WEEK IN PREVIEW

THEATER

Andrew J. Robinson directs “Yield of the Long Bond,” about a financier, a female corporate attorney and an Episcopal priest. The notable double cast: Julia Campbell, David Dukes, Anna Gunn, Gregory Itzin, Byron Jennings and Ian McShane. It opens Thursday at the Matrix Theatre.

VIDEO

James Bond is up to his neck in danger, excitement, action, martinis and women in the latest 007 installment, “Tomorrow Never Dies.” Suave Pierce Brosnan returns as the sexy secret agent. Jonathan Pryce is the baddie, a media baron intent on world domination. In video stores Tuesday.

POP MUSIC

Thanks to her unexpected hit single, “The Mummer’s Dance,” Loreena McKennitt has watched her audience expand beyond the loyal but smallish following that favors her Celtic- and medieval-flavored music. The Canadian singer-songwriter is in concert Wednesday at the Universal Amphitheatre.

ART

Two dozen paintings by noted L.A. artist Ed Ruscha will be displayed in conjunction with “Picture Without Words,” a monumental canvas commissioned for the Getty Center in 1997. The studies for the painting of a shaft of light, entitled “Ed Ruscha’s Light,” will open Tuesday at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

ART

A wide range of African sculpture representing females composes “In Praise of Women: African Sculpture from the Walt Disney-Tishman Art Collection,” opening today at the California African-American Museum. The collection looks at the complex roles women have played in African societies.

DANCE

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Jose Limon Dance Company takes the stage at Cal State L.A.’s Luckman Theatre on Saturday and next Sunday to present two of its founder’s most revered large-scale pieces: the architectural “Missa Brevis” (1958) and the metaphorical “The Winged” (1966).

MUSIC

Former Assistant at the Cleveland Orchestra and winner of numerous awards, Alan Gilbert, 30, is a baton-weilder on the way up. Friday, he makes his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in a program of Beethoven (with pianist Yuki Takao), Rachmaninoff and Colin McPhee’s “Tabuh-Tabuihan.”

MUSIC

The Philadelphia Orchestra has 98 years of accomplishment under its belt--including its role in “Fantasia.” Now making a “Tour of the Americas,” with music director Wolfgang Sawallisch, it stops Wednesday in Santa Barbara, Thursday in San Diego, and Friday and next Sunday in Costa Mesa.

*

Early Warning: The always experimental Long Beach Opera returns June 13-21 with Gurlitt’s “Wozzeck” and Purcell’s “The Indian Queen” at Carpenter Center.