Your weekend arts forecast: Opera, Di Meola, dance and additional tuneage

St. Petersburg Opera Company has been hitting the bulls-eye with is monthly pop-up concerts (the “Popera” series). As time goes on, the shows have added more music, more instrumentation and better production values. Today through Sunday, the company is back with March Madness, its most ambitious Covid-era concert yet.

At Opera Central tonight and Friday, and semi-outdoors at Cage Brewing Saturday and Sunday, March Madness will feature singers Sarah Nordin, Tyler Putnam, Linda Holloway, Chris Romeo and Eric Ferring, performing songs having to do with madness, spite, lust, anger and revenge (the main hallmarks of any good opera) from Verdi, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Bizet and more.

Individual tickets and tables are extremely limited; check here for availability.

The other stuff

If you’re visiting the bay area this weekend, we’d be remiss if we did not recommend the current visiting exhibition at the Dali Museum. The immersive Van Gogh Alive is there through June 14; learn more about it here.

Jazz guitar legend Al Di Meola has two solo acoustic concerts Saturday (4 and 8 p.m.) at the Central Park Performing Arts Center, with percussionist Gumbi Ortiz. Tickets are here. There’s lot to talk about with Al these days; we’ll do just that in an exclusive, extensive interview, Friday in the Catalyst.

Project Alchemy returns to thestudio@620 Friday and Saturday for its first public dance performances in over a year. Read about choreographer Alex Jones and Within.Without here.

Still proudly fronted by singer/bassist Jack Blades, guitarist Brad Gillis and drummer Kelly Keagy, the ’80s rock band Night Ranger (“Sister Christian”) opens a spring tour Friday at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. Get tickets here.

Tampa theatrics: Christopher Demos-Brown’s intense drama American Son is in its final weekend at Stageworks Theatre. The cast includes Andresia Moseley, Ward Smith, Aaron Washington and Blake Halloran; tickets are here. And the three-show An Evening With Eberlein continues at Lab Theatre Project (click here).

If you’re reading this after 11 a.m. today (Thursday, March 25) it’s likely you missed the Florida Orchestra morning concert at the Mahaffey Theater, French Connection. They still call them “Coffee Concerts,” even though there’s no more coffee and Krispy Kremes at intermission (because there’s no intermission at all, thanks to the pandemic). An early riser? Click here for tickets.

The Palladium Theater virtual performance series continues Friday with the Damon Fowler Group. All you need to know is here. From October, here’s Damon on The Catalyst Sessions:

And one more video to share: While St. Pete’s immerse art experience Fairgrounds is still planning a late spring opening, those in charge have just shared this message: