Cerritos’ New Season Has It All

The Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, dancer Gregory Hines, cross-disciplinary fiddler Mark O’Connor, the St. Petersburg Opera and a Miles Davis-John Coltrane 75th Birthday Celebration are among more than 90 performances slated for the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts’ 2001-02 season.

Pop singer Olivia Newton-John is first up on Aug. 17 in a season that spans classical music and dance, opera, pop, country, jazz, musical theater, comedy, magic, world music and the Cerritos Center’s annual spate of holiday performances in December.

Herbert Blomstedt leads Germany’s Gewandhaus Orchestra on Oct. 16, while Russia’s St. Petersburg Opera will stage productions of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” and Mussorgksy’s “Boris Godunov” during a three-day engagement Oct. 26-28. Violinist Itzhak Perlman returns for a recital on Jan. 29 and Hines appears on Feb. 3.

London City Opera will stage Lehar’s “The Merry Widow” on March 30. Russia’s Perm State Ballet will present Prokofiev’s “Romeo & Juliet” April 12 and 14 and his “Cinderella” on April 13.

Buena Vista Social Club member Ibrahim Ferrer will play Jan. 21 and Native American singer-songwriter-flutist Robert Mirabal appears Sept. 25. Other world music attractions include Irish fiddler Eileen Ivers (March 17) and the Gyuto Monks choir (March 21).

Theater events include the Acting Company’s return to Cerritos with Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” on March 9, following its staging of Charles Smith’s “Pudd’nhead Wilson” on March 8.

Jazz is represented by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (Sept. 27), the Davis-Coltrane tribute with Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove (Oct. 14) and a big-band program titled “Our Sinatra” (Jan. 12).

Pop music events include a Newport Folk Festival bill on Oct. 7 with singer-songwriters Suzanne Vega and Marshall Crenshaw. The ‘50s-to-’70s-dominated pop roster also includes REO Speedwagon (Sept. 21 and 22), Leon Russell (Nov. 23), Arlo Guthrie (Feb. 2) and Glen Campbell (Feb. 22).

Tickets to all events are on sale at the center’s box office. Phone orders will start on July 17. Information: (800) 300-4345.