Elsewhere in entertainment, events and the arts this weekend:

MUSIC: Opera on the mountainside

Opera in the Ozarks kicks off its 2022 Summer Music Festival with Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Rondine” Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony Theater, 16311 US 62, five miles west of Eureka Springs.

The 2022 season, titled “Love on the Rocks,” focuses on love gone wrong and features a company of 37 young singers and a professional orchestra reunited from across the country in a total of 22 fully put-together opera performances. on stage and in costume until July 22.

“La Rondine” moves into the repertoire (7:30 p.m. Wednesday and July 2, 6, 13, 16 and 22 and 3 p.m. July 10) with productions of “Cosi fan tutte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (7:30 p.m. Saturday and June 30, June 5, 8, July 12 and 21 and 3 p.m. July 17) and “A Little Night Music” by Stephen Sondheim (7:30 p.m. Tuesday and July 1, 7, 9, 15 and 20 and 3 p.m. July 3).

The season also includes:

◼️ “Pinocchio”, an outreach production for children (adapted and with a libretto by John Davies, set to music by Mozart, Jacques Offenbach, Gaetano Donizetti, Giovani Pergolesi, Sir Arthur Sullivan and Giuseppe Verdi) in North West locations from Arkansas.

◼️ A chamber music concert, 7:30 p.m. on July 18 at Point Inspiration.

◼️ Two Broadway Cabarets, 7:30 p.m. July 14 at Millar Lodge at Mount Sequoyah, 150 N. Skyline Drive, Fayetteville, including heavy appetizers, and 6 p.m. July 19 at The Crescent Hotel, 75 Prospect Ave., Eureka Springs, which includes dinner. (Both cabarets will have cash bars.)

Single tickets cost between $25 and $30, with discounts for children and students under 18; $40 for Fayetteville Cabaret, $65 for Eureka Springs Cabaret. Call (479) 253-8595 or visit opera.org.

children’s rhythm

The Arkansas Arts Council and the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center will host “And the rhythm does not stop”, a children’s performance for hip-hop lyrics, Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at The Center, 501 W. Ninth St., Little Rock. Young people will perform songs they created during a May 28 workshop at the center. Free entry. The workshop is a partnership between the center, the Central Arkansas Library System – specifically, the Hillary Rodham Clinton Library and Learning Center – and the Arkansas Arts Council, and is in conjunction with the center’s current exhibit, “And the Beat Don’t Stop: 50 years of hip-hop.” Visit facebook.com/events/2035474653313711 or email [email protected] Where [email protected]

THEATER: “Practical Cats”

The Jonesboro Arts Foundation stages the musical “Cats” (music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by TS Eliot), 7:30 p.m. today-Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Forum Theater 115 E. Monroe Ave., Jonesboro. Neale Bartee conducts the Delta Symphony Orchestra. Sponsors are St. Bernards Healthcare and Medical Group Tickets are $18-$20, $16-$18 for children, seniors, military and State University students, faculty and staff from Arkansas. Sunday’s show is pay what you can. Call (870) 935-2726 or visit foajonesboro.org.

FUN: Celebrate the elk

The Buffalo River Elk Festival returns to the plaza in downtown Jasper, off Arkansas 7, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Saturday, with entertainment, local art and crafts, food vendors, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission annual lottery and outdoor activities. (Newton County is billed as “the elk capital of Arkansas,” according to a news release.)

Friday’s schedule includes music starting at 1 p.m., culminating with headliner 7 South performing country and Southern rock. Saturday activities actually start at 7 a.m. with a pancake breakfast at the American Legion Hut, followed by a kids’ fishing tournament at Bradley Park (registration starts at 8 a.m.). Judging for the Dutch Oven Cook-off begins at 1 p.m. at Harp’s Realty on Arkansas 7, after which festival-goers can taste the results; the winner will be announced at 3 p.m. The Arkansas State Championship Moose Calling Contest begins at 1:15 a.m. After a series of live musical performances, the festival concludes with a fireworks display at 9:50 p.m.

Admission to the festival is free; there is a charge for tasting bowls for the cook-off. Find a complete schedule and a map of activities on buffaloriverelkfestival.com. Dial (870) 416-2708.

Ian Holm (left to right), Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich save the world from ultimate evil in ‘The Fifth Element’. (Special for the Democrat-Gazette/Fathom Events)
FILM: “Elementary” projections

Fathom Events and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of Luc Besson’s film “The fifth Element” bringing it back to the big screen, Sunday at 3 p.m. and Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Breckenridge 12 and Colonel Glenn 18 in Little Rock, Cinemark Town Center in Conway, Razorback Cinema in Fayetteville, and Malco Ft. Smith Cinema in Fort Smith . The screening will also include an interview with Besson as well as excerpts from the film. For more information on tickets, visit fathomevents.com.

ETC.: ‘Poison Ivy Potluck’

Stephanie Streett, executive director of the Clinton Foundation, “headline” this month Potluck and Poison Ivy, today at The Joint, 301 Main St., North Little Rock. Doors open at 6 p.m. The Salty Dogs will be the “musical guests”. Tickets, $35, include dinner. Visit potluckandpoisonivy.org.

Streett oversees the strategy and management of the Clinton Presidential Center and the Presidential Leadership Scholars program on behalf of the foundation. Streett served eight years in the Clinton White House and previously worked on Capitol Hill as a staffer for the US Senate Budget Committee.

Isabelle McCalla (left to right), Christy Altomare, Syndee Winters and Susan Egan will “be” Disney Princesses for “Disney Princess – The Concert,” Oct. 29 at the Robinson Center Performance Hall in Little Rock. Tickets will go on sale Friday. (Special at the Democrat-Gazette)
TICKETS: singing princesses

Tickets — $31 to $66 plus any fees — go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday for “Disney Princess – The Concert” 7 p.m. Oct. 29 at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. on Broadway. “A quartet of Broadway stars and animated film icons” – Christy Altomare, Susan Egan, Courtney Reed and Syndee Winters (subject to change) – will perform over 30 Disney Princess songs with “their musical director magical [Benjamin Rauhala] and enchanting prince [Adam J. Levy]celebrating all of the Disney Princesses in an unforgettable evening of songs, entertainment and stories,” according to a press release. Call (501) 244-8800 or (800) 745-3000 or visit RobinsonCenter.com Where Ticketmaster.com.

Royal Comedy Tour

Comedians Sommore, Bruce Bruce, Arnez J and Lavell Crawford, on a city of 17 Royal Comedy Tour this fall, will make a stop in North Little Rock at 8 p.m. on October 28 at The [email protected] Bank Arena, the reduced and more intimate footprint of the arena. Tickets — $63 to $103 plus taxes and fees — go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday via Ticketmaster.com or at the arena box office.