all day: Festival

If you’ve been watching the behemoth Staples Center go up next to the Harbor Freeway, now’s your chance to get a look inside. Downtown Alive ’99 is a free festival to celebrate the opening of Los Angeles’ new arena. It’s an event of truly Angeleno proportions--music on multiple stages (including Kendall Payne, Tito Puente Jr., Funkee Hippeez, Urban Dread and Chris Isaak), interactive sports games, street performers, plus food and crafts. Come before 2 p.m. and get a tour of Staples Center.

* Downtown Alive ‘99, Figueroa Street between 9th and 11th streets, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tours of Staples Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Chris Isaak performs at 9 p.m. Free admission and parking. (213) 624-2146 Ext. 210 or https://www.downtownla.com.

11am & 1pm: Theater/Family

“The Many Adventures of Snow White,” a musical by Douglas Austin and Larry Johnson, tells the tale using musical styles from doo-wop to Broadway and rap.

* “The Many Adventures of Snow White,” Smothers Theatre, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. Saturday only, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. $15. (310) 456-4522, (213) 365-3500.

all day: Art

The American city’s evolution from small town to burgeoning metropolis is detailed in the new survey “In the City: Urban Views 1900-1940, Selections From the Whitney Museum of American Art,” opening Saturday at the Orange County Museum of Art. Featuring more than 60 paintings, the exhibition documents the changing urban landscape through the works of American masters such as Edward Hopper, George Bellows, Franz Kline and Robert Henri, among others.

* “In the City: Urban Views 1900-1940, Selections From the Whitney Museum of American Art,” Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. Ends Jan. 23. Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Adults, $5; seniors and students, $4; children younger than 16, free. (949) 759-1122.

7:30 & 11 pm: Pop Music

Lauryn Hill isn’t the only member of the Fugees to make a mark outside of the hip-hop trio. Bandmate Wyclef Jean’s 1997 solo album, “The Carnival,” introduced a wide-ranging musical sensibility that he’s since reinforced by appearing at such events as the recent Johnny Cash tribute concert, where his acoustic “Delia’s Gone” provided one of the most memorable moments.

* Wyclef Jean, with Melky Sedeck, House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 7:30 and 11 p.m. $27.50. (323) 848-5100.

8:15 pm: Latin Jazz

The heartbeat pulse of mambo, cha-cha and other Cuban dance forms comes from the bass, and the master of Cuban bass is Cachao, the Father of Mambo, whose orchestra recalls the great Afro-Cuban bands of Machito, Beny More and Perez Prado. Andy Garcia hosts this concert, which promises a surfeit of dance rhythms, both hot and cool.

* Cachao and His Orchestra, Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, 8:15 p.m. $28 to $43. (818) 622-4440.

1 pm: Opera

Bellini’s rarely heard Romeo-and-Juliet opera, “The Capulets and the Montagues,” sung in Italian with English supertitles by the Los Angeles Opera, continues through Oct. 31. Principal roles are taken by Laura Claycomb (Juliet), Susanne Mentzer (Romeo), David Miller (Tybalt) and Eric Halfvorson (Capulet). Richard Hickox conducts; Thor Steingraber is stage director; sets and costumes for the new production have been designed by Robert Israel.

* “The Capulets and the Montagues,” Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A., 1 p.m. $27 to $146. Subsequent performances: Oct. 20, 28 and 31 at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 23 at 1 p.m. (213) 365-3500.

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FREEBIE: The La Mirada Symphony performs Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique,” La Mirada Theater for the Performing Arts, Rosecrans and La Mirada boulevards, La Mirada, 8 p.m. (310) 472-1846.

Affaire in the Gardens Art Show includes not just art, but music and food, Beverly Gardens Park, Santa Monica Boulevard at Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (310) 550-4796.