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Robin Lynam

MUSIC The Willem Breuker Kollektief. Tonight, tomorrow and Tuesday 9.30pm, The Jazz Club, $300.

This is likely to be excellent. Breuker's critically acclaimed 11-piece ensemble is one of the finest in Europe and while jazz and improvisation are the bedrocks of its repertoire the musicians are equally at home with anything from circus and marching band music to classics or Latin dance tunes.

 Breuker is the main composer for the band, although its members contribute occasional pieces, but they can also be heard essaying anything from Prokofiev to Ellington and Morricone.

 This extraordinary meeting between jazz and a range of European folk dance hall and conservatory musical traditions is enlivened with outrageous humour. Contrary to popular belief, humour does belong in music, but only in the hands of accomplished musicians. The Willem Breuker Kollektief more than qualifies. Be there.

Crash. Friday 10.30 pm, Fringe Club Dragon's Back Gallery, free.

A rock set composed primarily of self-penned material from Crash, a local band set up by singer-guitarist Phil O'Mullan and drummer Dave McKirdy, who long-time Hong Kong gig-goers will remember from several other admirably tight ensembles.

 Good driving, high energy stuff and particularly appropriate for what is normally a crowded night in the Fringe Club bar. McKirdy is particularly impressive behind the kit.

EXHIBITIONS Signed And Sealed. Monday to Saturday 10am to 7pm, Gallery Opus, 2/F, Vogue Building, 67 Wyndham Street, Central.

The first exhibition at a new gallery, opened by Pat Elliott Shircore who attracted a lot of attention in the world of fine art with her computer graphic creations based on the original treaties for the cession of Hong Kong and the New Territories' lease. Although the pieces were produced to coincide with the handover, interest in them and the revolutionary imaging technique she developed for the project remains unabated.

 Shircore took the plunge and opened Gallery Opus with the Signed And Sealed documents as the inaugural show. She now has other projects under development and plans to show all future work in the gallery first, as well as periodically showcasing other artists in the space. A second viewing of these extraordinary artworks confirms their appeal is based on more than just good commercial timing. If you saw them the first time, go again. And for those who missed out, here is a chance to catch up.

CLASSICAL MUSIC Ivo Pogorelich. Tonight 8pm, Hong Kong Cultural Centre Hall, $400, $300, $220, $150, Urbtix.

A solo recital from one of the top box-office attractions in the world of classical piano. Pogorelich has won a number of prestigious piano competitions although, curiously enough, the biggest boost to his reputation was losing one. In 1980 there was a major controversy over his elimination before the final round of the Warsaw International Chopin Competition, in the course of which juror and 1965 winner Martha Argerich proclaimed him a genius.

 You can judge for yourselves tonight with a concert programme of Bach, Schumann and Chopin.

China National Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Thursday to Saturday 8pm, Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Tickets $80 to $300, students, senior citizens and the disabled, half-price, Urbtix.

Three nights of predominantly Chinese choral music performed by a vocal ensemble run by the Chinese Ministry of Culture under the batons of mainland conductors Yan Liangkun and Cao Ding. Narration is by veteran actor Li Moran, and soprano Wang Xiufen, mezzo-soprano Yang Guang, tenor Jin Yongzhe and baritone Song Xuewei are featured. The first night has accompaniment from the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra - hence, presumably, the higher ticket cost - and includes compositions by Xian Xinghai, Tian Feng, Zheng Lucheng, Zheng Qiufeng and Lu Zaiyi as well as Mascagni, Verdi, Puccini and Rossini.

 The other two nights have piano accompaniment only, and feature Chinese and Russian folk songs alongside such diverse material as Richard Rodger's Edelweiss from The Sound Of Music, Bizet's Toreador's Song from Carmen and Gounod's Soldiers' Chorus from Faust. The choir is apparently known for its 'natural elegance and robustness'.

CINEMA Don Giovanni. Friday 8.45pm, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Arts Centre Lim Por Yen Film Theatre, $50, students $30, Urbtix.

Opera is notoriously difficult to film. Getting the spectacle and atmosphere on to celluloid is near impossible and the shortcomings of many great singers' acting are mercilessly shown up by the camera.

 Joseph Losey, however, produced one of the definitive opera films with this magnificent interpretation of Mozart and Da Ponte's rendering of the Don Juan story.

 Beautifully photographed by Gerry Fisher, and sung and acted wonderfully by a strong cast including Kiri Te Kanawa as Elvira, and Ruggero Raimondi as the eponymous grand seducer beginning his unstoppable descent to hell.

 A classic interpretation of one of the greatest classical music/dramas.



Going Out