Shakespeare from the heart
Composers have been addicted to the prose and poetry of Shakespeare for the past 400 years -- especially English-speaking composers. So there's no shortage of material for the Alaska Chamber Singers all-Shakespeare spring concert, "If Music Be the Food of Love." Eight plays by the Bard are represented in a program drawn from his work as diverse as the white-hot romantic flight of "Romeo and Juliet" and the farcical humor of "Two Gentlemen of Verona." Two chances to hear the concert, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in Sydney Laurence Theatre.
No call zone
Sarah Ruhl tackled antiquated class discrepancies in "The Clean House," one of the best plays of the current millennium. Now the MacArthur award-winning playwright tackles the technologically obsessed world in a new play "Dead Man's Cell Phone," described as a "wildly imaginative" comedy. Codie Costello directs the play at Cyrano's, 413 D St., with shows at 7 p.m. Thursday-Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday through April 21. Tickets are at centertix.net.
Moscow night
Velvety baritone Anton Belov will be accompanied by pianist Svetlana Velichko in a recital of "Treasures of Russian Art Song" at 8 p.m. on Saturday in Wilda Marston Theatre at Z.J. Loussac Library. The program, celebrating 20 years of concerts by the Russian Alaskan Academy of Music, will include succulent songs by Glinka, Glazunov, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, among others. If you didn't know, former Anchorage major Z.J., who endowed the library that bears his name, was a Russian boy who came to Alaska after the Czar's secret police made him feel unwelcome. Tickets, $25, are available at centertix.net.
Compiled by arts reporter
Mike Dunham