58 Eclectic tastes of the new season

IT’S tempting to think of fall’s arts offerings as one of those sumptuous sideboards immortalized in 17th century Dutch still lifes. Just substitute a provocative exhibition for that glistening bunch of new grapes, a potential musical masterwork for that bowl of rosy apples, a likely dud play for that dead fowl lying to one side. In the same spirit, we’ve chosen to highlight the most notable of this season’s visual, musical, theatrical and architectural presentations not by category or chronology but rather as a bounty of pleasing juxtapositions. After all, to the true arts and pop culture lover, nothing beats the sense of possibility that a new season brings, the prospect of a great museum show one day, a thrilling concert the next. So go ahead. Graze.

ART

Villa rides again

J. Paul Getty never saw the faux-Roman residence at the edge of Malibu that he built in 1974 for his art collection. Almost nobody has seen it for the last eight years, since the new Getty Center opened in Brentwood and the Villa closed for renovations. But that will change in October as informal invitations to selected guests go out for previews of the greatly expanded facility. The Villa, set to open to the public in early 2006, will be the only museum of Greek and Roman antiquities in America -- related to the Getty Center the way the Cloisters in upper Manhattan, devoted to the art of medieval Europe, is to its parent, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Getty Villa, 17985 Pacific Coast Highway.

Details at www.getty.edu.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Ciao hound

It’s not over even after the fat man sings. At least not this one. At least not till now. Luciano Pavarotti’s extended farewell tour reaches the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 24, and maybe this time he really means it. Expectations for Pavarotti these days don’t run high, given that he long ago became a caricature of his charismatic former self. But bring your handkerchiefs anyway. He just might still be able to demonstrate why he once deserved being one of the most popular tenors of all time.

Hollywood Bowl, Sept. 24,

www.hollywoodbowl.com.

ARCHITECTURE

A pair of showplaces

What might be called the Renzo Piano era of American museum architecture continues with the November opening of the Italian architect’s expansion of Richard Meier’s 1983 High Museum in Atlanta. Piano, who has museum projects in the works in half a dozen other American cities, has added three buildings containing 177,000 square feet of space and linked to the all-white original by a series of glass bridges. Meier was frustrated not to have been asked to design the extension himself, but he’ll have his own high-profile opening with the Oct. 15 unveiling of the San Jose City Hall, a $384-million project and the first architectural icon for what is now California’s third-largest city.

High Museum of Art, Atlanta; City Hall, San Jose. Details at www.high.org andwww.sanjoseca.gov/newcityhall.

POP MUSIC

Apple again in season

Even without the hubbub that surrounded the Internet leak of an early version of Fiona Apple’s new album last winter, the collection would be one of the top attention-getters of the year. This mercurial singer-songwriter doesn’t do things in a low-key way, and the provocative “Extraordinary Machine,” produced by Dr. Dre protege Mike Elizondo, marks a notable evolution of her darkly witty cabaret-pop.

“Extraordinary Machine” (Epic Records), due in stores Oct. 4.

ART

Rag, bone, hank of hair

Toiling in the space between art and life, as he puts it, Robert Rauschenberg has been in the art world’s spotlight for decades. But many observers think he peaked with his late 1950s and ‘60s “combines” -- three-dimensional constructions made mostly of found materials. There’s nothing, for example, quite like his “Monogram,” a paint-daubed, stuffed angora goat with an automobile-tire necklace. It’s just one of 65 pieces to be presented in “Robert Rauschenberg: Combines,” an international traveling show organized by L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art (and set to appear there next summer) but opening in December at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Dec. 20-April 2, www.metmuseum.org.

WORLD MUSIC

Unsinkable Mali pop

The late-summer buzz-surge around husband-and-wife singing duo Amadou & Mariam could easily light up a small village. Amadou Bagayoko met his wife, Mariam Doumbia, at the Institute for the Young Blind in Bamako, Mali. They were married in 1980 and have been famous in West Africa for many years, dream-weaving their version of lambent Afro-pop, pulling in threads of American rock, blues and funk with spinning, kaleidoscopic results. But their latest album, “Dimanche a Bamako,” produced by French-Spanish pop visionary Manu Chao for Nonesuch, is a carbonated, noisy, almost florid work that became a bona fide hit in Europe. If early press stateside is any indication, they may be soon be lighting up the sky here.

The Knitting Factory Hollywood, Monday.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Messiaen marathon

It took 28-year-old Paul Jacobs, head of the organ department at the Juilliard School in New York, 18 hours to play all of Bach’s compositions for organ. So performing the complete organ works of Frenchman Olivier Messiaen in a nine-hour marathon, as he will in Los Angeles in October, should be a piece of cake. In fact, he did it in New York in 2003 to considerable acclaim. Listeners can come and go, although the Roman Catholic composer’s ecstatic music almost demands sustained attention.

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Oct. 29, www.lacathedral.org.

ART

Somethin’ out of nuthin’

“You see art,” a character in John Waters’ film “Pecker” says to another, “when there’s nuthin’ there.” Of course, what you see depends on your definition of nuthin’. Waters himself has been making art of various kinds for a long time, most famously in transgressive films such as “Polyester” and “Pink Flamingos.” But he’s also been building a body of photography, sculpture and what he calls “little movies,” which he’s made by manipulating found images from television and videotape. “John Waters: Change of Life” will arrive at the Orange County Museum of Art in October for its sole West Coast stop. The art reportedly considers race, sex, bad taste, religion and trash culture -- in short, the same themes Waters’ films explore.

Orange County Museum of Art, Oct. 30Jan. 22, www.ocma.net.

FAMILY THEATER

Mask magic

Sculptor and performing artist Michael Cooper will return to the Southland with his touring solo show “Masked Marvels and Wondertales,” a feast of mime, comedy, stilt-walking, storytelling and mask theater. Cooper’s fantastical, rigid mask creations, made of cloth and paper molded over his clay sculptures, transform him into comic and otherworldly beings that include a “Topsy Turvy Fish,” the “Baby” whose antics open every show and a “Clumsy Giant” (6-foot-tall Cooper boogieing on stilts). Incorporating audience participation and goofy humor aplenty, Cooper thinks of his show as a “sort of amalgamation of sculpture, graphic art and theater.”

Marjorie Luke Theatre, Santa Barbara, Oct. 28; Scherr Forum Theatre, Thousand Oaks, Oct. 29. More at www.luketheatre.com; www.toaks.org/theatre.

MUSIC

Joyful noises

Begun by the Dalai Lama in 1999, the World Festival of Sacred Music aims “to transcend borders of all kinds,” as its website puts it, by offering 43 events over 16 days in venues across Los Angeles County, from Barnsdall Art Park to churches to the Watts Towers. The offerings in this year’s festival will include a concert by the Throat Singers of Tuva, a tribute to Brazilian bossa nova composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and a performance by a Thai puppet theater troupe. There will also be a performance of African American spirituals, an evening of Jewish music and a concert of Indian drumming.

World Festival of Sacred Music, Saturday-Oct. 2. More at www.festivalofsacredmusic .org/home.html.

POP MUSIC

Under a spell of success

L.A. rock band System of a Down strikes some as an acquired taste, with its eccentric, disorienting mix of metal assault and art-rock whimsy, but its May release, “Mezmerize,” has been one of the bestselling and most-acclaimed albums of the year, restoring some artistic credibility and political attitude to hard rock. System was on such a roll in the studio that it had enough songs for an entire second CD. That collection, “Hypnotize,” comes out this fall, capping what figures to be the rock double play of the year.

“Hypnotize” (American Recordings), due in stores Nov. 22.

DANCE

A tale with legs

“Raise the Red Lantern” has enjoyed major transformations since its creation as a novel by Su Tong about rivalries between wives and concubines in 1920s China. First came an Oscar-nominated 1991 film directed by Zhang Yimou, followed by a CD of the film’s score by Naoki Tachikawa and Zhao Jiping. Now “Lantern” is returning as a classical dance drama, to be performed at the Orange County Performing Arts Center by the National Ballet of China -- directed by Zhang, with choreography by Wang Xin Peng and Wang Yuan Yuan. What’s next? A TV series? A Broadway musical? A video game?

Orange County Performing Arts Center, Sept. 20-25, www.ocpac.org.

POP MUSIC

Alt en Espanol

Few alternative artists have embraced mainstream pop success with as much grace and good cheer as Julieta Venegas, one of Mexico’s leading female singer-songwriters. Following last year’s lighthearted hit album “Si,” she has shared the stage with top pop stars and appeared at awards shows from Miami to Vina del Mar. Her two Southern California shows in October will give fans a chance to see her in a club setting with an outstanding local band, Los Abandoned, featuring Chilean-born lead singer Lady P. This will surely be the only show where the female stars play accordion and ukulele.

