edited by Carly Carioli

CLASSICAL

Conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky and his wife, the pianist Viktoria Postnikova, are something like Russia's premier musical power couple. He's the artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatre's opera and ballet companies (the first person ever appointed to head both at the same time); she's a former child prodigy who's played with most of the world's great orchestras. Following a decade's absence -- his last appearance here was in 1990, hers in 1988 -- they return this week as guests of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Rozhdestvensky conducts the BSO in Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3, the Scriabin Piano Concerto, with, of course, Postnikova, and Prokofiev's Scythian Suite. Performances are tonight through Saturday and Tuesday at 8 p.m., at Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave in Boston. Tickets are $25 to $83; call 266-1200.

"CUBA, CUBA" ALL WEEK

Last summer, the South End's Gallery 12 hooked up with Havana's Espacio 52 and inaugurated an important new artistic pipeline to Castro-ville with "Cuba, Cuba," a show of contemporary Cuban artists. The sister galleries have teamed again to offer another installment of "Cuba, Cuba" that's up through the end of the month; Regina Fernández, Raúl Hernández, and Mario Ayras are making their US exhibition debuts, with Alejandro Lazo and Pango returning from last summer's show. (That's #1 from Fernández's series, Landscape on Echo, in the photo.) The Space 12 Gallery is at 12 Union Park Street; hours are Wednesday from 1 to 5 and 6 to 9 and Thursday through Saturday from 1 to 5. Call 423-9760. Works by Pango, Lazo, and Fernández will also be featured during a reception to celebrate a new series of exhibits at City Salon, 188 Newbury Street. The reception is tonight, January 18, from 7 to 9 p.m. Call 236-4990.

FILMS OPENING

Monosyllabic titles reign this week. In the all too self-consciously suggestive Snatch, Madonna's new husband, Guy Ritchie, pretty much repeats the frenetic heist-gone-wrong formula of his Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels with a higher-profile cast that includes Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Farina, and Brad Pitt. Sean Penn hopes The Pledge will evoke more than thoughts of furniture polish: Jack Nicholson stars as a lawman who promises a mother he will track down the murderer of her child. Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, and Sam Shepard co-star. Director Sam Raimi extends the holiday season with The Gift; this follow-up to A Simple Plan stars Cate Blanchett as a small-town psychic who probes the mystery of a woman's death. Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi, Greg Kinnear, and Hilary Swank are among the usual suspects. Another gifted woman confronts the community in The House of Mirth, Terence Davies's adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel of scandal and retribution in the New York of the Gilded Age. The eclectic cast includes Gillian Anderson, Dan Aykroyd, Eleanor Bron, Eric Stoltz, Anthony LaPaglia, and Elizabeth MacGovern. Another mystery woman is the focus of Chinese director Lou Ye's Suzhou River, a recasting of Hitchcock's Vertigo in present-day Shanghai; it screens at the Brattle Theatre. No wonder Live Nude Girls Unite, as they do in this perky documentary in which lesbian activist Julia Query teams up with filmmaker Vicky Funari to tell how she unionized her fellow exotic dancers at San Francisco's Lucky Lady. It screens at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

FILM

After almost 20 years of technological advancement in computers and filmmaking, Disney's Tron (1982) looks even better than when it first came out. The special effects are a little creaky, but the tale of a computer-game designer drawn into his own creation and forced to fight for his life still resonates. The nefarious David Warner, whose bad-guy exploits are the subject of an unlikely Friday-midnight retrospective at the Zeitgeist Gallery this month, plays the evil nemesis, and Jeff Bridges is the weenie hero. Steven Lisberger, who has a Tron 2 in the works, directs. See it at midnight at the Zeitgeist, 312 Broadway in Cambridge. Call 876-2182.

DANCE

For more than a quarter-century, Boston choreographer and storyteller Julie Ince Thompson has been finding new ways of integrating dance and theater. Tonight in "Advent 2001" she premieres five new pieces developed in collaboration with composer Patricia Van Ness, poet Judson Evans, and a company of Boston dancers and musicians. That's at 8 p.m. at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue. Tickets are $20 and $25; call 482-6661.

JAZZ

No less an authority than Ray Charles has asserted that Jimmy Scott "defined what `soul' is all about in singing long before anyone was using the word." The list of Scott's fans also includes Nancy Wilson, Frankie Valli, Lou Reed, and Madonna. His power comes from a freakishly high voice (in the countertenor range) more female than male; then there's his diminutive stature (4' 11"), his literate way with the ballads of the Great American songbook, and his mile-wide vibrato and precise diction and phrasing. Now 75, "Little" Jimmy Scott got his start with big bands, had some hits (his first was Lionel Hampton's 1950 "Everybody's Somebody's Fool"), left show business and faded into obscurity for a number of years, then made a comeback in the early '90s. He'll be at Scullers for two shows, 8 and 10:30, celebrating the release of his latest, Mood Indigo (Fantasy/Milestone). Scullers is in the DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Road at the Mass Pike. Call 562-4111.

