Our expert critics supply a guide to film, dance, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.

Film

Melville and Company (Melville et Cie)
Brattle Theatre in Cambridge
July 5 through 9

In anticipation of a larger retrospective of the work of French director Jean-Pierre Melville at the Harvard Film Archive, the Brattle offers a short selection culled from his best. Known primarily for his intense, spare ’50s and ’60s gangster films, Melville actually had a surprisingly varied career that includes wartime dramas and psychosexual character studies. See calendar for dates and times.

Le Samouraï, Le Doulos, Le Trou, Classe Tous Risques.

Rarities: Léon Morin Priest and When You Read This Letter

The Boston French Film Festival
July 11–August 4
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

The annual French Festival is back in full. All films are linked to descriptions.

The Nature of Love (Simple comme Sylvain)
July 11 at 7 p.m. and July 27 at 11 a.m.
Directed by Monia Chokri

Ama Gloria
July 12 at 5 p.m. and July 14 at 2:30 p.m.
Directed by Marie Amochoukeli-Barsacq

The Crime Is Mine (Mon crime)
July 12 at 7:30 p.m. and July 14 at 11 a.m.
Directed by François Ozon

Sisterhood (HLM pussy)
July 13 at 11 a.m.
Directed by Nora El Hourch

Banel and Adama (Banel et Adama)
July 13 at 2:30 p.m.
Directed by Ramata-Toulaye Sy

The Animal Kingdom (Le règne animal)
July 19 at 7 p.m.
Directed by Thomas Cailley

Auction (Le tableau volé)
July 20 at 2:30 pm
Directed by Pascal Bonitzer

Toni (Toni en famille)
July 21 at 11 a.m. and August 4 at 2:30 p.m.
Directed by Nathan Ambrosioni

All Your Faces (Je verrai toujours vos visages)
July 21 at 2:30 p.m.
Directed by Jeanne Harry

The Goldman Case (Le procès Goldman)
July 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Directed by Cédric Kahn

The Taste of Things (La passion de Dodin Bouffant)
July 27 at 2:30 p.m.
Directed by Anh Hung Tran (Fuse Review)

All to Play For (Rien à perdre)
July 28 at 2:30 p.m.
Directed by Delphine Deloget

The Beast (La bête)
August 2 at 7 p.m.
Directed by Bertrand Bonello

Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) finds herself falling in love with the same man in each of her previous incarnations across shifting epochs. A strange rambling film based on Henry James’s novella, “The Beast in the Jungle.” (Fuse Review)

Menus Plaisirs – Les Troigros August 3 at 12:30 p.m.

Directed by Frederick Wiseman. For his 50th film, veteran documentarian Frederick Wiseman takes an intimate look at the Troisgros family and their Michelin star–decorated restaurants. (Fuse Review)

Some Like It Hot
July 8 at 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre

If by any chance you haven’t seen Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Joe E. Brown in Billy Wilder’s classic gender-bending farce, here’s your chance. The film is often rated among the greatest of American movie comedies; the National Catholic Legion of Decency thought the film was “seriously offensive” to “traditional standards of morality” when it was released. Its accumulation of wry innuendo and double–entendres was just too much. The stories of Monroe’s erratic behavior on set are legendary — but she created one of her most iconic performances. This digital restoration is an entry in the theater’s Big Screen Classic Series.

The Rock
July 10 at 8 p.m.
Charles River Speedway at 525 Western Ave. in Brighton

The Coolidge Corner Theatre presents a program of free, outdoor summer screenings. Michael Bay’s thriller is set in San Francisco, a city taken hostage when a vengeful general (Ed Harris) seizes control of Alcatraz Island, threatening to launch missiles loaded with deadly poison gas. Who can stop this wily madman? Only a young FBI chemical weapons expert (Nicholas Cage) and a notorious federal prisoner (Sean Connery) have the action skills necessary to penetrate the island fortress.

Somerville International Film Festival
July 13 & 14
The Rockwell, 255 Elm Street, Davis Square

This under-the-radar festival presents a weekend of 12 films. Thanks to sponsors, free tickets are available for all films.  Schedule of Films

Pick of the Week

 A Summer’s Tale (aka A Tale of Summer aka Conte Déeé)  (1996) Streaming on MAX and Amazon Prime

Eric Rohmer’s elegant classic offers a cinematic salute to the summer. Graduate Gaspard goes on holiday to the seaside. He’s hoping his sort-of girlfriend Léna will join him there but, as time passes, he welcomes the interest of Margot. When Margot encourages him to date her friend Solène, he complies. But when Léna finally turns up, Gaspard will have to choose his main squeeze. Friendship, love, men, women, the head, the heart, the loins: it is all here. Those French lips, downcast gazes, and sensuous performances make you feel as if you have dreamed this excursion into hot weather relationships. At a time when the demands are high for cinematic entertainment to be funny, ironic, and stuffed with side plots and pop music, Rohmer still supplies a deep breath of fresh ocean air.

— Tim Jackson

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World Music and Roots

Etran de L’Aïr
July 1
The Sinclair, Cambridge

It sometimes seems like the Sahara spawns an endless supply of desert blues bands that mix traditional rhythms with psychedelic blues-rock electric guitar. They’ve only recently become a mainstay of the US touring circuit, though the roaring Agadez-based trio Etran de L’Aïr were actually pioneers of the genre when they formed in 1995.

Outlaw Music Festival
July 2
Xfinity Center, Mansfield

Here’s who we know will be at the shed in Mansfield on Tuesday: Bob Dylan, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Celisse, and Lukas Nelson with Willie Nelson’s Family Band. As for Willie, he’s missed the recent run of the tour due to illness, but he is expected to be back on the road again soon. Despite all that star power, the show isn’t sold out, so there might be some relative bargains available.

Mark Hummel’s Little Walter Harp Blowout W/ Magic Dick & Sugar Ray Norcia
July 9
Boston City Winery

The down-and-dirty sound of Chicago Blues harmonica immortal Little Walter lives on thanks to the tireless efforts of West Coast ace Mark Hummel and his traveling revue. For this edition he has enlisted two of New England’s greatest practitioners of the so-called Mississippi saxophone: Sugar Ray Norcia and Magic Dick from the J. Geils Band, making this one of the most enticing blues shows to come through town in quite some time.

Boston Jerk Fest 
July 13
Harvard Athletic Complex

This celebration of Jamaican food and culture has really ramped up its entertainment offerings in recent years, and the 2024 edition is no exception. Headlining are Third World, the band that helped bridge reggae with R&B when they collaborated with Stevie Wonder in the ’70s. While several founding members have passed on, guitarist and cellist Stephen “Cat” Coore is still front and center, and current lead singer AJ Brown boasts formidable pipes. Another outstanding roots act, Kumar & The Original Fyah, are also on tap.

Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman
July 14, The Cut, Gloucester
July 15, Payomet Center, North Truro

Since she was last in these parts, banjo player Nora Brown has turned 18, released an EP, and continued to tour the world singing and playing music that is rooted in the soul of old-time country, often with fiddler Stephanie Coleman. The two did a Tiny Desk concert in October and are coming to both the North Shore and the Cape.

Justin Hayward and Christopher Cross
July 7
Indian Ranch, Webster

In recent years the so-called yacht rock resurgence has led to some soft rockers receiving a well-deserved second look. Among the most deserving: Christopher Cross, who racked up hits and Grammys for his debut album and also inspired one of the funniest sketch comedy bits of all time. Cross has been through the commercial and critical ringer over the years, but he seems to have made peace with it all. Reports are that these days Cross is in good form performing live. He’s part of a double bill that also includes Moody Blues front man Justin Hayward, who in recent years has been playing with a stripped-down combo that also includes acoustic guitarist master Mike Dawe. This will no doubt be a lovely afternoon for those who like their rock on the mellow side. Cross returns to the area July 25 at Cary Hall in Lexington.

— Noah Schaffer

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Classical Music

Gil Shaham plays Beethoven
Presented by Tanglewood Music Festival
July 5, 8 p.m.
Koussevitzky Shed, Lenox

Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony in their all-Beethoven, Tanglewood season-opener. Gil Shaham, who made a smashing recording of that composer’s Violin Concerto a few years back, plays it here.

Fleming sings Strauss
Presented by Tanglewood Music Festival
July 7, 2:30 p.m.
Koussevitzky Shed, Lenox

Renée Fleming joins the BSO for an afternoon of songs and arias by Richard Strauss. Nelsons leads the orchestra in two concertante works: the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier and the Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten.

Boston Ballet & BSO
Presented by Tanglewood Music Festival
July 12, 8 p.m.
Koussevitzky Shed, Lenox

Members of Boston Ballet join the BSO for a performance of Stravinsky’s Apollon musagète done with George Balanchine’s original choreography. Also on the docket is Rimsky-Korsakov’s vivid Sheherazade.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

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Popular Music

Lovina Falls with Parlour Bells and Happy Little Clouds
July 6 (doors at 7:30/show at 8)
The Rockwell, Somerville

Lovina Falls is the stage moniker of Valerie Forgione, who sang lead and played multiple instruments for Boston’s Mistle Thrush, who recorded three albums between 1995 and 2002. Forgione’s debut, Calculating the Angle of Our Descent, appeared last May and featured contributions by former bandmates Matt Klain and Todd Demme. On half of its 10 tracks, however, Forgione sings and plays all the instruments, including autoharp, accordion, and Moog. In addition to her upcoming single release show at The Rockwell, she will be opening for The Chameleons at The Sinclair on August 10.

The Felice Brothers with Dead Gowns
July 13 (doors at 7:30/show at 8:30)
The Sinclair, Cambridge

One of two sets of brothers scheduled to perform in the Boston area on July 13, The Felice Brothers have a brand new release, Valley of Abandoned Songs. The album, which was immediately met with great praise, is so titled because it consists largely of finished versions of songs that the band recorded during the sessions for 2019’s Undress and last December’s Asylum on the Hill. According to Ian Felice, “I realized that I had a particular group of tunes that worked really well as an album, and so I shared it with Conor [Oberst], along with my idea to post it online, but he immediately texted back that he loved it so much he wanted to start a new record label [Million Stars] just to put it out.”

The Bacon Brothers
July 13th (show at 8)
Lynn Auditorium, Lynn

When I interviewed actor Kevin Bacon and his prolific composer brother Michael two years ago, Kevin explained the title of their 1997 debut, Forosoco. “It’s not really folk, it’s not 100 percent rock,” he explained. “It’s got a little country; it’s got a little soul. So that’s where we came up with ‘forosoco’.” Their latest batch of their brand of music is Ballad of the Bacon Brothers, which 40 Below Records released in April. Having performed in recent years at The Cabot and Shalin Liu Performance Center, Michael and Kevin are set to heat up the larger expanse of Lynn Auditorium on July 13. This time around, they will be performing in support of Ballad of the Bacon Brothers, the follow-up to their 2022 EP Erato and their first LP since 2020’s The Way We Love.

The Greeting Committee
July 17 (doors at 7/show at 8)
The Sinclair, Cambridge

Kansas City’s The Greeting Committee are currently on a summer tour of North America in support of the just-released Everyone’s Gone and I Know I’m the Cause. This is the third LP that they have released in addition to and equal number of EPs since 2015. In contrast to 2022’s 15-track, 47-minute Dandelion, Everyone’s Gone… is a concise 10-track, 32-minute collection of the band’s thoughtful, unpretentious, and enjoyable indie pop.

Freedy Johnston
July 18 (doors at 6/show at 7:30)
City Winery, Boston

“Bad Reputation” will forever make Freedy Johnston’s voice familiar to those who don’t recognize his name. However, Johnston would not still be writing, recording, and touring exactly 30 years later if that was all he had to offer. With 2022’s Back On the Road to You, Johnston returned after a seven-year absence with his voice undiminished and his songwriting chops perfectly intact, making it a welcome redux for a consistently creative and much-admired artist.

— Blake Maddux

Mark Sandman Memorial Concert: Gone 25 Years, But Not Forgotten
July 5 (doors at 7:30 p.m., show at 8:30)
The Cut, Gloucester, Mass.

Days after the 25th anniversary of Morphine frontman Mark Sandman’s death from an onstage heart attack in Italy, his friends and comrades reconvene to pay tribute as Orchestra Morphine at new Gloucester club the Cut (followed the next Friday by two sold-out shows at Cambridge’s Lizard Lounge). Led by Morphine saxophonist Dana Colley and original drummer Jerome Deupree, the group also includes members of Sandman side project the Hypnosonics — saxophonist Russ Gershon, trumpeter Tom Halter, and Club d’Elf bassist Mike Rivard — as well as guest mandolinist Jimmy Ryan and singers Laurie Sargent and Christian McNeill. They’ll explore Sandman’s offbeat repertoire from both Morphine and the Hypnosonics, which released material for the first time in 2021 on Modern Harmonic. The same label will issue another live set from that minimalist funk outfit on CD and vinyl to mark this anniversary, so these rare, spirited performances will additionally serve as record release parties.

–Paul Robicheau

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Theater

COVID PROTOCOLS: Check with specific theaters.

The Plastic Bag Store Created, written, designed, and directed by Robin Frohardt. Music by Freddi Price. Produced by Pomegranate Arts. Presented by Mass MoCA and Williamstown Theatre Festival at Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA, through September 2.

