At Ojai, Accent Is on the French

The accent at the 49th Ojai Festival, which opens Friday and runs through next Sunday, is on French repertory, with Kent Nagano leading the Lyon Opera Orchestra. The schedule:

FRIDAY

8:15 p.m. The festival opens at Libbey Park with Ravel’s gossamer “Mother Goose” Suite, Milhaud’s homage to the jazz bar curiously named “Le Boeuf sur le Toit” (The Ox on the Roof) and the sardonic Brecht-Weill collaboration “The Seven Deadly Sins,” with soprano Angelina Reaux.

SATURDAY

4:30 p.m. The afternoon program in Libbey Park includes Faure’s elegant “Pelleas et Melisande” Suite, George Benjamin’s “A Mind of Winter,” with soprano Susan Narucki, Milhaud’s “La Creation du Monde” (The Creation of the World) and Poulenc’s “Le Bal Masque,” with baritone Sanford Sylvan.

9 p.m. The Miczka String Quartet,members of the Lyon orchestra and pianist Mari Kodama offer Debussy’s string quartet, Benjamin’s Piano Sonata and Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time.”

NEXT SUNDAY

11 a.m. In Libbey Park, Claire Bloom narrates works by Ovid, Wallace Stevens, Emily Dickinson, Pierre Louys and traditional Japanese poems. Flutist Eugenia Zukerman and pianist Brian Zeger also play solos and collaborate in Honegger’s “Danse de la Che^vre,” Irving Fine’s “Emilies Images,” Tan Mi Zi’s “Flute and Drums Under the Setting Sun” and other works.

5:30 p.m. Nagano conducts Pierre Boulez’s “Memoriale,” Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony, Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll” and Strauss’ “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme” Suite.

Other Weekend Events

10 a.m., Saturday. Sona Sane, West African dance troupe. Adults, $10; children 16 and under, $5.

Noon-5 p.m., Sunday. Ojai Rotary West Wine Festival, Lake Casitas. $15 in advance, $18 at the door; $10 (no wine, for ages 12-20); children under 12, free. (800) 648-4881.

9 a.m.-6 p.m., all weekend. Art in the Park and Ventura County Potters’ Guild exhibitions. Libbey Park. Free.

1-4 p.m., all weekend. Beatrice Wood Studio, open by appointment only. (805) 646-3381.

10 a.m.-5 p.m., all weekend. Vivika and Otto Heino pottery studio open house. (805) 646-3393.

* Ojai is on Highway 150 about 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Highway 150 becomes Ojai’s main street; Libbey Park is on it, in the center of town. The concerts are held in the park at Libbey Bowl. Series tickets, five concerts, $66-$157; for Saturday and Sunday concerts only, $56-$130. Single tickets: $15-$35. (805) 646-2094.