Critics' Voices

By TIME''s Reviewers. Compiled by Andrea Sachs

ART

RICHARD POUSETTE-DART: A RETROSPECTIVE, Indianapolis Museum of Art. Overshadowed by such contemporaries as De Kooning and Pollock, the pioneering Abstract Expressionist Pousette-Dart, 74, is here done belated and handsome justice. Through Dec. 30.

THE WANDERERS: MASTERS OF 19TH CENTURY RUSSIAN PAINTING, Dallas Museum of Art. The Wanderers spurned the Moscow Academy and took their work to the Russian people in the form of touring shows, which became rallying points for social change. This exhibition gathers some 100 of their canvases, most never before shown or even reproduced in the U.S. Through Jan. 6.

MUSIC

RUBAIYAT, ELEKTRA'S 40th ANNIVERSARY (Elektra). If a company has to give itself an anniversary toast, this is an intrepid -- and often amusing -- way to do it. Thirty-eight current Elektra artists (from Tracy Chapman to Metallica) polish up some tunes from Elektra's past and take them out for a Sunday drive. Surprise is constant on this 2-CD set, satisfaction frequent, and transcendence (as on Jackson Browne's version of First Girl I Loved) available on request.

BRENDA FASSIE: BRENDA FASSIE (SBK). An American debut album with heavy credentials, having more to do with politics than music. Fassie and Nelson Mandela claim tribal kinship, but the first fleet sounds of the African- inflected, dance-floor-destined opening cut blow away any notions of obligation to genealogy, or to conscience. All on her own, Fassie's just fine.

THE ISAAC STERN COLLECTION, VOLS. 1 & 2 (Sony Classical). These boxed sets, spanning the years 1946 to 1958, can serve as the foundation for a violin concerto library or as a reminder that, though he has de-emphasized his playing to pursue benevolent causes, Stern is one of the truly great violinists of the century.

MOVIES

WHITE PALACE. James Spader and Susan Sarandon bring so much intelligence and redeeming prurient interest to this May-September romance that the movie is almost over before you realize it's just another story of rich boy falling for poor woman. Say this, though: when it's hot, it's hot.

JACOB'S LADDER. Vietnam vet Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is seeing things: whirling heads, killer cars, villains everywhere. Is he a conspiracy victim? Or is he dead? And if so, will any moviegoer care? Adrian Lyne's revved-up spook show plays like a Twilight Zone episode on steroids.

HIDDEN AGENDA. This contentious melodrama blames British intelligence for everything from political murders in Northern Ireland to sabotage of the Wilson and Heath governments. But even conspiracy buffs may find it hard to be stirred by Ken Loach's dour direction. Paranoia deserves better than this.

TELEVISION

COP ROCK (ABC, Wednesdays, 10 p.m. EST). Steven Bochco's much hyped experiment seems doomed unless the ratings pick up. Catch it while you can: the station- house drama is compelling, a few musical numbers have clicked, and the rest of the fall season is a bore.

IT (ABC, Nov. 18 and 20, 9 p.m. EST). Childhood friends return to their hometown to battle an evil force that takes the shape of a clown. TV rarely ventures into real horror, and this clunky mini-series based on Stephen King's novel shows why. There are more shudders in an average episode of Twin Peaks.

WALL STREET WEEK WITH LOUIS RUKEYSER (PBS, Nov. 19, 10 p.m. on most stations). TV's longest-running business-news show celebrates its 20th anniversary with an hour-long special.

THEATER

TWELFTH NIGHT. "Journeys end in lovers meeting," Feste sings, defining in a phrase all stage comedy. Fans have the choice of journeying to fine productions on either coast -- Riverside Shakespeare's traditional staging in New York City or La Jolla Playhouse's innovative yet respectful one in California.

SUBFERTILE. The biological clock is ticking, loudly. You're nearing 40. Your wife wants a baby, but your sperm count is lower than your I.Q. What to do? Abetted by a talented quartet of supporting players, actor-dramatist Tom Mardirosian has fashioned a frequently hilarious narrative from his own mid- life fertility crisis. At Manhattan's Playwrights Horizons.

BOOKS

UNDER GOD: RELIGION AND AMERICAN POLITICS by Garry Wills (Simon & Schuster; $24.95). Conservatives find Wills too liberal, and liberals complain that he is too conservative. Thus this book should displease everyone -- except millions of churchgoing Americans, who do not have to read it because they know what Wills takes more than 400 pages to point out: the U.S. remains an avidly religious nation.

A HOLE IN THE WORLD by Richard Rhodes (Simon & Schuster; $19.95). An autobiography of modest dimensions but classic proportions about growing up in the Midwest with a wicked stepmother and a see-no-evil father, and how the author and his brother were saved when they went to live on a farm for orphaned boys.

TOP-CLASS TENORS

A concert of the century, like a heavyweight fight of the century, seems to come around every decade or so, but last summer's knockout at the Caracalla Baths in Rome might merit the title. There, ranged amicably before the picturesque ruin, were the three leading tenors of our day -- Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo -- singing everything from opera arias to pop songs, fronting two Italian orchestras led by Zubin Mehta. Now comes the record, THE THREE TENOR CONCERT (London). Back from his bout with leukemia, Carreras sounds fit in (among other things) an aria by Francesco Cilea and Agustin Lara's famous Granada. The reliable Domingo chips in with a sturdy E lucevan le stelle from Puccini's Tosca. But the winner and still champion is Pavarotti. Whether the King of the High C's is letting 'em rip on his British pop-chart hit, Nessun dorma (from Turandot) or O Sole Mio, Pavarotti's Sunday punch is still without equal.