The Grove of Anaheim, Oct. 22; House of Blues, West Hollywood, Oct. 25.

THEATER

‘Odd’ fellows’ hall

Can a 40-year-old comic play become a sensation on Broadway? Quite likely, because “The Odd Couple,” which was also a 1968 movie and an ensuing sitcom, took in $7 million the first day tickets went on sale, and weeks were added to the run. That’s because the production of the Neil Simon play reunites the “Producers” duo of Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, playing the fastidious and slovenly roommates, respectively. Some reports have hinted that the pair might swap roles during the run -- perhaps appropriately, since Broderick is rumored to be a slob and Lane impeccably neat. Either way, start saving now: Some seats will cost more than $1,000.

Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York, Oct. 27-April 2, www.brooks-atkinson.com.

POP MUSIC

Road warriors

U2, the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Paul McCartney: Each of these veteran, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acts puts on a classy, crowd-pleasing show, but U2 is the only one that consistently gives us exciting new music. But there are subplots with the others. The Stones’ latest album, “A Bigger Bang,” contains some of the British band’s strongest material in nearly 20 years. The Eagles’ dates are part of a massive California swing. And McCartney? Who can resist the chance to hear him sing “Let It Be” and “Hey Jude” one more time?

U2: Nov. 1-2, Staples Center. Rolling Stones: Nov. 4, Angel Stadium of Anaheim; Nov. 6 and 8, Hollywood Bowl. Paul McCartney: Nov. 11-12, Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim; Nov. 29-30, Staples Center. Eagles: Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Oct. 7 and 21 at Arrowhead Pond; Sept. 21, 23, 24 and Oct. 8 and 22 at Staples Center.

THEATER

Still prancin’

“Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life” -- a tour through a significant portion of American musical theater history, with a book by Terrence McNally -- was to be the summer attraction at the Ahmanson Theatre, but it got canceled when the show’s New York producers couldn’t scrape together the necessary $3 million. (This lent a certain irony to the slogan that was prominently posted on the dark theater all summer: “Magic Happens.”) However, Southland audiences have another chance to catch the 72-year-old hoofer who starred in the original productions of “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Chicago,” among other shows, as “Dancer’s Life” receives its world premiere at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre in advance of a Broadway opening in December.

Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, through

Oct. 23. More at www.oldglobe.org.

DANCE

Rubbing out movement

Dance usually reveals its meanings by accretion. The opposite effect, presenters promise, will take place at REDCAT when a dance solo by high-powered Brussels-based minimalist choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker will be “erased.” Members of the Wooster Group will take the first pass. Then the choreographer will take a turn. Finally, film actress Isabella Soupart will have a go. “Erase-E(x)” was inspired by Robert Rauschenberg’s 1953 erasure of a drawing by Willem de Kooning. Johanne Saunier and Jim Clayburgh thought up the idea and will dance it with Charles Francois. The music is by Georges Delerue, Umayalpuram Sivaraman and Dolly Parton.

REDCAT, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Sept. 21-25. More at www.redcat.org.

POP MUSIC

Recovering the mojo

The 2002 debut album by Colombian singer-songwriter Andres Cabas Rosales was a tropical music revelation and one of the best albums of the year. With his seamless flow of rock, cumbia and other native styles, Cabas instantly established himself as an international contender, on a par with compatriots Juanes and Carlos Vives. Hopes were high, but his second album tried too hard to top the first. It was more progressive and experimental but also less focused and accessible. His upcoming “Puro Cabas” promises a return to the fertile rhythmic roots that grounded his work.

“Puro Cabas” (EMI International), due in stores Sept. 27.

ARCHITECTURE

School of anatomy

The Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava is giving new meaning to the term “body of work.” His most noted early building, an arts and science center in Valencia, Spain, includes an Imax theater with a facade that resembles a human eye. His addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum features a dramatic brise-soleil that rises and falls like the wings of a bird, and his proposed train station at the ground zero site in Lower Manhattan is deliberately -- and gracefully -- skeletal. The latest addition to this anthropomorphic collection is the Turning Torso apartment building in southwest Sweden, just across the water from Copenhagen. (The tower is modeled, as its name suggests, on the trunk of a human body in motion.) In the wake of Calatrava’s recently unveiled scheme for the Fordham Spire in Chicago, a proposed hotel and condo skyscraper that would rank as the tallest building in the United States, interest in the Malmo project, a residential tower with actual tenants, is sure to be high.

