Mikhail Lavrovsky of the Bolshoi Ballet, who...

Mikhail Lavrovsky of the Bolshoi Ballet, who is creating a work for the San Diego-based California Ballet, will teach a master class at the Capistrano Ballet School, 33155 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, tonight at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10. For more information, call (714) 493-0066.

Metropolitan Opera tenor James McCracken, who had been celebrated internationally for his singing of the title role in Verdi’s “Otello” and who was to have sung in Costa Mesa this month, has died at age 61 of complications from a stroke.

McCracken died Friday night in New York City at Roosevelt Hospital, where he had been admitted two weeks earlier. He was to have sung in performances of Schoenberg’s “Gurrelieder” with the Pacific Symphony at the Orange County Performing Arts Center May 19 and 20.

UC Irvine has announced the winners of its 14th annual national Chicano Literary Contest, sponsored by the school’s Deptartment of Spanish and Portuguese. First-prize winners, who will receive $400 each, are Demetria Martinez of Albuquerque, N.M., for her poetry collection “Chimayo, New Mexico”; Alfonso Pena Ramos of Reading, Pa., for his play “Matachin Dancer”, and Silviana Wood of Tucson, Ariz., for her short story “And Where Was Pancho Villa When You Really Needed Him?”

Second-place winners, receiving $250 each, are Rafael del Valle of Los Angeles for the poetry collection, “Entre los dedos”; Antonio J. Garcia of Denver, Colo., for the play “Serafin: Cantos y Lagrimas”, and Ignacio Garcia of Tucson for the short story “Guadalupe Street Preacher.”

Third place prizes of $150 go to poet Cherrie Moraga of Oakland, playwright James Sauceda of Laguna Niguel and short story writer Arturo Mantecon of Sacramento.

Among those receiving honorable mention are poet Olivia Davila Flores of Anaheim and playwright Ramos.

The awards will be given May 14 at 7 p.m. at Pacific Symphony Hall, 115 E. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana. As part of the program, Luis Valdez’s “Los Vendidos” and Carlos Morton’s “Johnny Tenorio” will be performed by the El Teatro Ensemble de UCSD under the direction of Jorge Huerta. Admission is free. For more information, call Julie Philippides at (714) 856-5702.