L.A. Opera’s season opener and a cumbia celebration: The best of L.A. arts this weekend

Happy Friday, culture vultures. I’m staff writer Ashley Lee, here with another edition of Essential Arts with my colleague Jessica Gelt, recapping the arts chatter you might have missed and The Times’ top offerings to check out this weekend.

Best bets: On our radar this week

1. “Madame Butterfly”
Times classical music critic Mark Swed is eyeing the Los Angeles Opera’s season opener: The 2002 Teatro Real de Madrid production that updates the setting to a 1930 Hollywood soundstage, starring Korean soprano Karah Son, who has sung the role of Cio-Cio-San more than 300 times, and emerging Chilean American tenor Jonathan Tetelman. “A filming of Puccini’s opera is meant to add yet another layer of context to the issues of racial artificiality in opera,” said Swed in his list of must-see shows this season. Catch the opening for free via Saturday’s live broadcasts to the Santa Monica Pier and Sylmar’s El Cariso Park. The show runs Sept. 21-Oct. 13. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laopera.org

2. “Plugged In: Art and Electric Light”
Norton Simon’s newest exhibition draws from its collections to highlight 11 works from eight artists who explored electric light as an artistic medium in the mid-20th century, a time of accelerated tech advancement and sweeping social change. The museum opens the exhibit on Friday, and marks the occasion on Saturday with tours, art-making and live music by Lance Hill of the Vintage Synthesizer Museum. (Plus, a two-day symposium with Caltech in October, and a film series on Hollywood’s fascination with electricity in November.) Through Feb. 17. Norton Simon Museum, 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. nortonsimon.org

Son Rompe Pera is among the bands performing at Cumbiatón LA on Saturday, the first night of a two-night celebration of cumbia this weekend.

(Marc van der Aa)

3. Noche de Cumbia
Times editorial director of Latino initiatives Fidel Martinez is all about this weekend’s two-night celebration of cumbia. Cumbiatón LA kicks things off Saturday at The Ford with Son Rompe Pera — who played Coachella earlier this year and “bring a punk rock ethos to their set,” says Martinez — plus Reyna Tropical, Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto and traditional and contemporary dancers from the U.S. and Mexico. The party continues on Sunday with Grupo Cañaveral, La Sonora Dinamita, Los Hermanos Flores, Yeison Landero and more at the Hollywood Bowl. Saturday, 8 p.m. The Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E. theford.com; Sunday, 7 p.m. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 Highland Ave., Hollywood. hollywoodbowl.com

— Ashley Lee

The week head: A curated calendar

Emerson Boatwright and Michelle Veintimilla star in South Coast Repertory’s production of the musical “Little Shop of Horrors.”

(South Coast Repertory)

FRIDAY
Sugar Daddy L.A.-based comic Sam Morrison found the man of his dreams in the gay mecca of Provincetown, Mass., but tragedy spoiled the happily ever after. This Broadway-bound show, part stand-up, part solo performance work, is the fruit of his mourning.
Through Oct. 13. Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

SATURDAY
Jay DeFeo The exhibit “Trees” presents the late Bay Area artist’s exploration of nature through painting and photography from the 1950s through the ’70s.
Through Jan. 12. Laguna Art Museum, 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach. lagunaartmuseum.org

Future Sounds of Jazz Festival Artist-in-residence Stanley Clarke curated the lineup for this festival and is slated to appear with the Santa Monica College and Santa Monica High School jazz combos.
2 p.m. Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica. broadstage.org

Little Shop of Horrors Seymour, Audrey and Audrey II hit the stage in the rollicking Howard Ashman-Alan Menken musical.
Through Oct. 19. South Coast Repertory, Emmes/Benson Theatre Center, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scr.org

Gregory Maqoma and Vuyani Dance Theatre The South African contemporary dance troupe performs the choreographer’s new work, “CION: Requiem of Ravel’s Boléro,” inspired by the writings of South African novelist Zakes Mda and Maurice Ravel’s legendary composition.
8 p.m. UCLA, Royce Hall, 10745 Dickson Court, Westwood. cap.ucla.edu

