Opera first

LAST night Gateshead's splendid newmusic venue The Sage hosted its first opera production. The staging by renowned opera star SirThomas Allen of Mozart's final stage masterpiece Cosi Fan Tutte featured the Northern Sinfonia and Chorus underThomas Zehetmair, and six young singers at the very start of their careers.

Both Dorabella and Fiordiligi, the young woman whose constancy is tested in the story, were sung by students from the SirAlexanderGibson Opera School at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Fiordiligi was played by soprano Henriikka Grondahl and Dorabella by mezzo Carolyn Dobbin, who gave up teaching art and design to train as an opera singer. Last night's performance is broadcast on Radio 3 tomorrow at 7.00pm.

Marching music

FORGET those pesky pop festivals, this summer's special outdoor event takes place on the banks of the Loch of the Lowes between Selkirk and Moffat from 6pm on Saturday evening.

ComposerTom Roseburgh and a 10-piece band will perform his Southern Upland Suite, commissioned with the support of the Scottish Arts Council to mark the 21st anniversary of the Southern Upland Way footpath.

Tickets are [pounds]10 each or [pounds]25 for a family ticket to include two adults and up to three children under 16, and are available from the Eastgate Theatre in Peebles.

If you cannot make it, there will be a webcast: www. suwlive. com

Lemkin's cancelled

SARAJEVO theatre company Kamerni Teatar 55's production of

Lemkin's House, which Neil Cooper reviewed from Edinburgh's Roxy Art House in Tuesday's Herald Arts, had been due to run at the Arches tomorrow and Saturday. Due to unforseen circumstances, those performances have now been cancelled. Full refunds on all tickets are available from the Arches BoxOffice.

Queen reign supreme

BILLBOARD does not pretend to judge, far less understand, modern taste, but simply passes on the information. The Beatles have, according to those who compile the British Book of Hit Singles and Albums, been overtaken as the most successful album act in the UK.

New champions are Queen, who are playing with guest vocalist Paul Rodgers in Hyde Park tomorrow. Elvis is also very close to overtaking the Fab Four, we note, while the openers at last weekend's Hyde Park concert, U2, languish at No 4.