9pm: Performance

“The Future That Almost Wasn’t,” an “immersive sound and visual environment installation” open tonight and Friday at AIDS Project Los Angeles, explores the relationship between art and music technology amid the confines of a large, soft, white vinyl soundstage. Presented by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and Green Galactic, the event incorporates performance art, contemporary electronic music, installation art and video projections, with performances by guest veejays Jessica Bronson and Jennifer Lane, musician and visual artist T. Kelly Mason and video artist Diana Thater.

* “The Future That Almost Wasn’t,” AIDS Project Los Angeles, 1313 N. Vine St., Hollywood, 9 p.m. Today and Friday. $5. Tickets can be purchased at the door or through Tickets L.A.: (323) 660-TKTS.

8pm: Pop Music

Fresh from his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month, Billy Joel dusts off the ivories and makes his first area appearance in nearly six years.

* Billy Joel, the Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, 8 p.m. $39.50. (714) 704-2500.

7pm: Movie

“Die Nibelungen,” Fritz Lang’s 1924 masterpiece of the silent German cinema, is based on the same medieval legends that inspired Richard Wagner’s “Ring” cycle of operas. “Die Nibelungen” is actually composed of two parts--”Siegfried” and “Kriemhild’s Revenge”--and both will screen at the Goethe-Institut as part of its classic silent films series. English translations of the original German inter-titles will be read aloud . Pianist Robert Israel will accompany. (See Screening Room, Page 15).

* “Die Nibelungen,” Goethe-Institut, 5750 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 110. 7 p.m. $5 to $10. (323) 525-3388.

8pm: Dance

Her godmother is now a guardian angel, her prince a shell-shocked fighter-pilot, but Cinderella still dreams of going to the ball, and Matthew Bourne’s “Cinderella” sends her there wearing a glamorous, ‘40s-style evening gown and glittering blue pumps. In its American premiere, Bourne’s full-evening dance fantasy uses music by Prokofiev and enlists many of the same principals as his hot-ticket “Swan Lake” two years ago--among them its two alternate swans, Adam Cooper (as the pilot) and William Kemp (as the angel). In the title role: Sarah Wildor, who danced leads with London’s Royal Ballet in Orange County while Cooper and Kemp were swanning around the Music Center.

* Matthew Bourne’s “Cinderella,” Ahmanson Theatre, the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles, 8 p.m. Runs through May 23: Tuesday through Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m.; Thursday afternoon on May 6, 13 and 20, 2 p.m. $22.50 to $65. (213) 628-2772.

Freebie

The USC School of Cinema-Television’s “First Look” Film Festival closes tonight at the Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. Student films will screen at 7:30 p.m. followed by a reception with the filmmakers. (213) 740-1153.