KIM BISSETT "Spring Day."

A balmy July night under the stars of rural Blossom Music Center (1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls) hardly seems like the appropriate setting for the heated, distinctively 19th-century-Russian sensibilities of composers Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Their brooding, emotive music will provide an interesting contrast to the environment when conductor Andris Nelsons makes his Cleveland Orchestra debut at 8 tonight. The program opens with the Rimsky-Korsakov arrangement of Mussorgsky's orchestral tone poem Night on Bald Mountain, followed by Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major, featuring another Cleveland Orchestra first-time guest, soloist Julia Fisher (pictured). The evening concludes after intermission with Tchaikovsky's towering 1878 Symphony No. 4 in F minor, in which his conflicted passions and fatalistic outlook got their most perfect sonic expression. At 7 p.m. tomorrow, Nelsons again takes up the baton, this time to direct the orchestra in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist Orion Weiss, while Cleveland Orchestra Assistant Conductor Tito Munoz and the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra will handle the pre-intermission program of works by Mozart, Stravinsky and de Falla. Tickets: $20-$42. Box office: 216.231.1111. — Anastasia Pantsios

THURSDAY, JULY 17

Hamlet

Hamlet, Hamlet, everywhere. Can't shake the guy loose this summer. While the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival is touring the morose prince around various outdoor venues in the Cleveland area, the Ohio Shakespeare Festival brings him to the lagoon at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens (714 N. Portage Path, Akron) for a three-week stand in its seventh season there, starting with an open dress rehearsal at 8 p.m. tonight for only $10. The production formally opens at 8 p.m. tomorrow and runs through Aug. 2. Gates open at 6 each evening for you to picnic on the grounds (bring your own or buy a sandwich there); the "greenshow," a pre-performance opening act, starts at 7:30. Performances go on regardless of the weather so be prepared. Tickets: $15-$26. Box office: 330.315.3287. — AP

Dog Sees God

Several generations of kids have grown up with Charles Schultz's lovable Peanuts characters. But young playwright Bert V. Royal views them through a less lovable lens. In his play Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, which was the sensation of New York's 2004 Fringe Festival, he re-imagines the characters as older, more cynical and way more dysfunctional. The play launches from a shocking event: a rabid Snoopy is put to sleep, causing C.B. (aka Charlie Brown) a whole lot of existential angst. Cleveland's young upstart theater ensemble Fourth Wall Productions, only in its second season, has scored the coup of giving the work its area premiere at the official opening performance at 8 tomorrow. Tickets: $7-$10. The show runs through July 27. Call 330.283.2442 for tickets and info. — AP

Chagrin Falls Art Walk

The work of more than four dozen artists will be on display and more than 35 shops, galleries and restaurants will be participating in the Chagrin Falls Art Walk in downtown Chagrin Falls from 4-9 tonight and noon-9 p.m. tomorrow. The town's an easy stroll; everything's close by. But if walking's a problem Lolly the Trolley will be on hand to help you get from place to place. There'll be artists on hand in many of the galleries, live music playing around the village, free refreshments and specials in the boutiques. Call 440.247.1895 for info. — AP

FRIDAY, JULY 18

West Side Story

Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night for the teenaged cast and crew of Near West Theatre's production of West Side Story: At 7:30 lights go up on opening night and the kids show their hard work to an audience. The 1957 show, with its indelible Leonard Bernstein score (Stephen Sondheim contributed lyrics to his first major show), is tailor-made for this diverse inner-city ensemble with its mission of breaking down walls between different groups through the teamwork of putting on a show. And since the Romeo and Juliet story recast in 20th-century New York deals with the extravagant emotions and sometimes destructive impetuousness of adolescents, it's especially poignant to see it performed by actors the same age as Tony, Maria, Riff, Anita and Bernardo. The show runs July 19, July 24-26 and Aug. 1-3 at the St. Patrick's Club Building (3606 Bridge Ave., Ohio City). Tickets are a mere $6. Box office: 216.961.6391. — AP

Altar Boyz

The theater gods (or demons) do not necessarily move in subtle or mysterious ways; they're damn Drama Deities half the time. Example: As Playhouse Square bids farewell to the Broadway touring show of Jersey Boys, the musicalization of the saga of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Beck Center for the Arts (17801 Detroit Ave., Lakewood) welcomes the area premiere of the Off-Broadway hit Altar Boyz. What's the difference? The newcomer is a pop-flavored musical satire about a latter-day boy band — not unlike the Four Seasons, actually, scrounged off the streets of NYC — who take advantage of America's ongoing religious mania and the Jesus-pandering commercial marketplace by promoting themselves as a hip Christian ensemble (albeit with a Jewish member), saving souls with a gospel sound that's N'Sync-ier than thou. It opens at 8 tonight and runs at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Aug. 17. Tickets: $17-$28. Box office: 216.521.2540. — Charles Cassady Jr.

SATURDAY, JULY 19

Kim Bissett

Kim Bissett's airy, sinuous work has a musical quality - and that's intentional. In her artist's statement she says, "Like free jazz, I begin by laying down a few strokes — large, sweeping — I work to the scale of my body. Gradually, the piece begins to take on its identity, then that identity leads. I'm especially excited about finding that balance where things just hang together — one little push and they would fall apart." A sculpture major at the Cleveland Institute of Art where she earned her BFA (she also has an MA from Case Western Reserve), her clean-looking works also appear to depict heaving fantasy topographies. Her show opens with a free reception from 6-9 tonight at Cain Park's Audrey and Harvey Feinberg Art Gallery (Lee and Superior roads, Cleveland Heights). It hangs through Aug. 17. Call 216.371.3000 for info. — AP

TUESDAY, JULY 22

Ian Adams and Mary Alice Mairose

Gov. Bob Taft's years of invisibility in office culminated with a "no contest" plea to accepting illegal gifts. His wife Hope, on the other hand, made the most of her time as first lady of the Governor's Mansion in Columbus suburb Bexley, transforming its grounds into a series of gardens based on native Ohio flora. Her successor, the genial, guitar-playing Frances Strickland, is preserving Mrs. Taft's improvements and adding her own: an increased emphasis on food crops and those that could potentially be used to create environmentally friendly energy, as well as adding such clean energy improvements as solar panels and green roofs. Residence curator Mary Alice Mairose and photographer Ian Adams tell these stories and more in words and pictures in their new book, Our First Family's Home: The Ohio Governor's Residence and Heritage Garden. They'll be at Joseph-Beth Booksellers (24519 Cedar Rd., Lyndhurst, 216.691.7000) to sign their book at 7 p.m. today. It's free. — AP