Hipparcos open clusters and stellar evolution

By relying on recently improved Hipparcos parallaxes for the Hyades, Pleiades and Ursa Major clusters we find that stellar models with updated physical inputs reproduce nicely the location in the colour-magnitude diagram of main-sequence stars of different metallicities. Stars in the helium-burning phase are also discussed, showing that the luminosity of giants in the Hyades, Praesepe and Ursa Major clusters appears to be in reasonable agreement with theoretical predictions. A short discussion concerning the current evolutionary scenarios closes the paper.