GRAPES

The biggest local event on any wino's calendar has to be the two-day Boston Wine Expo, a grand festival for enthusiasts and novices alike that gives you a chance to sample some 1800 wines (from 450 wineries, from 18 countries). Some 30 seminars on everything from grape-growing to sake will be offered, plus food-pairing workshops and celebrity chefs and even a cigar lounge for smelly smokers. There's also a Vintner's Dinner with Aussie wine expert Oz Clarke tonight at 7 -- if you have an extra $125 to pony up -- and a Sunday brunch tomorrow at 11 a.m. Wine Festival hours are today and tomorrow from 1 to 5 p.m.; admission is $70 per day, or $92 for a two-day ticket. That's at the World Trade Center, 164 Northern Avenue. Call (877) WINEXPO, or visit www.wine-expos.com.

ROCK

Some of the finest players in Boston's teeming neo-psychedelic underground tag-team tonight at the Sky Bar. International indie stars Abunai! have just released an album's worth of jam-friendly instrumental freakouts; Bright align Velvets pulse and throb with Teutonic clockwork for cold dreamland thrills; and the In/Out do post-punk skronk and drone with an amphetamine edge. That's all at the Sky Bar, 518 Somerville Avenue in Somerville. Call 623-5223.

SINGER/SONGWRITERS

Now entering its ninth year of providing inventive, savvy, marquee-strength singer/songwriter showcases, Songstreet Productions celebrates its 100th concert with another installment of its "Funny Songwriters" series at the Somerville Theatre. Highlighting what's almost become a coffeehouse genre unto itself, the bill features proven assets (from left) Nancy Tucker, Don White, and John Forster, as well as newcomer Dierdre Flint. That's at 7 p.m. at 55 Davis Square in Somerville; tickets are $18 to $20. Call 628-3390.

GOTH

Setting up a goth night across the street from Man Ray is kind of like setting up a petting zoo next to the World's Fair, but we applaud the ghoulish optimism and macabre spirit of the folks behind "Reverie," a new twice-monthly night devoted to the goth/darkwave/industrial crowd. We're happy to see that the children of the dark have another decadent playpen. "Reverie" debuts tonight at T.T. the Bear's Place, 10 Brookline Street in Central Square. Call 492-BEAR.

SKA

One of the original UK ska-revival acts of the late '70s, the English Beat were also one the most versatile, with a repertoire that included the Miracles' "Tears of a Clown" and, later, a broad pan-cultural world-beat influence. By the mid '80s the band's principals had split into two camps: one became the Fine Young Cannibals and the other -- including singer/guitarist Dave Wakeling -- formed General Public. Following a so-so solo career, Wakeling has decided to revive the English Beat -- perhaps a little late, now that the US ska revival has ebbed -- with a tour that hits the Paradise tonight. That's at 969 Comm Ave; call 423-NEXT for tickets or 562-8800 for the club.

FILM

Sure it's flag-waving fluff, but that doesn't stop the fortysomething James Cagney from putting in one of his most exuberant performances. Michael Curtiz's Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) tells the tale of Broadway legend George M. Cohan in a rip-snorting, hurrahing, hackneyed manner bound to stir up the passions of its post-Pearl Harbor audience, and it still rouses viewers today with its naked sentiment and unembarrassed song-and-dance energy. What's more, it screens free -- which is only fair since that's what America is the land of -- at the Boston Public Library, in Copley Square, at 6 p.m. Call 536-5400.

FILM

Sort of the Cuban equivalent of Yankee Doodle Dandy, Fernando Pérez's Life Is To Whistle (1999) matches lush, near-surreal images of contemporary Havana with the sexy, soulful, sad strains of Bola de Nieve and Beny Moré to relate several interconnected stories of loss, love, and reconciliation. It screens today at 5:15, 7:30, and 9:45 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street in Harvard Square. Call 876-6837.

JAZZ

Because you never know what the exciting young trumpeter Dave Douglas is going to do next, each of his visits to town has become a must-see. For this appearance, he's chosen from among his several working groups the chamber ensemble Charms of the Night Sky. The rest of the line-up includes accordionist Guy Klucevsek, violinist Mark Feldman, and Greg Cohen on bass; their sound can affect a European café ambiance or full-on jazz overdrive. That's at the Regattabar in the Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett Street in Harvard Square, for shows at 8 and 10 p.m. Tickets are $12. Call 876-7777.

