Best bets / JANUARY 17-23, 1999

Art

The hottest ticket in Washington, D.C., hits L.A. today as “Van Gogh’s Van Goghs: Masterpieces From the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam” opens at LACMA West. In this rare display of the museum’s holdings outside the Netherlands, 70 paintings will be exhibited, including “Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer,” above.

Dance

Percussion master Zakir Hussain joins Alonzo King’s Lines Contemporary Ballet in the local premiere of “Who Dressed You Like a Foreigner?” on Friday and Saturday in Royce Hall, UCLA. Also: “Three Stops on the Way Home,” to music by Pharoah Sanders.

Music

Opening Tuesday, Opera Pacific presents Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman,” with Mark Delavan and Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet in principal roles, through next Sunday. At San Diego Opera, the winter season begins with Verdi’s “Falstaff,” Saturday through Feb. 3.

Jazz

The legendary Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach was home to many classic jazz sessions during the ‘50s and ‘60s. Decades later, it still occasionally presents jazz: drummer Bobby White’s Quartet (with Ray Pizzi) on Sunday afternoons and a Wednesday at 5 p.m. series, which this week features flutist Sam Most.

Pop Music

Between the Weenie Roast and the Almost Acoustic Christmas concerts, KROQ-FM (106.7) has a lock on L.A.’s radio-sponsored alt-rock shows, but its rival is getting its feet wet with the Y-107 Winter Recital--featuring Devo, top right, Violent Femmes and Ween--Thursday at the Universal Amphitheatre.

Theater

Pearl Cleage’s drama “Flyin’ West” is the story of the intrepid female pioneers who settle together in an all-black town in Kansas in 1898, in a harsh and dangerous environment to build new lives in the post-Civil War era. It opens today at the Pasadena Playhouse. Directed by Shirley Jo Finney.

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Ed Begley Jr. (with Christine Dunford, background and Will Rothaar, foreground) heads the cast in a David Mamet double bill: “The Cryptogram,” about the disturbing end of a young boy’s peaceful childhood; and “The Old Neighborhood,” a journey through one man’s excavation of his complex past. Opening Wednesday at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood.

Video

Winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award and Filmmaker’s Trophy, “Smoke Signals” is a sharp, insightful exploration of contemporary Native Americans and their culture. Adam Beach, Evan Adams and Irene Bedard star. The comedy-drama arrives Tuesday on video.