Turning Torso, Malmo, Sweden.

THEATER

Courage or folly?

Center Theatre Group’s new artistic director, Michael Ritchie, has joked that it takes a brave -- or foolish -- impresario to include in his inaugural season a show with the word “drowsy” in the title. But the theater community appears to be waking up to “The Drowsy Chaperone,” a spoof of 1920s musicals that will receive its U.S. premiere at the Ahmanson. In 1998, “Drowsy,” with a book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, music by Greg Morrison and lyrics by Lisa Lambert, became a sleeper hit at the Toronto Fringe Festival -- but not until last fall did a New York production spark a buzz stateside. The local run is expected to be pre-Broadway.

Ahmanson Theatre, Nov. 10-Dec. 24,

www.taperahmanson.com.

ART

The Mother of them all

This fall, Fyodor Dostoevsky is moving to Fifth Avenue. Or his portrait is, anyway. Dostoevsky’s stern countenance will greet visitors at New York’s Guggenheim to “RUSSIA!,” a sweeping survey of Russian art. Displayed chronologically, the 250-piece show kicks off with 13th century icons at the bottom of the museum’s signature ramp and winds up -- many turns and twists later -- with contemporary art at the top. It encompasses religious painting, landscapes, Russian Symbolism, Cubo-Futurism, Rayonism, Suprematism, Constructivism, Social Realism and present-day installation art. Portraits will bring more bigwigs to the Upper East Side -- among them, Catherine the Great.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Friday-Jan. 11, www.guggenheim.org.

DANCE

Temporary ‘Nutcracker’

Orange County’s Ballet Pacifica is in transition, so its 38th annual “Nutcracker” will break with tradition by offering new choreography by Brian Reeder. But that will be only a stopgap; the company plans to dance the classic George Balanchine version beginning in 2006. In December, unfortunately, the list of guest dancers performing at the Irvine Barclay Theatre won’t include Ethan Stiefel, Pacifica’s incoming artistic director and arguably the top American classical dancer of the moment. But expect Sascha Radetsky, the American Ballet Theatre heartthrob who played Stiefel’s rival in the 2000 feature film “Center Stage.”

Irvine Barclay Theatre, Dec. 9-24.

See www.thebarclay.org.

ARCHITECTURE

Bay Area transformation

Just six months after their extension of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis opened to critical raves, the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron will unveil an even more ambitious U.S. museum project, the $202-million De Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. It replaces the 1894 original, which was old enough to have been damaged in both the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes. The design -- particularly a torquing 144-foot-high tower sheathed in dimpled, perforated copper panels -- raised hackles in San Francisco, a city that remains risk-averse when it comes to new architecture. But the early buzz about the results -- and about artworks by Gerhard Richter, Kiki Smith and Andy Goldsworthy commissioned for the building -- has been surprisingly positive, even among locals whose tastes usually run to the Victorian.

De Young Museum of Art, San Francisco. Grand opening, Oct. 15, www.thinker.org.

FAMILY THEATER

Batty bunny?

South Coast Repertory’s next Theatre for Young Audiences offering is a musical mystery based on Deborah and James Howe’s humorous kids’ novel “Bunnicula” -- about a foundling bunny who alarms his new family’s dog and cat with some rather odd (albeit vegetarian) feeding habits. Chris Jeffries did the music; book and lyrics are by Jon Klein, a prolific playwright known for his wit and social commentary in such plays as “T Bone N Weasel.” “Bunnicula” is being staged by veteran director Stefan Novinski, who helmed SCR’s outstanding 2004 Young Audiences show, the wacky romp “Sideways Stories From Wayside School.”

South Coast Repertory, Argyros Stage, Costa Mesa, Nov. 4-20, www.scr.org.

DANCE

Black Modernism, Ohio style

Focused on what critic Clive Barnes has described as “exploring and preserving modern dance’s black heritage,” the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company will come to the Cerritos Center bearing works by four major choreographers. Africanist pioneer Asadata Dafora will be represented by “Awassa Astrige/Ostrich” from 1932, and three works from the 1990s will complete the program: Bebe Miller’s “Things I’ve Not Forgotten,” company artistic director Kevin Ward’s “Sets and Chasers” and a collaboration between Donald McKayle and Ronald K. Brown, “Children of the Passage” (excerpted on PBS’ 2001 “Free to Dance” series).

Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, Sept. 23. More at www.cerritoscenter.com.

WORLD MUSIC

Harmony amid discord

Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier and a rapper, is from the south of Sudan; Abdel Gadir Salim is an oud player from the north. Their partnership is an example of world music at its finest -- reflecting the complexities of an individual culture, employing contemporary devices without abandoning the elements of traditional music. Jal’s rapping directly addresses the atrocities of Sudan’s civil war, while Salim’s music blends African hip-hop with Arabic sounds and subtle traces of jazz. Working together at a time when the Muslim north and the Christian south are in conflict, they suggest a harmonious pathway to peace.

“Ceasefire” (Riverboat Records/World Music Network), due in stores Oct. 11.

ART

Out of China

Known for infusing Western Modernism with Chinese traditions of Zen and Taoism, Huang Yong Ping left Beijing for Paris in 1989, when he was in his mid-30s -- after the Chinese contemporary art scene had opened up but not enough to encourage experimentation. His first big survey exhibition, “House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective” -- a traveling show opening at the recently expanded Walker Art Center in Minneapolis -- will introduce him to America with provocative installations such as “Two Typhoons,” a double tower made of Tibetan prayer scrolls, and “Bat Project II,” a partial replication of the U.S. spy plane that collided with a Chinese fighter jet in 2001, setting off a diplomatic crisis.

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Oct. 16Jan. 15. For details, www.walkerart.org.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Mississippi moment

The St. Louis Symphony needs a lift -- nasty recent strike, lackluster previous music director -- and if anyone can provide one, it will be David Robertson, who becomes its new music director this fall. The promise is enormous. This is the first American position for the deceptively mild-mannered-looking, 47-year-old conductor from Santa Monica, who has fresh ideas, startlingly good technique, a big intellect, a wicked sense of humor and a fascinating, manic conversational style. He’ll begin his St. Louis tenure in a way no one else would dare -- with the late mystical Canadian composer Claude Vivier’s “Lonely Child” and John Adams’ “Harmonielehre.”

Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis, Sept. 23-25, www.slso.org.

ARCHITECTURE

Southern exposure

After a series of recent false starts (a stalled expansion of the Kennedy Center in Washington) and near misses (a second-place finish to Daniel Libeskind in the Ground Zero master plan competition), architect Rafael Vinoly will get needed good news when the Nasher Museum of Art opens on the campus of Duke University in North Carolina. The $23-million project, the first free-standing museum building in Duke’s 80-year history, features five concrete pavilions fanning out from a glassed-in atrium. It is named for Raymond Nasher, the art collector whose name also adorns a new sculpture museum in Dallas designed by Renzo Piano.

Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, N.C. Opens Oct. 2, www.nasheratduke.org.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Mozart bonanza

Musicians around the world are gearing up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth next year. But one year won’t be enough for conductor-pianist Jeffrey Kahane and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Kahane will play all 23 of Mozart’s original piano concertos (the first four reworked other composers’ music) over a 15-month period. The season begins this month with a tantalizing taste of what’s to come.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Alex Theatre, Glendale, Sept. 24; Royce Hall, UCLA, Sept. 25. More at www.laco.org.

THEATER

Harlequinade

Theater lovers are already salivating. The Piccolo Teatro di Milano -- last seen locally during the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, when the Italian company drew stellar reviews -- is down for five performances at UCLA of the commedia dell’arte classic “Arlecchino, Servant of Two Masters.” Written in 1745 by Carlo Goldoni, the play tells the story of a crafty servant who gets the better of a couple of his betters. Italian actor Ferruccio Soleri, who has essayed the title role in Milan for more than 45 years, will play it again here.

Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Freud Playhouse, UCLA, Oct. 20-23, www.uclalive.org.

ART

Graphic presentations

Once comics were kids’ territory -- they were quasi-illicit reading for adults. And although pioneers such as Will Eisner campaigned for the medium’s respectability, it took several decades for what he called “sequential art” to reach museum walls. Now, both the funnies and animation are set to get their due with major exhibitions -- the former in “Masters of American Comics,” a co-production of the UCLA Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the latter in “Pixar” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. On show in Los Angeles will be work from such 20th century heavy- hitters as Eisner, Jack Kirby, R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Gary Panter and Chris Ware. Ka-pow!

