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Do It Today: Garrison Keillor's The Prairie Home Companion in Tampa, art lectures and guided tours of New Weather

By Franki Weddington on Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 1:00 am

Evenings with the Maestro: Character Roles in Opera is an “opera and classical music for dummies” course with Maestro Mark Sforzini, which offers an entertaining mix of education, musical performance, humor and personal reflections from the St. Peteresburg Opera singers. Tonight, the maestro offers live musical examples of opera's "characters," like jailers, servants and villains. Visit stpeteopera.org for more info. Thurs., Feb. 4, 6 p.m., The Music Gallery, Clearwater, $10, $5 seniors and students.

Christian Marclay and the Antiquarian Avant-Garde is a scholarly lecture by Noam M. Elcott, who specializes in the history of modern art and media in Europe and North America, with an emphasis on interwar art, photography, and film. Contact Sarah Howard at [email protected] or visit graphicstudio.usf.edu for more info. Thurs., Feb. 4, 7 p.m., FAH 290, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, free.

At noon today, curator David Louis Norr leads a tour of New Weather, in which artists Diana Al-Hadid, Iva Gueorguieva and Robyn O’Neil "explore the atmospheres and forces which characterize our time," making it an open metaphor for the effects of global warming, overpopulation and the myriad elements (human and otherwise) that shape the world as we know it. The works themselves are no dainty and delicate drawings, but impossible-to-ignore sculpture installations and large-scale paintings that demand action. On display through March 6. Visit ira.usf.edu for more info. USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa.

Author Barbara Sorey discusses her childhood in Clearwater (and if learning about local culture isn't enough to get you to the library, there's also a complimentary dessert bar.) Call the Friends of the Library at 727-944-3042 to register. Thurs., Feb. 4, 12:30 p.m., Tarpon Springs Library, Tarpon Springs, free.

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Minne-soo-ta’s claims to fame are eclectic, to say the least: the Mall of America, Al Franken, the pseudo-electronic pop of Owl City, Jesse Ventura, that weird accent and, of course, Garrison Keillor’s The Prairie Home Companion. The public radio standard is one of the few good things that came out of the ’70s (the rest is all packed away in Elton John’s storage unit), and this week you can see it live onstage at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul without braving the frozen tundra that leads to Lake Wobegon. The program is being broadcast live in HD to theaters around the country, and you’re not just getting Keillor, with his trademark low-key wit and multi-voiced radio acting troupe; he’s also joined by the living, breathing music encyclopedia that is Elvis Costello. 8 p.m. Thurs., Feb. 4, live broadcast; 8 p.m. Tues., Feb. 9 encore, Citrus Stadium Park Mall 20, 7999 Citrus Park Town Center Mall, Tampa, $18-$20, visit fathomevents.com for full list of participating theaters.

After the break: An evening with St. Petersburg Opera Maestro Mark Sforzini, art lectures and guided tours of New Weather at the USF Contemporary Art Museum, and meet author Barbara Sorey