundall, creator of Parker chauffeur to Thunderbirds' secret agent Lady Penelope and leading characters in the Fireball XL5 and ...

... Angry agents bring in troubleshooter WEST Country promoter, Glyn Long, was this week being chased for payment by several leading agencies after cheques bounced for dates by top artists at Chipping Sodbury's Yate Leisure Centre. Entertainment Agents' Association troubleshooter Archie Macmillan has been drafted in to take up the case with Long, of Lomos Promotions in Chipping Sodbury, who was ...

... Mirage in closure threat By HELEN GOULD OWNERS of Windsor nightclub, Mirage, have been threatened with winding up proceedings after failing to pay up for a series of top-of-the-bill acts. Mirage, previously Blazers, was sold by Windsor businessman Pat Cowan last year. Now it is facing its second change of ownership in a year as propri etors attempt a sell-off in a bid to save the club from ...

... Blackpool is jazz the ticket By ROBIN DUKE BLACKPOOL Empress Ballroom is to host the biggest ever line-up of jazz and blues stars to visit the resort. A two week festival featuring names such as Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, B.B. King, Roberta Flack and Nina Simone is to run in the ballroom from July 9 to 23. And if the 15 date event proves a box office success a second festival is planned at the ...

... Mystery bidder makes £1 million offer for York Grand AN ANONYMOUS buyer, believed to be a major leisure com- ^M pany, has made a £1 million bid for the York Grand Opera House ^M which was restored to its Edwardian glory at a cost of around £3 ^M million only three years ago. ^M But the bargain buy, from receivers, will depend on York City Council ^H easing the tough planning restrictions ...

... Adzido Sadler's Wells FROM relatively small beginnings Adzido has become the largest African dance company in Europe, with a 25-strong company on stage at Sadler's Wells for its latest production Siye Goli, which has a text by Odia Ofeimun which tells the story of the people of the southern half of Africa over the past 200 years and is directed by Stephen Unwin, working with a dance company ...

... Moana Nepia and Dancers THE PLACE NOTHING in Moana Nepia's programme in the Resolution season at The Place suggested that he had clarified for himself why it is dial a choreographer must choreograph. His four works carried no burning convictions, just a sense of looking back where others have already been. In Mahana, while Nepia, Sue Hawksley and Anna Williams flitted and drifted, and ...

... Dance for Life HER MAJESTY'S THE DANCE for Life gala, held in early December at Her Majesty's Theatre, was about the most enterprising event of its kind I can recall. There were no hoary chestnuts, nothing was too long, nothing was presented in isolation. Instead, a com bination of concise extracts provided a clear picture of the excellence and diversify of British and foreign dance from both ...

... Happy Family FARNHAM IF you analyse Giles Cooper's play Happy Family purely in terms of the book, you discover a most remarkable script that must cause actors ghastly nightmares about loss of continuity. Many of the lines are monosyllabic as four hands battle with words triggered off like bursts of rapid machine gun lire. Often there is no apparent connec tion between lines which seem to ...