Arts

THURSDAY 12/3

Andrew Eccles/Decca

Fleming sings the hits at the Benny.

Etsy

An Etsy doll at Seattle Center.

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More About

• Brian Miller
• Umberto Giordano
• Riccardo Zandonai
• Opera
• Classical Music

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Music: Hard Times on Vinyl

Harry Smith was crazy as catshit. The Portland-born, Bellingham-raised eccentric (1923–91) couldn't comprehend paying bills. He would talk to people about things like "bioelectromagnetics," even if they weren't listening. And if he ever had money (which was rare), he would buy books and records, not food. But in 1952 he assembled a collection of "race" and "hillbilly" 78s that became a landmark—The Anthology of American Folk Music. Tonight, KEXP's resident Americana historian, Greg Vandy (who hosts "The Roadhouse" every Wednesday at 6 p.m.), presents an evening of talk, music, and film about Smith and his legacy. (It's a sidebar to the Frye's ongoing "Old, Weird America" show.) Though it served as the template for the folk revival (Dylan, Baez, etc.), the Anthology was much more than that. With tracks arranged into three groups (ballads, social music, and songs), Smith's collection summarized the American folk narrative—from our roots in the British Isles and Africa to "contemporary" issues such as the boll-weevil plague. Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., 622-9250, fryemuseum.org. Free. 7 p.m. BRIAN J. BARR

Television: The VCR Archives

There's a strong current of '80s nostalgia running through the clips included in the Found Footage Festival; that decade is a VHS gold mine of infomercials, workout videos, big hair, spandex, and worthless dating advice. It's a period that curators Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett—who don't appear with the traveling show—treat with equal parts affection and mockery. (No surprise, they list The Onion and Letterman show on their résumés.) With bad cartoons, ESL instructional videos, and heavy-metal home movies on the program, these artifacts scream sincerity. They lack the irony and self-awareness of our YouTube age, when everyone from the age of 3 realizes their behavior might be recorded on camera. We weren't always acting. Remember when dating was so much simpler—before Craigslist casual encounters or Match.com? David Cross provides the narration for video personal ads from 1987, and their lack of guile is almost touching—more honest than anyone you'd meet today on the Web. Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 686-6684, central-cinema.com. $10. 7, 9, and 11 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

FRIDAY 12/4

Opera: Hothouse Flowers

Even the blood-and-thunder melodrama of Verdi was not intense enough for the generation of Italian opera composers that followed him. Men like Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, and Riccardo Zandonai dialed everything up, until a dramatic moment was a shocking backhand to the face and a romantic moment was a warm, sensual caress on your tessitura. Even so, they were no match for Puccini's peerless theatrical savvy. And when he came along, he elbowed their operas to the edges of the repertory—almost literally, in one case: Hearing that Leoncavallo was working on a La bohème, Puccini rushed his own setting into production and scooped him, and guess whose became the world's most popular opera? But Renée Fleming, whose creamily opulent soprano is coupled with a restless curiosity about music, explores these semi-forgotten composers on her new CD, Verismo, and is including a few bonbons from the disc on tonight's recital program. Here's your chance to sample Leoncavallo's eclipsed Bohème (unjustly? your call), Giordano's Siberia, and Zandonai's Conchita. Also on the concert: more products from music's gilded age by Massenet and Strauss, plus Messiaen's 1937 Poèmes pour Mi, which she sang in September on PBS to open the New York Phil's season. Benaroya Hall, Third Ave. and Union St., 215-4747, seattlesymphony.org. $35–$160. 8 p.m. GAVIN BORCHERT

Theater: More Cakes, More Ale

Shakespeare's most reliable crowd-pleaser, Twelfth Night shakes up a charming blizzard of misunderstandings, mistaken identities, gender bendings, and status reversals for the purpose, ironically, of maintaining order. As in other seasonal festivals, like Saturnalia or Carnival, the titular post-Christmas celebration gives brief license to our raucous desires. Thus, in this presentation by Seattle Shakespeare Company, servants get uppity, masters get lowly (and lusty), girls get boyish, fools are wise, relatives sunder and rejoin, and pranks proliferate before love sorts it all out and we dutifully return to our cubicles. Not that they had cubicles in Elizabethan England, nor bosses as fun as Sir Toby Belch, who memorably reproaches Malvolio thus: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Stephanie Shine directs. (Through Dec. 27.) Center House Theatre (Seattle Center), 733-8222, seattle shakespeare.org. $22–$36. 7:30 p.m. MARGARET FRIEDMAN

SATURDAY 12/5

Beer: Baby, It's Warm Inside

Today and Saturday, the annual Winter Beer Festival presents 30 local breweries and their most comforting seasonal ales. (Lagers are invited, too.) It's like a barn dance, but with far, far superior alcohol. Big Time Brewing will bring its Malaprop 8, a melting pot of sugar, malt, oats, and wheat that defies description. If you've previously only had the chance to sample brand-new Fremont Brewing Company's flagship Universale, the brewery will also showcase its small-batch brews, including a hop-spiked dark, chocolaty winter ale. Malt-rich, spicy, or barrel-aged, these "winter warmers" have at least two things in common: They pack a lot of flavor, and they add a little more alcohol. (Hence the warming part.) And if you need to put something solid in your stomach, local confectioner Chocolate Box will be offering sweets, or you can order from the regular Hale's pub menu. (21 and over.) Hale's Palladium, 4301 Leary Way N.W., 706-1544, washingtonbeer.com. $23–$25. 5–10 p.m. MAGGIE SAVARINO