WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO SEE, WHAT TO DO

EVENTS

Catch this

Angling: Cast your net far and wide - in the beautiful setting of Chatsworth House, the Duke of Devonshire's stately home. The Angling Fair is one of the biggest in the UK and takes place this weekend. For children there's a competition to lift pretend fish out of the canal, for others a demonstration by Jerry Siem, the fly-casting double for Robert Redford in A River Runs Through It. Sat, Sun 8am-5pm pounds 6, accomp child free. 01263 711736.

Gala: Big names perform live in a gala concert at the Manchester Opera House celebrating the Prince's Trust's 21st birthday: The Spice Girls, Gary Barlow, Julian Clary, Stephen Fry and Jennifer Aniston from Friends. To be shown on ITV on 26 May 8pm. The Cirque de Soleil should be particularly eye-catching. 7.30pm pounds 50-pounds 100/pounds 175 inc dinner. 0171-543 1389.

Environment Week: More than one million people take to the fields, riverbanks and urban wastelands from Saturday to try to improve their local surroundings, ending on the 18th. The Sparkhill Green Residents Association is planting a wildflower garden on derelict land in Birmingham to attract butterflies while Fell Dyke Primary School in Wrekenton, Gateshead plans to extend a wooded area, and put in a wildlife pond. 0171-976 2022.

MUSIC

Last chance at the opera

Opera: Three last chances at the Royal Opera House: Otello, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung with Kallen Esperian as Desdemona (5th 7.30pm, pounds 27- pounds 125). L'elisir d'amore, with the wonderful Angela Gheorghiu but also young British soprano Deborah York (9th 7.30pm returns only, in person); and for maybe the last time ever in London, Luciano Pavarotti in a one-off recital this Sunday, accompanied by pianist and conductor Leone Magiera, performing Puccini arias and sacred liturgy by Schubert. (2pm returns only, in person). 0171-304 4000.

Classical: German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, whose marketability obscures a wonderful musical talent, performs Beethoven's Violin Concerto at the Barbican Hall, London on Tuesday. The programme also has the premiere of a work by Piers Hellawell, Do Not Disturb, to be sung by the Finchley Children's Music Group. Plus Brahms's Symphony No 1. This is the first in a series of four concerts featuring Hellawell's work; the second is the following night, and then the pianist Alfred Brendel performs on the 21st and 22nd. Sir Colin Davis conducts in all. 7.30pm pounds 10-pounds 30 standby pounds 8/pounds 6.50. 0171-638 8891.

Pop: More support for the Hillsborough Family Support Group: The Manic Street Preachers, Dodgy, the Fabulous Space and the Lightning Seeds in concert at Anfield, Liverpool. Proceeds to the Group. pounds 20. 4pm. 0800 1388844.

THE ARTS

Czech charmer

Film: The Oscar-winner for best foreign film, Kolya, opens on Friday after massive successes at the Czech box office. "Funny, warm-hearted and improbably unsentimental, with an astonishingly good performance by young Andrei Chalimon," says our critic. Curzon, Mayfair and selected cinemas.

Theatre: Terrence McNally's Masterclass is based on the life and diva- teachings of Maria Callas. It also stars Patti LuPone, the understudy for the part of Callas when the show was on Broadway. It won a Tony for Best Play last year. Opening tomorrow, the whole run (until 19 July) is going to sell out and you need to get tickets quickly. Tue-Sat 8pm, mats Wed/Sat 3pm pounds 10-pounds 30 (+pounds 1 credit card) 0171-494 5040.

Dance: The queen of British dance, Siobhan Davies performs a double bill revival on Friday of an old success, White Man Sleeps, inspired by African rhythms, and a new work, Bank, set to harmonica and percussion. Tour starts at Blackpool Grand Theatre (Fri, Sat 8pm pounds 9-pounds 11 conc pounds 7. 01253 28372).

Visual Arts: A major exhibition, A Quality of Light, opens on Saturday at one of the country's most prolific and creative areas in the visual arts, the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, with works by 14 artists, including Bridget Riley and Victor Grippo from Buenos Aires. At the Tate Gallery, St Ives (pounds 3.50/pounds 2 concs Mon-Sat 11am-7pm, Sun 11am-5pm), Newlyn Art Gallery (Mon-Sat 11am-5pm) - both end 27 July. More out-of-the-way venues include Botallack (Tue-Sun 11am-5pm), the railway station, and churches around the region (non-gallery venues end 27 July). 01736 796543.

Mime: Marcel Marceau, the world's greatest mime artist, makes a one-off, one-man appearance at the Festival Hall on Saturday, celebrating 50 years of his "BIP" alter-ego who sniffs flowers and chases butterflies, but also deals in deeper, world-weary matters. 7.30pm pounds 10-pounds 25. 0171 960 4201.

SPORT AND LEISURE

Cannes do

Film/Sport: In the South of France this week two major money-spinning activities have their annual shows of glitz and pits. The Cannes Film Festival celebrates its 50th birthday, which many believe has overshadowed the actual content. Opened by Luc Besson's mega-budget The Fifth Element, starring Bruce Willis, on Wednesday at 7.15pm, the possible Palme d'Or prize winners, and films to watch out for in the future, are the "extremely talented" (Screen International) director Matthieu (La Haine) Kassovitz's Assassins, Miramax's latest thing, Welcome Sarajevo by Michael Winterbottom (Jude) and Atom (Exotica) Egoyan's The Secret Hereafter, which is probably the winner as the festival's chief selector has claimed it to be the best thing he's seen all year. All aim to follow in the footsteps of Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies last year. The Festival is followed by the Monaco Grand Prix next Sunday. What price victory for Britain's Eddie Irvine? His playboy image and driving style fit Monaco perfectly. ITV Sun 1.15pm, highlights 11pm

Fashion: You can't get in, but if you wander past 194-195 Sloane Street, west London on Wednesday around 6.30pm, you may be able to catch sight of the likes of Joan Collins, William and Susan Boyd, Dominic Lawson and Andrew Neil for the opening of the new Escada store, "Couture and Elements".

Money: Billionaire philanthropist George Soros speaks at Chatham House, the Royal Institute for International Affairs on Sunday and may further outline theories recently expounded in the article "The Capitalist Threat" in Atlantic Monthly which many Tories mistakenly described as a sudden "conversion" to left-leaning ideology. Wagner goes north

Opera: A real sense of occasion at Opera North's newly-opened production of Tannhauser (above) at the Leeds Grand Theatre because it is the first production of Wagner's opera outside London for 20 years and the last under the baton of Paul Daniel before he's off to the ENO. The more unusual Dresden edition is used with Rodney Blumer's English translation. Renowned Wagnerians Jeffrey Lawton and Rita Cullis sing. 6.15pm 6/10/24 May; 5.15pm 17 May. Telephone: 0113 245 9351.