CLASSICAL & MORE Seattle Opera recruits a young raven-haired beauty with dynamite stage presence to sing the lead role of Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti’s tragic three-act, opening this Saturday. Oct 16-30.

BOOKS & TALKS Local kindie band the Board of Education joins three writers—novelist Nancy Rawles, poet Ed Skoog, and author Jess Walter—in a showcase of new work on the theme of (nonalcoholic) inspiration for Hugo Literary Series: Under the Influence.

EARSHOT JAZZ FESTIVAL If poetry’s not music to your ears, it will be tonight when former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky reads a history of the sax while backed by Earshot Jazz musicians at Benaroya Hall.

DANCE Standout Seattle choreographers create new works for some of the best male dancers in town, including a new piece by Spectrum’s Donald Byrd, in Men in Dance. It closes Sunday.

UW’s professional dance company uses props, masks, and long body lines in works inspired by—or inspiring to—the late modern-dance innovator Alwin Nikolais in their program Extensions. Oskar Schlemmer’s The Bauhaus Dances is on the bill. Thru Oct 17.

FILM Seattle’s 15th Lesbian and Gay Film Festival opens tonight with BearCity, a romantic comedy about a skinny guy (and closeted cub) looking for that special musclebear. A kickoff party at Neumos follows the screening. Oct 15-24.

THEATER Have you seen God of Carnage yet at Seattle Rep? You have one more week. The Cider House Rules, Part II closes on Saturday, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore is in previews at ACT starting tonight.

CONCERTS Canadian indie rock collective Broken Social Scene has reinvented itself yet again, touring with seven steady members (but minus Feist) behind the soaring new album Forgiveness Rock Record. They play Paramount Theatre tonight.