Weekend Picks for Oct. 25-28: ‘La Traviata,’ Sa Dance Company and more

For our performing-arts picks this weekend, we recommend an operatic tragedy, a celebration of dance from South Asia and a bit of old-school punk rock. Also, a solo performer traces her family history, a local orchestra salutes a music legend, and there’ll be scares aplenty for you and your kids in Topanga Canyon.

Tragic love, conspicuous consumption

Pacific Opera Project joins forces with Occidental College Glee Club and a large orchestra for a full-scale production of “La Traviata.” Soprano Amanda Kingston sings the lead role of Violetta, a beautiful but ill-fated courtesan, in Verdi’s romantic tragedy. In Italian with English supertitles. Thorne Hall, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, L.A. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. www.pacificoperaproject.com

Bollywood and beyond

Blending Indian folk and classical traditions with contemporary dance, jazz, ballet and more, artistic director Payal Kadakia’s Sa Dance Company makes its L.A. debut with the sure-to-be lively showcase “Mandala.” Optimist Studios, 5431 W. 104th St., L.A. 2 and 6 p.m. Saturday. $25. www.sadancecompany.com

Sun, surf and hardcore sounds

Old punk rockers never die. They just hit the sand for Surf City Blitz. Local heroes the Offspring, Pennywise, Suicidal Tendencies, TSOL, Social Distortion and Bad Religion are among the veteran musical acts taking part in this two-day bash on the beach. Huntington State Beach, 21601 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach. Noon Saturday and Sunday. $50 and up. www.surfcityblitz.com

Mike Ness and his band Social Distortion will perform this weekend as part of the two-day concert Surf City Blitz.

(Jason Kempin / Getty Images for Coachella)

‘No legacy is so rich as honesty’

Writer-performer Kalean Ung weaves together her own life story and tales of her father’s life under Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime with some of Shakespeare’s most memorable female characters in her new solo drama, “Letters From Home.” Independent Shakespeare Company’s Independent Studio, Crossing Arts + Innovation Complex, 3191 Casitas Ave., No. 130, Atwater Village. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; other dates through Nov. 18. $25, $35. www.iscla.org

Lenny, we hardly knew ye

“Bernstein @ 100,” the yearlong celebration of the late, great composer-conductor’s centenary, continues courtesy of Pacific Symphony. Here, the orchestra is joined by Pacific Chorale and special guests for Bernstein’s “Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium),” “Chichester Psalms,” selections from “West Side Story” and much, much more. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. $25 and up. www.PacificSymphony.org

Something spooky this way comes

There’ll be Halloween fun for the whole family, and for kids especially, at this year’s edition of Theatricum Botanicum’s annual BOO-tanicum. Said fun will include ghost stories, game booths, live performances, face-painting, a maze, a haunted house and more. Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday. $10, $15; 5 and under, free. www.theatricum.com