UCLA Hammer Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art, Nov. 20-March 12. Museum of Modern Art, New York, Dec. 14Feb. 6. Details: www.hammer.ucla.edu,

www.moca.organd www.moma.org.

POP MUSIC

All systems Go!

Due in the U.S. on Oct. 4, the debut album by hard-to-classify British outfit the Go! Team is so much fun that you’ve also got to be waiting for its Oct. 21 date at the El Rey Theatre with arms wide open. “Sonic Youth Meets the Jackson 5” is a description often repeated in the British pop papers, but it doesn’t begin to capture the gleeful, chaotic spirit of this electronica/dance/pop entry. Already out in England, the “Thunder, Lightning, Strike” CD is so filled with competing, conflicting ideas it leaves you in a dizzy swirl. If you need any further lure, they’ve toured with Franz Ferdinand.

“Thunder, Lightning, Strike” (Columbia Records/Memphis Industries), in stores Oct. 4. In concert at the El Rey Theatre on Oct. 21.

THEATER

Old but new again

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation”) appears to have adapted swimmingly to live drama with “Hope Leaves the Theater,” a “sound play” that will be presented by UCLA Live under the umbrella heading Theater of the New Ear. One critic called a radio broadcast of the show, recorded live in New York last spring, “the funniest, most poignant, most original theater you’ll find.” Kaufman’s play, to be paired here with an as-yet-unnamed work, will feature Meryl Streep, Hope Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh and other stars. And what’s a “sound play”? Actors will read the script onstage with a live band as well as a foley artist to provide the sound effects.

Royce Hall, UCLA, Wednesday through Friday, www.uclalive.org.

JAZZ

An instrumental performance

After a summer in which most of the Hollywood Bowl jazz series was devoted to singers, it’s a distinct pleasure to anticipate the arrival of the dedicatedly instrumental jazz ensemble Pat Metheny Trio Plus One. Metheny is one of the most gifted and versatile contemporary jazz artists in the world. Working with the brilliant Puerto Rican tenor saxophonist David Sanchez in the front line, with backing from drummer Antonio Sanchez and bassist Christian McBride (the L.A. Philharmonic’s new Creative Chair for Jazz), the guitarist brings jazz authenticity and improvisational invention to the fall jazz season.

Walt Disney Concert Hall, Sept. 24.

POP MUSIC

Fast talker

On the follow-up to his breakthrough 2004 album, “Kamikaze,” rapid-fire Chicago rap veteran Twista shows why he’s among the best in the business. Cinematic and eerie production from the Neptunes, Scott Storch and others perfectly complements Twista’s jaw-dropping rap patterns. The current single “Girl Tonight” picks up on the seductive pop vibe Twista perfected last year on such hits as “Slow Jamz” and “Overnight Celebrity.” Star turns from A-list guests Snoop Dogg and Lil’ Kim bring additional cachet to “The Day After,” which will almost certainly rank among the year’s best rap releases.

“The Day After” (Atlantic Records); due in stores Oct. 4.

THEATER

Misunderstandings

No, “Friends & Lovers” is not a sequel to TV’s white-on-white “Friends.” It’s a stage version of Eric Jerome Dickey’s novel about clashing values and deceptions among five young African American singles, which was published in 1997. Now a touring version from the Houston-based I’m Ready Productions, staged by the company’s young co-founder Je’Caryous Johnson, has been booked to play four of the Southland’s biggest theatrical venues. The production’s slogan: “When understandings become misunderstood.”

Kodak Theatre, Hollywood, Oct. 20-23. Riverside Municipal Auditorium, Oct. 27. Terrace Theater, Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, Oct. 28. Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, Oct. 29-30. More at www.kodaktheatre.com, www.riversidemunicipal auditorium.com and www.longbeachcc.com.

DANCE

A well-tulle’d classic

If you’re a ballet fan who confuses the Romantic dance drama “La Sylphide” with the Neo-Romantic abstraction “Les Sylphides,” and the Royal Ballet with the Royal Danish Ballet, prepare to go utterly bonkers. In October, Johan Kobborg, a star dancer from Denmark, marks the bicentennial of the birth of his great countryman August Bournonville with a new production of “La Sylphide.” But not for the Danes. No, the staging will premiere in London’s Covent Garden, danced by England’s Royal Ballet, currently Kobborg’s home company -- tutu much.

Royal Opera House, starting Oct. 6. See info.royaloperahouse.org.

