Best Bets / May 2-8

Theater

Donald Sutherland headlines in Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s psychological thriller “Enigma Variations,” playing a reclusive Nobel Prize-winning author who grants a rare interview to a small-town journalist (played by Jamey Sheridan). It opens Thursday at the Mark Taper Forum.

Dance

Images of African slavery fuse with the lyricism of grand opera in David Rousseve’s “Love Songs,” a dance-theater epic that receives its California premiere Friday and Saturday in Royce Hall on the UCLA campus in Westwood. Joining Rousseve, his company REALITY and 6-foot puppets: some 25 performers drawn from the local community.

Music

Music director Jorge Mester will conduct his Pasadena Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Chorale and distinguished soloists in Beethoven’s massive and daunting “Missa Solemnis” as the climax to the orchestra’s 71st consecutive season on Saturday night in Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The vocal soloists are Christine Goerke, Kimball Wheeler, Mads Bogh-Svendsen and Paul Plishka.

Art

Featuring colorful silken clothes dusted in gold and silver and sky-high headdresses, “Walk in Splendor: Ceremonial Dress of the Minangkabau of Indonesia” highlights the artistic achievements preserved in the ceremonial textiles and accessories of the Minangkabau in an exhibition opening today at UCLA’s Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

Pop Music

Country comes to Cali every May, with the action orbiting around Wednesday’s Academy of Country Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre. On Tuesday, the annual Sizzlin’ Country at Warner Bros. Studios benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and Shania Twain kicks off a Southland trifecta on Thursday at the Hollywood Bowl.

*

“Mutations” was the album that Beck wasn’t going to support with the usual live performances, but you can only keep the mercurial popster off the stage for so long. The singer and his band will mutate the “Mutations” material--and who knows, maybe some new stuff too--at the Wiltern Theatre on Saturday and next Sunday.

Jazz

Weslea Whitfield has long had a beautiful voice and the ability to uplift any lyrics that she interprets. Assisted by pianist-arranger Mike Greensill and bassist Michael Moore, she begins a two-week run at the Cinegrill on Tuesday, reviving the classic songs of Rodgers & Hart.

Video

Moviegoers couldn’t get enough of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in the 1993 romantic comedy “Sleepless in Seattle.” The two superstars hit pay dirt again last Christmas with their romance “You’ve Got Mail.” The comedy, which also stars Greg Kinnear, will be delivered to video stores Tuesday.