Billed by Mass MoCA as “an immersive, multimedia experience by Brooklyn-based artist Robin Frohardt that uses humor, craft, and a critical lens to question our culture of consumption and convenience — specifically, the enduring effects of single-use plastics. The shelves are stocked with thousands of original, hand-sculpted items — produce and meat, dry goods and toiletries, cakes and sushi rolls — all made from discarded, single-use plastics in an endless cacophony of packaging.”

A Body of Water by Lee Blessing. Directed by James Warwick. Staged by Shakespeare & Company at its outdoor Roman Garden Theatre, Lenox, through July 21.

“A revised script staged only once before,” this drama “tells the story of Moss and Avis: a sophisticated and successful couple who wake up one morning in an isolated summer house. The setting is idyllic, but there’s a problem — neither of them can remember who they are. A young woman named Wren arrives, and information starts to flood in. But will it help? Her explanations seem to only add confusion and the ensuing twists are at some turns comedic, and at others, terrifying.”

Gatsby Based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Directed by Rachel Chavkin. Music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett. Lyrics by Florence Welch. Book by Martyna Majok. Choreography by Sonya Tayeh. Staged by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, through August 3.

Yet another musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby that hopes to be the toast of Broadway. One opened in April and the show has been nominated for a Tony Award for Best Costume Design. The A.R.T.’s song-and-dance version is subtitled, for some reason, “An American Myth.” Arts Fuse review

Revolution’s Edge by Patrick Gabridge. Directed by Alexandra Smith. Staged by Plays in Place in the Old North Church & Historic Site, 193 Salem St, Boston, through August 10.

The 45-minute historical drama is back at the Old North Church for its second season. The action “is set in Boston’s oldest surviving church on April 18, 1775, the day before the Battles of Lexington & Concord and mere hours before the famous ‘two if by sea’ lantern signals … three men share a faith but have very different beliefs concerning the right path ahead for themselves, their families, and the colonies. Their conversation explores the intersection of faith and freedom on the edge of the American Revolution.”

Abe Lincoln in Illinois by Robert Sherwood. Directed by David Auburn. Movement by Isadora Wolfe. Staged by Berkshire Theatre Group at the Unicorn Theatre, 6 East Street, Stockbridge, through July 14.

Sherwood’s 1938 Pulitzer prize-winning script, based on Carl Sandburg’s 1926 biography of Lincoln before he went to Washington, DC, “weaves together fictional dialogue and Lincoln’s own words to create a poignant portrayal of a man driven by ideas, haunted by premonitions, and destined for greatness. As the play unfolds, audiences witness the pivotal moments that shaped Lincoln’s early manhood, providing a compelling glimpse into the life of a man who would go on to become an American legend.”

Wipeout by Aurora Real de Asua. Directed by Shana Gozansky. Staged by Gloucester Stage at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, through July 28.

The plot of this “break-out new play”: “On her seventy-seventh birthday, Gary knows exactly what she wants: to go surfing. There’s only one problem: She’s never touched the water. But with the help of a hot-rod teenage surf instructor and her two best friends, Gary’s ready to conquer the unknown. Taking place on surfboards in the Pacific Ocean, this script is a septuagenarian surf comedy about what it takes to hang ten.” The cast includes Karen MacDonald, Cheryl D. Singleton, Noelle Player, and Thomas Bilotta.

Dragon Mama and Death, Let Me Do My Show presented by the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, July 2 through 5 (Dragon Mama, directed by Andrew Russell) and July 5 through 14 (Death, Let Me Do My Show, directed by Seth Barrish).

Two one-person musical entertainments take the WTF’s mainstage. In Dragon Mama, singer Sara Porkalob “vividly brings to life the complex tapestry of her mother Maria’s early years and queer identity, affirming the power of family, the importance of self-discovery, and the indomitable spirit of those who dare to dream beyond their circumstances.” The Rotten Science production of actress, writer, and comedian Rachel Bloom’s Death, Let Me Do My Show “is filled with raunchy and escapist material that will in NO way explore the pandemic and all the tumultuous events that ensued in her personal life. NOTHING will stop Rachel from partying like it’s 2019”!

The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare. Directed by Bryn Boice. Staged by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company at the Parkman Bandstand, Boston Common, July 16 through August 4.

This year’s Free Shakespeare on the Common takes on the Bard’s late magical romance. For W.H. Auden, the play is a “study of the myth of the Garden of Eden. Man falls from the Garden of Eden and can only reach an earthly paradise again by a process of repentance and purgatorial suffering, as Leontes does. In the subplot there is a comic Eden, with a comic serpent, Autolycus.” He also believes that Act III, scene ii is “the most beautiful scene in Shakespeare…. You could tell the story and describe the scene in other words and one would know at once that it is beautiful in the way a dream is beautiful.” The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company cast includes Nael Nacer, Paula Plum, Marianna Bassham, Omar Robinson, Richard Snee, and Tony Estrella.

Ulysses, an adaptation of James Joyce’s novel, created by the Elevator Repair Service. Directed by John Collins. Co-directed and dramaturgy by Scott Shepard. Presented by the Fisher Center, Bard College, Manor Ave, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY, through July 14.

Here is the setup, according to the Fisher Center site. “Seven performers sit down for a sober reading but soon find themselves guzzling pints, getting in brawls, and committing debaucheries as they careen on a fast-forward tour through Joyce’s funhouse of styles. With madcap antics and a densely layered sound design, ERS presents an eclectic sampling from Joyce’s life-affirming masterpiece.” This is the same enterprising group that in 2010 staged Gatz, a 6-hour, whizbang staged reading of the novel The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s words, no music), so it may be able to pull this off.

Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret, co-created by Jacob Ming-Trent and Allyn Burrows. Directed by Burrows. Staged by Shakespeare and Company at the Tina Packer Playhouse, Lenox, July 2 through 7.

Billed by the company as “a waggish collection of Shakespeare’s stories and songs celebrating the heartbeat of the Bard’s words. It transforms the playhouse into an upscale club, complete with cafe tables, signature cocktails, and chandeliers.” “But O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag – It’s so elegant So intelligent” — T.S. Eliot.

Unreconciled by Jay Sefton and Mark Basquill. Directed by James Barry. Staged by the Chester Theater Company at Town Hall Theatre, 15 Middlefield Road, Chester, July 4 through 14.

The world premiere of a one-man drama. The script is based “on the true story of an adolescent actor cast as Jesus in a play directed by a pedophile priest. The play chronicles a survivor’s journey as he confronts his past and discovers the courage to use his voice and redefine what reconciliation means. ”

The Heron’s Flight directed by Jennifer Johnson and Travis Coe. Staged by the Double Edge Theatre at 948 Conway Road, Ashfield, July 18 through August 11.

Here is how Double Edge Theatre sets the scene for this year’s summer spectacular: “A great blue heron perches silently in a tree, then breaks the surface of the cool green water. Familiar and mythological creatures gather for a Midsummer Feast — an explosive celebration of love, dance, and flight. Walk with us toward transformation in an impossible world as we embrace the knowledge of the land — that each season of life is beloved.”

¡ALGUIEN MÁS! by Dustin Thomas. Based on You Never Can Tell by George Bernard Shaw. Directed by Marcel Mascaró ’18. Staged by Teatro en el Verano at various outside venues in Rhode Island (see website for locations and times), July 6 through August 2.

Just when you figure this year’s summer fare won’t venture beyond the routine, here is something different — an updated, bilingual Shavian comedy! According to Trinity Rep’s description: “George Bernard Shaw’s 1897 play You Never Can Tell gets a 2024 telenovela twist! For as long as they can remember, the Calderon siblings’ father has been a mystery … until they unknowingly invite him to lunch. Mistaken identities and miscommunications fly throughout this comedy of errors featuring a colorful cast of characters. A farce about forgiveness and moving forward, ¡Alguien Más! is the ninth production in Trinity Rep and Rhode Island Latino Arts’ bilingual summer theater program, Teatro en El Verano.”

Please Note: “Teatro en el Verano stages free, English-Spanish bilingual productions at various outside venues in Rhode Island. Both English and Spanish speakers can enjoy and understand the production. All performances are held outdoors and FREE to attend. We encourage you to bring your own chair or blanket to sit on the grass, set up a picnic, and enjoy the show!”

Survival of the Unfit by Oren Safdie. Directed by Matthew Penn. Staged by the Great Barrington Public Theater at the McConnell Theater, Daniel Arts Center, Bard College, New York, July 6 through 21.

The American premiere of an edgy comedy that “invites audiences to drop in on an edgy, mercilessly upending, very modern meet-the-parents dinner party. Cold honesty is dished up and everything is put on the table…. the script touches on themes of love, loss, loyalty, the acceptance of others shortcomings, and redefines what family looks like and means today.” (Sounds like an acidic variation on GBS’s You Never Can Tell, listed above.) The cast includes Emmy winner Carolyn Hennesy and Obie winner Daniel Gerroll.

— Bill Marx

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Visual Arts 

Established by the Corning Glass Works in 1951 as a gift to the nation in the company’s 100th anniversary year, the Corning Museum of Glass now occupies a large elaborate campus in the quaint Upstate New York town of Corning. Among other facilities, the museum has the world’s most comprehensive historical collection of glass, with over 50,000 objects, and the world’s foremost library on glass, whose mission is simply “to acquire everything published on the subject of glass, in every format and in every language.”

Fragile Beauty: Treasures from the Corning Museum of Glass, which opens at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown on July 4, offers a selection from the Corning Museum’s treasures that show off thousands of years of the clarity, color, bold designs, and brilliance glassmakers have created, from antiquity to the present. The selection includes showy luxury pieces: drinking glasses, vases, pitchers, flashy plates, and perfume bottles as well as purely decorative works, like a life-sized lemon and a giant flower.

On July 13, the Clark opens Edgar Degas: Multi-Media Artist in the Age of Impressionism. The unveiling is timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the much-celebrated First Impressionist Exhibition (Paris 1874) and focuses on Degas’s many innovations while working on paper: in photographs, pastels, prints, and drawings. Although he was always a maverick, adhering to no other school but his own, Degas remained loyal to the Impressionist group and its exhibitions. The show, drawn from the Clark’s permanent holdings and a few loans from private and public collections, has a sidebar on the artist’s creative friendships and his exploration of the possibilities of media with his fellow Impressionists, especially the American member of the group, Mary Cassatt.

One of the most famous and popular of European artists among Americans, Salvador Dalí, with his indelible, bizarre imagery and his eccentric and theatrical antics, seems to many the epitome of the irreverent, rule-breaking modern artist. The MFA’s Dali: Disruption and Devotion, opening July 6, focuses instead on Dali the Traditionalist, the classically trained painter devoted to the historical art of Spain, the Low Countries, and Italy. The show confronts almost 30 paintings and prints from the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida (one of several museums devoted to the artist) with Old Master examples from the MFA collection: Velásquez, El Greco, Orazio Gentileschi, and other historical figures, with the aim to show the visual erudition under Dali’s avant-garde flourishes.

From the very beginning, when its founding collections included work by the painter and illustrator and Wyeth patriarch N.C. Wyeth, the Wyeth family has been part of the Farnsworth Art Museum. N.C. died before the museum opened, but the museum’s relationship grew stronger with its connections to Andrew Wyeth, N.C.’s son, and grandson Jamie Wyeth, who was born in 1946, as the Farnsworth was being organized.

The latest in a long series of Wyeth exhibitions at the Farnsworth, Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled opens on July 4. The show focuses on work often obscured by Jamie’s famous relatives and his own well-known coastal views and farmscapes — on darker, troubling images of the curious and strange. “Wyeth,” the museum claims, “is at home with uneasy subjects and a master of the unsettled mood.”

The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH, bills Daniel Otero Torres: Sonidos del Crepusculo (Twilight Sounds) as “an ode to the heroes of environmental protection.” This installation, in which Otero Torres incorporates his drawings on aluminum and steel, is a new commission for the Currier from the Colombian-born, Paris-based artist. The work, the museum says, “does not portray individuals, nor does it tell a singular narrative. It instead illustrates a collective and often-transnational struggle.” Otero Torres’s work will appear in the prestigious Venice Biennale this fall. His Currier exhibition opens July 14.

Geologists and other scientists use “deep time” to describe a relatively recent discovery: that earth and the cosmos were not created all at once a few thousand years ago but have evolved over billions of years, in a series of vast and spectacular changes. Enlightenment thinkers have used the phrase to suggest repeating patterns and iteration in the history of civilization. Painter Martha Diamond’s exhibition at the Colby College Museum of Art, Martha Diamond: Deep Time, which opens July 13, proposes “deep time” as a way to understand the totality of her work. “Your life is defined in time,” Diamond says. “The way I relate to this in my work is by thinking of infinity: to the time of religion, of history … using shapes that have been significant to people for thousands of years.” The resulting cityscapes and abstractions, the New York Times has said, have “self-contained grandeur and eerie harmony.” This show surveys her work from 1969, when she set up her Manhattan studio, to her death in 2023, at the age of 79.

— Peter Walsh

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Jazz

Vardan Ovsepian/Macuco Quintet
June 30 at 2 p.m. (Ovsepian) and 4:30 p.m. (Macuco)
Lilypad, Cambridge

You could make an afternoon/early evening of it at the Lilypad today. The exciting pianist and composer Vardan Ovsepian plays a 2 p.m. show and then, at 4:30, you can come back for the Macuco Quintet, with its appealing (and expert) blend of Brazilian song and modern jazz, including “arrangements of music by Hermeto Pascoal, Moacir Santos, Julius Hemphill, and Paulinho da Viola.” Reedman Joel Springer is the lead composer/arranger here, joined by what’s billed as a quintet, despite listing five players plus Springer: Yulia Musayelyan on flutes and piccolo; Rick Stone, alto sax; Allan Chase, baritone and soprano saxes; bassist Fernando Huergo; and drummer Austin McMahon.

Bert Seager’s Heart of Hearing
July 3 at 7 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge

Pianist and composer Bert Seager holds down the fort at the Lilypad for his monthly residency — expect rhythmically adventurous improvisations, crafty originals, a standard or two, a Monk, and some poetry. Seager’s partners in Heart of Hearing are tenor saxophonist Rick DiMuzio, bassist Andrew Schiller, and drummer Dor Herskovits.

AS3
July 10 at 8 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge

Guitarist Andrew Stern, bassist Brad Barrett, and drummer Dave Fox have been heard to good effect in all manner of other bands. The AS3 is Stern’s joint. Their 2018 debut, Bright Angel, covered Chopin, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Irving Fields’s timeless “Miami Beach Rhumba,” along with a handful of Stern originals. Twenty | Twenty (released that year) was all originals except for an acid-tinged “America the Beautiful.” What I hear on the two discs is some very tasty, very proggy (in a good way) instrumental jazz, with maybe a strong dash of Bill Frisell, and maybe Metheny in a more Link Wray mood. The Lilypad website cites Ellington, Neil Young, Sonny Sharrock, David Bowie, and Nirvana as other material the band covers. As Joe Bob Briggs would say: Check it out.

The Fringe with Tim Ray
July 11 at 6 p.m.
Long Live Roxbury Brewery & Taproom, Boston
FREE

While saxophonist George Garzone is on the road, pianist Tim Ray will sit in with bassist John Lockwood and drummer Francisco Mela as the third member of the Fringe. Ray is a vastly accomplished artist who combines pan-stylistic versatility with a knack for the kind of explosive spontaneity that should serve him well with these avant-garde flag-wavers. (This show is part of Long Live Roxbury’s free Thursday night music series.)

Olson Pingrey Quartet
July 11 at 6:30 p.m.
Eustis Estate, Milton

Mandorla Music continues its outdoor summer series at Eustis Estate with this quartet fronted by the husband-wife team of trombonist Randy Pingrey and baritone saxophonist Kathy Olson, joined by bassist Sam JC Lee and drummer Austin McMahon. Olson Pingrey’s chordless (i.e., no piano or guitar) swinging counterpoint has drawn favorable comparisons to the Gerry Mulligan-Bob Brookmeyer forays in the same mode. The program will mix “original compositions and inventive arrangements of standards.” The Eustis Estate encourages picnicking but forbids alcohol.

Rebecca Cline Trio
July 12 at 7 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.
Mad Monkfish, Cambridge

Rebecca Cline literally wrote the book (or at least a book) on Latin jazz piano, Latin Jazz Piano: Clave, Comping and Soloing. The Boston-based artist comes to the Mad Monkfish with trio mates Keala Kaumeheiwa (electric bass) and Bertram Lehmann (drums). (The Mad Monkfish does not charge admission, but there is a per person minimum, and reservations are suggested.)

Donna Byrne Quartet
July 13 at 7 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.
Mad Monkfish, Cambridge

No less an authority than Tony Bennett called Donna Byrne “the real McCoy.” Byrne has glorious jazz chops, engaging stage wit and warmth, and, like the great TB, she makes every word of a lyric count. Her quartet includes pianist Tim Ray (see July 11), bassist Marshall Wood, and drummer Les Harris Jr. (The Mad Monkfish does not charge admission, but there is a per person minimum, and reservations are suggested.)

— Jon Garelick

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Author Events

Eric Weiner at the Harvard Book Store
Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life
July 1 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Not a conventional biography, Ben & Me is a guide to living and thinking well, as Ben Franklin did. It is also about curiosity, diligence, and, most of all, the elusive goal of self-improvement. As Weiner follows Franklin from Philadelphia to Paris, Boston to London, he attempts to uncover Ben’s life lessons, large and small. We learn how to improve a relationship with someone by inducing them to do a favor for you — a psychological phenomenon now known as The Ben Franklin Effect. We learn about the printing press (the Internet of its day), early medicine, diplomatic intrigue and, of course, electricity. And we learn about ethics, persuasion, humor, regret, appetite, and so much more.

“At a time when history is either neglected or contested, Weiner argues we have much to learn from the past and that we’d all be better off if we acted and thought a bit more like Ben did, even if he didn’t always live up to his own high ideals. Engaging, smart, moving, quirky, Ben & Me distills the essence of Franklin’s ideas into grounded, practical wisdom for all of us.”

Summer Grown Up Book Fair at Trillium Brewing! – Porter Square Books
July 6 from 2-6 p.m.
Free

“Remember getting the book fair flyers at school? Seeing if the next book in your favorite series was coming out, comparing lists with your friends, checking off the books you want, and planning how you’ll totally convince your parents that yes, in fact, you definitely need all those books because don’t they want you to get into a good college or whatever? And then the thrill when the books arrive and you see a pencil set you absolutely need and stickers for your trapper keeper and one of those friendship necklaces? Think you would never get to experience that rush again? Think again!

“Our Grown Up Book Fair returns to Trillium Brewing’s Fort Point location for a summer edition on Saturday, July 6 from 2–6 PM. With a great selection of staff favorites, hot titles, & fun books specifically selected for the day, including some perfect beach reads. The Grown Up Book Fair will have everything you love about school book fairs, including all of those fun gift-y items, like stickers, socks, mood rings, and more! Oh, and you can drink beer while you shop!”

Kevin Barry at Harvard Book Store
The Heart in Winter: A Novel
July 8 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Kevin Barry lights out for the territory and once again comes back with a shining nugget of gold. The Heart in Winter is a glorious and haunted yarn, with all the elements — the doomed lovers, the bounty hunters, the knife-fights and whisky-soaked songs — brought to mysterious life by the heft and polish of the Barry sentence. Marvelous.” —Jon McGregor, author of If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things

Laura van den Berg at Harvard Book Store
State of Paradise: A Novel
July 9 at 7 p.m.
Free

“A brilliant ghost story and a profoundly moving and atmospheric meditation on place, memory, and the very nature of reality, where everything is truly not as it seems. With sharp, gripping prose, Laura van den Berg fearlessly conjures the fundamental wildness of being alive in the world as we know it, and the pull of the deeper wildness within.” ― Mona Awad, author of Rouge

Chuck Tingle with Ryan La Sala — brookline booksmith
Bury Your Gays
July 10 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $30 with in-store event pickup

The plot of Chuck Tingle’s novel: “Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell. But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, “for the algorithm,” in the upcoming season finale. Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he’s just put a target on his back. And what’s worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles. Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future — before the horrors from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good.”

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé & Adiba Jaigirdar with Louangie Bou-Montes – brookline booksmith
Four Eids and a Funeral
July 12 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are free or $20 with in store pickup

The plot of Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Adiba Jaigirdar’s Young Adult romance: “The town of New Crosshaven has it all — even its own infamous love story. These days, Said Hossain spends most of his time away at boarding school. But when his favorite hometown librarian, Ms. Barnes dies, he must return to New Crosshaven for her funeral and for the summer. Too bad being home makes it a lot harder to avoid facing his ex–best friend, Tiwa Olatunji, or facing the daunting task of telling his Bangladeshi parents that he would rather be an artist than a doctor.

“Tiwa doesn’t understand what made Said start ignoring her, but it’s probably that fancy boarding school of his. Though he’s unexpectedly staying at home through the summer, she’s determined to take a page from him and pretend he doesn’t exist. Besides, she has more than enough going on anyway, between grieving her broken family and helping her mother throw the upcoming Eid celebration at the Islamic Center — a place that means so much to Tiwa.

“But when the Islamic Center accidentally catches fire, it turns out the mayor plans to demolish the center entirely. Things are still tense between the ex-friends, but Tiwa needs Said’s help if there’s any hope of changing the mayor’s mind, and on top of everything, Said needs a project to submit to art school (unbeknownst to anyone). Will all their efforts be enough to save the Islamic Center, save Eid, and maybe even save their relationship?”

Gabrielle Zevin at First Parish Church – Harvard Book Store
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel
July 15 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $28 with book, $10 without

“Spanning 30 years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.”

— Matt Hanson