Your weekend arts forecast: Music and dance and Valentine’s Day

Opera Tampa salutes Cupid and his arrows, and all that kind of stuff, with a program called Valentine’s Engagement, in four performances Saturday and Sunday at the David A. Straz Center’s Riverwalk stage in Tampa. The lineup includes Gian Carlo Menotti’s rarely performed The Telephone, alongside “love songs from opera, Broadway and beyond.” Tickets are here.

The Florida Orchestra brings in Tony-winning vocalist Debbie Gravitte Saturday for Broadway Sings at the Mahaffey Theater (shows at 2 and 8 p.m.). We’ll speak with Ms. Gravitte – who, you might want to know, was a voice actor in the classic Disney film The Little Mermaid, among other cool things – Friday in the Catalyst.

Art and dance

Bob Devin Jones has curated a community art show in honor of Black History Month, Lift Every Voice,  at the studio@620. The opening reception is 5-9 p.m. Saturday, during the city-wide Second Saturday ArtWalk.

Even better, dancers Alex Jones and Aria Walker will perform once an hour during the reception. Voices: Light the Fire; Pop-Up Shorts happens at 5:20, 6:20, 7:20 and 8:20 p.m.

Admission is free. Donations, as always, will be gratefully accepted. Masks are required, and reservations (here) are suggested.

Here’s the lowdown on the February ArtWalk.

# And the sixth annual Gulfport Fine Arts Festival, with around 40 local, regional and Florida artists, takes place this weekend in Gulfport’s Veteran’s Park. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Theater scene

Chris Jackson, Ned Averill-Snell and Susan Haldeman star in The Lifespan of a Fact, the dark comedy opening Friday at a re-organized and socially distanced Stageworks Theatre. Here’s our profile of the estimable Mr. Averill-Snell from earlier this week.

Today is the final day to rent the streaming version of Jobsite Theatre’s recently-closed, extraordinary production of Doubt (you have 24 hours to watch it once you’ve paid up). This production of Doubt was reviewed last week in the Wall Street Journal, whose theater critic Terry Teachout is the author of Satchmo at the Waldorf, premiering virtually Feb. 19 at American Stage.

FreeFall’s current “drive-in” production, Scott and Patti: Get a Real Job!, has been held over through Feb. 21.