WORLD MUSIC

A name with the face

North Americans might be able to place Seu Jorge’s face from his recent on-screen appearances, as the steely Knockout Ned in “City of God” and the singing sailor Pele dos Santos in “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” interpreting David Bowie tunes in Portuguese. But Jorge, who grew up in the favelas of Rio, has garnered a sizable Brazilian following after heading a popular funk-pop-samba band, Farofa Carioca. He hopes to break out of cameo status in the States with his new, largely acoustic album, “Cru,” and an international tour. In this intimate setting, Jorge’s drowsy, inclement voice tries on various styles and attitudes -- samba, bossa nova, Serge Gainsbourg, even Elvis -- as it moves from forlorn to winsome, like a cloud passing over the sun. A man of many muses and moods.

Knitting Factory Hollywood, Sept. 27.

ART

Dynamic duo

Slaving away at the easel, in a small, cold studio, the artist creates -- alone. At least that’s the romantic fantasy. “Pioneering Modern Painting: Cezanne and Pissarro, 1865-1885” seeks to dispel that myth by illustrating the decades-long collaboration between the painters. Trading advice and sharing techniques, Paul and Camille even painted the same view of the Oise River Valley in France, standing side by side. Compare the work of (and connect the dots between) the older Impressionist (Pissarro) and the younger Postimpressionist (Cezanne) beginning Oct. 20.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Oct. 20-Jan. 16. For details, www.lacma.org.

POP MUSIC

Beyond the honky-tonk

The redneck woman is all jacked up, and that’s good news for fans of the brand of country music that Illinois upstart Gretchen Wilson repopularized with a bang last year. “Redneck Woman,” of course, was her debut album, a collection that became an empowering statement for the marginalized class she celebrated in the title -- and sold a few million copies in the bargain. All eyes in Nashville nation will be on her new one, “All Jacked Up,” looking to see if she can maintain her momentum while advancing her agenda beyond the trailer parks and roadhouses.

“All Jacked Up” (Epic), due in stores Sept. 27.

ART

His own drum

Drawing from Native American art, Byzantine icons, Peruvian textiles, Paleolithic figures, Zen Buddhism and everything else that caught his fancy, artist Lee Mullican created a distinctive body of abstract art that dances to its own rhythm and shimmers with spiritual power. He was a founder of the Dynaton movement, a West Coast version of Surrealism, and a pillar of L.A.’s art scene until his death in 1998. But “Lee Mullican: An Abundant Harvest of Sun,” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will be the first major survey of his work in more than 20 years. It will offer 75 paintings, sculptures and drawings made in the late 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Nov. 10-Feb. 20. For details, www.lacma.org.

POP MUSIC

Rap rapport

Producer Muggs gave Cypress Hill its stoned, sinister sound, while the GZA, the Wu-Tang Clan’s most revered and mystical lyricist, provided the group with a sage perspective. The two have collaborated on a number of projects in the last several years, and their new joint album marks a rare rap release in which the producer handles the entire album and the rapper approaches the project like a game of chess, matching wits with the soundscapes. It’s sure to be a cerebral ride courtesy of two of rap’s most respected, if unheralded, masters.

“GZA vs. Muggs: Grandmasters” (Angeles/Fontana/Universal Records), due in stores Oct. 25.

OPERA

Gleaming Wagner

Robert Wilson’s abstract, radiant production of Wagner’s medieval religious epic “Parsifal,” which opens with what feels like a real-time sunrise and turns the Holy Grail into a glowing bagel chip, had its own stormy dawn 14 years ago in Hamburg, Germany. The audience booed a dreary conductor. A stick-figure Parsifal fought the staging and his avant-garde costume. Still, the production glistened, as if lighted by magical forces. And when Los Angeles Opera takes it over in November, the company will have a sympathetic conductor, Kent Nagano, and a tenor in the title role who happens to run the place. That singer, Placido Domingo, is, moreover, on a Wagner-Wilson roll. He has just made a career-capping “Tristan and Isolde” recording and is also appearing in Wilson’s “Ring” production in Paris this fall.

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, seven performances between Nov. 26 and Dec. 17. More at www.laopera.com.

THEATER

A centralized Edge

The seventh Edge of the World Theater Festival takes place almost entirely at downtown’s Los Angeles Theatre Center this year, in contrast to the many venues of most previous EdgeFests. More than 250 performances of 30-plus productions -- most of them premieres or at least new to the area -- will fill four stages every night and all day Saturdays and Sundays. With productions by such groups as Zoo District and Padua Playwrights in proximity, they may bounce off one another in ways that weren’t possible at previous EdgeFests.

