8 pm: Opera

In four performances at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, the touring St. Petersburg Opera, with 135 artists and craftsmen under the artistic direction of Yuri Alexandrov, offers Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” (Friday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.) and Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” (Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.). Both operas will be sung in Russian, with English supertitles. Conductors are Vadim Asanafiev and Sergey Inkov.

* St. Petersburg Opera, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos, 8 p.m. Also Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. $40 to $50. (800) 300-4345.

8 pm: Music

The singing group Sons of the San Joaquin will kick off the Autry Museum of Western Heritage’s first Western Music and Cowboy Poetry Gathering with a concert Friday, followed by dancing to the music of Wylie and the Wild West. The three-day event will feature cowboy poets Larry Maurice and Duke Davis plus music by the Riders of the Purple Sage, Sourdough Slim, Border Radio, the Buckaroo Balladeers and others.

* Western Music and Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Autry Museum of Western Heritage, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, Friday, 8 p.m. $25. Also Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. $15. (323) 667-2000, Ext. 354.

8 pm: Music

The touring Vienna Choir Boys, this year under the direction of Raoul Ehringer, bring to two local venues a varied program, including music by Gallus, Britten, Franck, Mendelssohn, Kodaly and Johann Strauss II, along with a medley from “The Sound of Music” and a selection of folk songs.

* Vienna Choir Boys, Pepperdine University, Malibu, 8 p.m. $30 to $40. (310) 506-4522. Also Saturday at El Camino Center for the Arts, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, 8 p.m. $25 to $28. (310) 329-5345.

all day: Movies

Kevin Kline stars as a middle-aged architect who confronts life-changing news head on in the drama “Life as a House.” Alienated from his family, George Monroe seizes the opportunity not only to build his dream house but also to rebuild his relationships as well. Kristin Scott Thomas, Hayden Christensen, Mary Steenburgen and Jena Malone also star.

* “Life as a House,” rated R for language, sexuality and drug use, opens Friday at selected theaters.

8 pm: Comedy

“Yarmy’s Army,” the all-star comedy fund-raiser for charity, returns. This go-round, those slated to appear, schedules permitting, are Allan Kent, below seated left, Shelley Berman, Ronnie Schell, Tom Poston, Jim MacGeorge; Jack Riley, standing left, Christopher Weeks, Sam Denoff, Peter Marshall, Pat Harrington and Howard Storm. It’s a benefit for the nonprofit Theatre West.* “Yarmy’s Army,” Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd., L.A., Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. $30. (323) 851-7977.

8 pm: Theater

“The Devil’s Disciple,” George Bernard Shaw’s satiric journey through a landscape of good and evil, is set at the dawn of the American Revolution, when a prodigal son is faced with a life-changing decision. * “The Devil’s Disciple,” Actors Co-op, Crossley Terrace Theatre, First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, Hollywood, Thursdays to Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Also Dec. 6, 1 p.m. Ends Dec. 16. $18. (323) 462-8460.

Freebies

* Yasuo Shinozaki, a new assistant conductor at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, leads the orchestra in a Neighborhood Concert at John Muir Middle School, 1111 N. Kenneth Road, Burbank. Alan Chapman hosts this program, which will include Leopold Mozart’s “Toy” Symphony and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1, the “Classical.” 7 p.m. (818) 558-5320.

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* The Santa Monica College Emeritus College Band will perform selections from a variety of composers at the Santa Monica College Concert Hall, 1900 Pico Blvd., 7:30 p.m. (310) 474-5271.