Whether you are looking at her or listening to her, superstar soprano Renée Fleming is a treat, and at 8 p.m. next Wednesday in the Arlington Theater, South Coast music lovers will have a chance to do quite a bit of both when the Community Arts Music Association (CAMA) sponsors a recital by Fleming and pianist Hartmut Hoell.

The rich and varied program will include arias by George Frederick Handel, Alban Berg’s "Seven Early Songs," songs by André Previn ("I Can Smell the Sea Air"), John Kander ("A Letter from Sullivan Ballou"), and Carlisle Floyd ("Ain’t It a Pretty Night?"); and six songs by Robert Schumann. That is not including however many encores the audience manages to coax out of her.

Tickets for Renée Fleming are available from the Arlington box office (963-4408) and from CAMA (966-4324). Big as the Arlington is, it is likely to sell out for this one, so get your call in early.

PCPA offers ‘Interplay,’ a festival of new plays

The distinctive voices of four contemporary playwrights can be heard for three weeks as part of PCPA’s fourth annual "Interplay: the Stage Between," which works as both a filler between their regular productions and as a showcase for what is going on in the theater at this very moment. Running Jan. 12-29 in PCPA’s intimate Severson Theatre, "InterPlay 2005" features the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Dinner with Friends," Britain’s Evening Standard winner and the Tony Award-nominated "Vincent in Brixton," and two works by critically acclaimed, rising authors, "Pyretown" and "Kid-Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh."

Performed in rotating repertory as staged readings, "InterPlay" focuses on each show’s text and allows the audience to experience firsthand the initial step in a play’s developmental process. Resident Artist and Company Dramaturge Patricia M. Troxel serves as producing director of this new play festival. In the past three years, the festival has presented readings of such internationally acclaimed works as "Art," "The Weir," "Songs for a New World" and "Stones in His Pockets," as well as introducing audiences to the plays of up-and-coming new writers. Rebecca Gilman’s provocative "Boy Gets Girl" began life as an InterPlay entry and was later produced on PCPA’s main stage in a highly praised West Coast premiere.

For tickets and information call the PCPA box office at 922-8313 from noon-7 p.m Wednesday, or 1-7 p.m Thursday-Sunday. Order online anytime at www.pcpa.org. For group sales (12 or more), please call (800) PCPA-123.

The Marian and Severson Theatres are located at 800 South College, Santa Maria.

Canadian country superstar k.d. lang comes to the Arlington

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents the phenomenal Canadian singer k.d. lang in concert with her band at 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 9 in the Arlington Theatre, 1317 State Street, Santa Barbara. lang will also participate in a pre-concert reception at 5:30 p.m. This concert and a performance at Disney Hall in Los Angeles will be lang’s only California dates on her current tour. k.d. lang can sing everything from Patsy Cline country to Tony Bennett crooning.

For her Santa Barbara concert lang will sing songs that span her career in addition to tunes from her latest CD, "Hymns of the 49th Parallel," a tribute to her favorite Canadian songwriters — Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Jane Siberry, Ron Sexsmith and Bruce Cockburn. lang’s touring band includes Teddy Borowiecki on piano, David Piltch on bass, Greg Leisz on guitar and Danny Frankel on drums.

The bond lang shares with her fans has deepened over her 20-year career through now-classic recordings such as her work with legendary country producer Owen Bradley on "Shadowland" (1988), her powerful last straight country recording "Absolute Torch and Twang" (1989), a turn to Tin Pan Alley pop "Ingenue" (1992), and "Live by Request" (2001), fourteen classic lang cuts sung with her usual smoldering passion.

k.d. lang is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Valley Voice, KLITE and Haagen Printing. The concert is supported by Fredric Steck and Kelly Le Brock. Tickets are $65 and $45 for the general public and $25 for UCSB students. VIP tickets with a pre-concert reception with k.d. lang are $125.

For tickets or more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535 or visit www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu.

Center Stage hosts Mamet’s ‘A Life in the Theater’

Through Jan. 16, the Center Stage Theater at the Paseo Nuevo Mall will be the venue of the Virtual Theatre Company’s production of David Mamet’s celebrated two-man tour-de-force, "A Life In The Theatre." The production stars Edward Giron and Geren Piltz and is directed by Cybele Foraker.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Mamet’s "A Life in the Theatre" is often hilarious, often moving, and always sharp and witty. "A Life in the Theatre" explores the lives of two actors: one young and on the ascendancy; the other an older actor, his career having peaked, aware that he is on the decline. In a series of spare and intimate exchanges we follow the changes in the relationship between the two.

"A Life in the Theatre" plays at 8 p.m. Jan. 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15, and at 4 p.m. Jan. 9. On Jan. 16, there will be a reception at 4:30 p.m., with the performance starting at 6 p.m. Tickets are $16 general admission, $13.50 for students, with a special rate of $12 for groups of 15 or more. Call the box office at 963-0408.

Music Club goes Baroque

At 11 a.m. next Wednesday, Jan. 12, the Santa Barbara Music Club will offer a morning program in the Faulkner Gallery at the Santa Barbara Public Library, downtown. Under the rubric "Baroque Program," the works presented will include Georg Philipp Telemann’s Quartet No. 4 in B minor, played by flutist Isabel Gallagher, violinist Bernard Gondos, cellist Julie Simpson, and harpsichordist John Sonquist; five baroque arias by Handel, Purcell, and Bach, sung by soprano Audrey Sharpe with flutist Mary Jo Hartle and pianist Nelson Huber; Bach’s Sonata in D major for Cello and Piano, played by cellist Ervin Klinkon and pianist Sally Klinkon; and Bach’s Sonata in G minor for Flute and Piano, performed by flutist Andrea Di Maggio and pianist Neil Di Maggio.