BLUES

Guitarist Paul Rishell and harp slinger Annie Raines play old-style blues close to the bone, spare and with the intimacy of a Mississippi house party. Rishell's voice and soulful slide carry the wisdom of a muddy river, and Raines is becoming the female Little Walter -- they're kind of a Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee for the new millennium. Last year their virtuosity got ratified with a Handy Award from the Blues Foundation for their excellent Moving to the Country (Tone-Cool). Tonight at 8:30 p.m. they play Johnny D's, summoning almost 80 years of the music's spirits. Tickets are $8; call 776-2004.

POLITICS

Well, if we had our druthers, we'd want to hear former senator George McGovern talk about the state of the Union, but his days as a presidential candidate -- and even as a US senator -- are long gone. McGovern is currently the US ambassador to the UN Agencies on Food and Agriculture in Rome, and he's got a new book: The Third Freedom: Ending Hunger in Our Time (Simon & Schuster). Also on hand to help with the discussion will be Massachusetts congressman Jim McGovern and former congressman Mickey Edwards (R-Oklahoma), now of Harvard's Kennedy School. To our way of thinking, George has always been worth hearing, so the free get-together at WordsWorth goes to the top of our list. That's at 6 p.m. at 30 Brattle Street in Harvard Square. Call 354-5201.

ART

The Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has made his mark by bringing the natural world indoors -- his installations use water, ice, sunlight, and wind to replicate rainbows, waterfalls, and walls of steam. The Institute of Contemporary Art is bringing Eliasson to Boston for his first major US exhibit, "Your only real thing is time," a series of installations using light and water (he's flooded the ICA's second floor to create a reflecting pool). The exhibit also includes his "No days in winter, no nights in summer," a ring of Bunsen-burner-like gas jets meant to evoke the effect of a solar eclipse. "Your only real thing is time" opens today and runs through April 24. The ICA is at 955 Boylston Street; call 266-4201.

OPERA

Originally banned in London and New York after its premiere in 1905, Richard Strauss's Salome still has the power to raise the hair on the back of your neck. With a libretto based on the Oscar Wilde play, Salome relates the biblical story of King Herod, John the Baptist, and the title character, whose Dance of the Seven Veils proves the downfall of John but the dramatic (and sometimes erotic) highpoint. New England Conservatory graduate Marquita Lister is Salome, tenor Dennis Petersen is Herod, mezzo-soprano Delores Ziegler is Herodias, baritone Christopher Robertson is Jokanaan, and tenor David Corman is Narraboth. This Boston Lyric Opera/Glimmerglass co-production opens at the Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont Street, at 7:30. Evening performances continue on January 26, January 30, and February 2; there are Sunday 3 p.m. matinees on January 28 and February 4. Call (800) 447-7400.

JAZZ

The 33-year-old pianist Bill Charlap has a conservator's attitude about jazz, but there's nothing musty or museum-like in his playing. He plays only standards, and yet his variety of attack and tempos, his phrasing, and his choice of gossamer block chords or propulsive single-note runs offers more variety than many another young tyro's out-there excursions into the unknown. Charlap likes the unknown too, but he uses the familiar as a road to take us there. (See our review in "Off the Record," in Arts.) Tonight he joins bassist Peter Washington and drummer Dennis Mackrel at Scullers, in the DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Road at the Mass Pike, for shows at 8 and 10. Tickets are $14. Call 562-4111.

FILM

Reports on the debut feature film of local cinéaste John Gianvito are glowing. The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein (2001) traces the impact of the Gulf War on the lives of three people in three different cities as it examines the true consequences of a devastating historical event now remembered by most as just an unusually realistic TV mini-series. It screens tonight at 7 p.m. at the Harvard Film Archive, in the Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street in Harvard Square. The filmmaker will be present at the screening. Call 495-4700.

MUSIC

It's rare that a band come along with the same musical sensibility as Henry Cow. So if you know who Henry Cow were, you'll want to be at Zeitgeist Gallery, 312 Broadway in Cambridge, at 8 p.m. when San Francisco-based singer Beth Custer -- a former member of the Clubfoot Orchestra, Trance Mission, and other notable outfits -- brings her mix of jazz, avant-rock, and charmed, chancy vocalise to the warm, intimate space. Custer is touring behind her inventive new Doña Luz 30 Besos (City of Tribes), a headlong dive into Latin music. A $10 donation is requested; call 876-2182.

BLUES

The great blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin, whose gritty electric playing was an essential foil to the bracing, guttural voice of the late Howlin' Wolf, returns to the House of Blues next Friday, January 26. That's at 96 Winthrop Street in Harvard Square; call 492-BLUE.