IT'S BEEN lauded and derided by the Newport public in roughly equal measure.

Love the sky-blue toy-block modernist building or hate it, the Riverfront opens for business in less than a month.

And as well as being the eventual home for the city's celebrated medieval ship, discovered when excavations were being made for the arts centre's orchestra pit, it's home to a host of top-class entertainment this season.

It begins with a gala opening concert on October 23 conducted by Carl Davies and starring Welsh singer star Katherine Jenkins.

Accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Greater Gwent Youth Choir, they will perform favourites from opera, stage and the silver screen.

The next night comedian Bradley Walsh - Coronation Street's Danny Baldwin - will bring laughter to the banks of the Usk for the first time in a solo stand-up show.

On the last weekend in October, Shakespeare will take a bow in a new production of The Tempest from the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds.

Newport's own Independent Ballet Wales perform Romeo and Juliet in the theatre on November 9, and one of Wales' most respected companies, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, bring a play about failed memory and uncomfortable truths to the Riverfront from November 11 to 13.

Stone City Blue, by Ed Thomas, begins in a Cardiff hotel with a man, a woman, and a lot of blood.

How did they get there? What happened?

On Friday, November 12, the Riverfront Comedy Club, in the venue's smaller studio space, kicks off three bi-weekly dates with the sophisticated humour of Chris Addison and Dan Antopolski.

The world-renowned Reduced Shakespeare Company bring their signature work, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), which includes a rap Othello and a one-minute Hamlet, to the Riverfront on November 30.

And those are just a few highlights: there's also comic Jeff Green, shows for children, contemporary dance, the Circus of Horrors, John Sergeant, an arthouse film season and more.

For more information or to book visit www.newport.gov.uk/riverfront or call the box office on 01633 656757.