Usher “Past Present Future” collide for the multiplatinum, eight-time Grammy winner on his latest tour.
8 p.m. Also Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Intuit Dome, 3930 W. Century Blvd., Inglewood. intuitdome.com

SUNDAY
ALOUD in Revue: Banned Books Library Foundation of Los Angeles and WORDTheatre mark “Banned Books Week” with readings of censored texts. Scheduled participants include Amy Brenneman, Gabrielle Carteris, Stephen Tobolowsky and Bruce Vilanch.
3 p.m. Mark Taper Auditorium-Central Library, 630 W. 5th St., downtown L.A. lfla.org

Arteônica Subtitled “Art, Science, and Technology in Latin America Today,” the exhibit looks at the convergence of fields that gave rise to a relatively obscure art movement in Latin America that draws on an expansion of the ideas of seminal Brazilian computer artist Waldemar Cordeiro.
Through Feb. 23. Museum of Latin American Art , 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach. molaa.org

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Sara Porkalob performs in “Dragon Lady” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Three generations of Filipina women come to life in Sara Porkalob’s one-woman musical, “Dragon Lady,” now playing at the Geffen Playhouse. This isn’t your average story of family survival (if there even is such a thing), but rather an exploration of one extraordinary group of relatives that Porkalob refers to as her “Filipina American gangster family.” There is enough drama and trauma in this karaoke cabaret extravaganza to make Oliver Twist blush. In his review, Times theater critic Charles McNulty applauds Porkalob’s performance and the underpinnings of this incredibly complicated and compelling story.

Ballet dancer Michaela Mabinty DePrince has died at 29. DePrince’s parents were casualties of Sierra Leone’s civil war in the 1990s and DePrince was adopted by an American family and studied at the Rock School of Dance in Pennsylvania. Her story came to captivate dance fans who followed her career as it blossomed from dancer to choreographer, and included stints with Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Dutch National Ballet and Boston Ballet. She also performed with pop stars including Beyoncé and Madonna. Read Alexandra Del Rosario’s obituary of DePrince.

A painting by Impressionist Camille Pissarro titled “Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain,” which was looted by the Nazis during World War II, has been returned to the family it was taken from thanks to a new state law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The law, written with this case in mind, invalidated a previous federal court ruling that found the painting legally belonged to a Spanish museum and did not need to be returned to the American descendants of Lilly Cassirer Neubauer, who, according to an article by Times reporter Kevin Rector, “surrendered the masterpiece to the Nazis for a visa to flee Germany in 1939.”

Jane Fonda is set to narrate the U.S. premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s new work, “Dream Requiem,” at Walt Disney Concert Hall next year.

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles Master Chorale announced that Jane Fonda will narrate the U.S. premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s new work, “Dream Requiem,” on May 4 at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The piece, co-commissioned by LAMC and conducted by Grant Gershon, is part of the organization’s 60th anniversary season.

After an expansive national search, Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced the appointment of Gabriella Calicchio as its new executive director. Calicchio will become OSF’s fifth leader and is set to start in November — in time to help launch the organization’s 90th anniversary season. She has more than 25 years of experience in the arts, and most recently served as the director of cultural services and executive director of the Marin Cultural Assn. for Marin County in the Bay Area.

The J. Paul Getty Museum announced that it has returned an ancient bronze funerary couch dating to about 530 BC to Turkey. The Getty first acquired the object from a Swiss dealer in 1982. The dealer provided false provenance for the piece showing that it had been in European collections since the 1920s. The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in cooperation with the Getty, later researched this claim and found it to be false. The artifact was, in fact, illegally excavated from an ancient tomb in the region of modern-day Manisa in the early 1980s.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

If anyone needs me, I’ll still be recovering from Patti LuPone going on “Hot Ones” and deliciously refusing to apologize to an on-screen Eva Perón.