Los Angeles Theatre Center, Oct. 6-23. Details at www.edgefest.theatermania.com.

ART

Fair ways

If you haven’t booked your hotel room yet, you might have to commute. But there are worse things than not being able to just amble over from the Art Deco District to the Miami Beach Convention Center, where the reigning queen of art fairs, Art Basel Miami Beach, will set up cocktail-laden shop during the first four days of December. (Art Basel in Switzerland is king.) Besides, aside from the fair’s 180 galleries for high-end international contemporary art, a lot of the real action takes place at private parties all over South Florida. You didn’t think New Yorkers flew to Miami in December just to see art, did you?

Art Basel Miami Beach, Dec. 1-4. Check out www.artbaselmiamibeach.com.

POP MUSIC

Class distinction

Even if you’re not thrilled with Gwen Stefani’s music on her own or with No Doubt, it’s hard not to admire the way this Orange County singer has become a role model to a generation of young women without resorting to the shock tactics of Madonna or the tackiness of some of her younger rivals. Everything about her, from her fashion sense to her wide-ranging music tastes, seems tailor-made for this era. Plus, she’s got enough sense of occasion to make sure the Hollywood Bowl and Arrowhead Pond homecoming shows will be spectacles to remember.

Hollywood Bowl, Oct. 21; Arrowhead Pond, Nov. 26 and 28.

THEATER

Wild child

The first time North Hollywood’s Deaf West Theatre produced in a larger venue, it was with a show -- “Big River” -- that wound up on Broadway and on tour. Now comes the second: “Open Window” at the Pasadena Playhouse, a co-production of the playhouse and Deaf West, written by Fountain Theatre artistic co-director Stephen Sachs. The play is about a deaf 18-year-old who has been locked in a basement for most of his life and is charged with having murdered his father. Two nonhearing women -- one a linguist, the other a psychologist -- are at odds over how to rehabilitate him. Sachs and Deaf West go way back -- the Fountain was Deaf West’s first home in 1991.

Pasadena Playhouse, Oct. 21-Nov. 20, www.pasadenaplayhouse.org.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Beethoven plus

“If there ever was a composer whose music cries for new works to be next to his,” says Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, “that is Beethoven.” So the orchestra has scheduled “Beethoven Unbound,” a series pairing symphonies by the titanic, tormented German with music of our time, including works by Henri Dutilleux, Oliver Knussen and Witold Lutoslawski. The results could well validate H.L. Mencken’s observation about the composer: “In his lightest moods there is the immense and inescapable dignity of ancient prophets.”

Walt Disney Concert Hall, Sept. 30-May 19. For details: www.laphil.org.

JAZZ

Horn a-plenty

With sales of Chris Botti’s last album, “When I Fall in Love,” well past 500,000, it made sense that his new release would further explore the genre of romantic instrumental jazz that he has rediscovered. Not completely instrumental, of course, since singers play an important role in both albums. But “Still in Love,” which features contributions from Sting, Michael Buble, Gladys Knight, Steven Tyler and Jill Scott (among others), is still very much Botti’s album, brought to life by the intimately lyrical, warmly communicative sound of his soaring trumpet lines.

“Still in Love” (Columbia), due in stores

Oct. 18.

ART

Cuckoo’s nest

Pop quiz: Dada is (a) a raucous art movement born of the insanity of war, (b) Mama’s husband or (c) the plural of dado. If you chose (a), go directly to Paris, where the Centre Pompidou will present the biggest survey ever of the hugely influential avant-garde movement that erupted when Europe devolved into World War I. Or you can wait until February, when kooky work by Marcel Duchamp, Tristan Tzara, Man Ray, Francis Picabia and the rest comes to Washington’s National Gallery of Art, just up the road from the Pentagon.

Centre Pompidou, Paris, Oct. 5-Jan. 9, www.cnac-gp.fr.

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Guide to the list

The fall arts and pop list was edited by Craig Fisher, with contributions from Soren Baker, Richard Cromelin, Lynell George, Agustin Gurza, Diane Haithman, Christopher Hawthorne, Don Heckman, Lynne Heffley, Robert Hilburn, Christopher Knight, Suzanne Muchnic, Chris Pasles, Louise Roug, Lewis Segal, Don Shirley, Mark Swed and Scott Timberg.