Finnish Music, a ‘Phantom’ and Rare Italian Westerns

* MUSIC: The first weekend of a traveling exhibition on “The Life and Music of Jean Sibelius,” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion through Nov. 30, accompanies a mini-Finnish invasion at Grand Avenue and beyond: The all-Finn team of conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, mezzo-soprano Monica Groop and baritone Raimo Laukka, aided by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the National Male Choir of Estonia, will perform two Sibelius works tonight at 8 and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the Pavilion, and Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. . . . The London-based Tallis Scholars, an a cappella choir specializing in Renaissance music, offers 16th century Venetian music at Schoenberg Hall Saturday at 8 p.m., under the auspices of the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts, and, for the Chamber Music in Historic Sites series, motets from London’s Chapel Royal at the English Gothic First Congregational Church, Sunday at 3 p.m. . . . The Southland’s own Los Angeles Guitar Quintet makes its only at-home appearance this fall, Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts at Whittier College.

* ART: In addition to the exhibit of Amish quilts at the UCLA/Fowler Museum (see F1), “Views of an Amish Community: Photographs by Susan Einstein” will run concurrently through Feb. 16.

* MOVIES: Michael Cimino punches up a genre plot with style and energy in “Sunchasers” (AMC Century 14) in which Woody Harrelson’s nerdy, ambitious UCLA Medical Center oncologist is kidnapped by an embittered, dying gangbanger (Jon Seda) determined to reach a sacred Navajo lake whose waters he believes will cure him. . . . Ruefully and unpretentious, “Swingers” (selected theaters), the ultimate L.A. guy movie, has an air of relaxed and confident hipness helped by a clever script written by star Jon Favreau. . . . With “Trees Lounge” (selected theaters), writer-director-star Steve Buscemi burrows into life at a neighborhood bar in his Long Island hometown and checks in on the dead-end barfly he might have become. . . . Arriving just in time for the elections, John O’Brien’s delightful “mockumentary” “Man With a Plan” (Monica 4-Plex, opening today in a regular run) asks: What’s a 73-year-old retired Tunbridge, Vt., dairy farmer with arthritic knees, a 95-year-old father in need of a $28,000 hip replacement and a home he’s in danger of losing to do? Why, run for Congress, of course. While the film satirizes contemporary campaigning excesses with great gusto and some hilarity, it does leave us concerned about how the Tuttles and their elderly friends are making ends meet in real life. . . . The American Cinematheque launches its “Bloody Trail of Spaghetti Westerns” today at Raleigh Studios, including three U.S. premieres. . . . A restored “Phantom of the Opera” (1925) screens tonight at 8 at Cal State L.A.’s Luckman Theater accompanied by a live symphony orchestra. . . . Nina Menkes’ “The Bloody Child” moves over from the Nuart to the Sunset 5 for Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. screenings.

* DANCE: Revised programming for the two performances by Alonzo King’s daring LINES Contemporary Ballet at the Alex Theatre in Glendale calls for “Ground,” “Klang” and “Sacred Text” to be danced tonight and “Handel Pas de Deux,” “Ground,” “Klang” and a pas de deux from “Sacred Text” on Saturday. . . . Jacques Heim’s hyperathletic Diavolo Dance Theater performs seven recent short pieces tonight through Sunday afternoon in the State Playhouse at Cal State L.A.

* JAZZ: Top-gun tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson includes equally recognized bassist George Mraz and onetime Miles Davis drummer Al Foster in his trio when he plays the Jazz Bakery tonight through Sunday. . . . Sensitive vocalist-pianist Diana Krall plays the music of Nat King Cole with her trio Sunday at the Derby.

* POP MUSIC: Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys bring their R&B-cum-western-swing; to Jack’s Sugar Shack tonight.

* THEATER: “Six Degrees of Separation,” John Guare’s provocative comedy based on the true story of wealthy New York couples deceived by a con man, is scintillating entertainment at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. . . . A seamless ensemble does full justice to Robert Harling’s “Steel Magnolias,” about women in a small-town Louisiana beauty shop, never striking a false note. The Actors Co-op production has extended through Nov. 24 at the Crossley Theatre in Hollywood.

* FAMILY: “Curious George, the Musical,” a musical comedy based on the children’s book classic, will be presented by New York’s touring TheatreworksUSA tonight at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza in the Forum Theatre and on Sunday in two matinees at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. . . . The newly reunited Firebird Theatre will present “Tia Miseria and Her Pear Tree” and “Ooka, the Wise Old Judge of Japan,” free at Mt. Hollywood Congregational Church on Saturday at 2 p.m. . . . Kids 6 years and up and adults can take spooky, post-Halloween trips through Terror by the Sea Haunted Maze at Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier, today-Sunday from 5 p.m. to midnight.

--Compiled by Calendar writers