The Verdi Chorus: Love and Romance Opera Style, Saturday, April 21, 7:30pm and Sunday, April 22, 4pm

The Verdi Chorus, a community chorus dedicated to showcasing operatic repertoire, presents its Spring Concert, Love and Romance Opera Style. Operatic selections will include arias and choral ensembles from Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love), Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette and Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (The Bat).

Anne Marie Ketchum, Artistic Director and Conductor said, “Traditionally, I always try to include lighter music for the Spring Concert than the fall. We are in our 29th season, and while looking ahead to our next big anniversary coming up, I wanted to give our audience something they could enjoy that was not too heavy. Since much of opera is about love and romance, it was an obvious choice.”

Tickets: $30 general, $40 priority, $25 seniors, $10 students (25 years and under with valid ID). More information: 800-838-3006. First United Methodist Church, 1008 11th St.

Santa Monica Pier Aquarium Earth Day Weekend, Saturday & Sunday, April 21 & 22, 11am – 6pm

Celebrate Earth Day with the Pier’s weekend-long festivities featuring special presentations and activities for all ages and free admission to everyone who cleans the beach. In addition to learning how to make every day Earth Day and reduce our impact on the ocean environment, attendees have the opportunity to touch live animals and discover the more than 100 species exhibited – all of which are found in the Santa Monica Bay. Festivities will also include Birdie’s Playhouse performing their award-winning upbeat music about wildlife, a special exhibit opening with artwork and poetry created by students from Santa Monica’s PS 1 Pluralistic School, face painting, an arts and crafts activity station, scavenger hunts, marine-themed films and story times, as well as naturalists’ presentations.

Admission: $3 admission, $5 suggested donation, children 12 and under free. For more information: 310-393-6149. Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, 1600 Ocean Front Walk

Art Opening: Annie Seaton and Cynthia Greig, dnj Gallery, Saturday, April 21, 6-8pm. Through June 2

Two exhibitions open Saturday at dnj Gallery: Annie Seaton’s Slick and Cynthia Greig’s Nature Morte. In Slick, Seaton combines photography with painterly ink washes to evoke the pure joy she experiences at the beach. Though she focuses on positive emotions, Seaton simultaneously responds to life’s difficulties, “Life comes in waves and all its crests and troughs; sometimes pounding and ominous and sometimes gentle and heartening.”

Greig photographs three-dimensional objects to resemble two- dimensional line drawings and whitewashes them with ordinary house paint. After drawing crude outlines on them, she photographs them in still life arrangements. By confusing two distinct means of representation–photography and drawing — Greig explores the boundaries of photography and questions how we form our beliefs about what is real or true.

Free admission. dnj Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Suite J1. For more information: 310-315-3551

For the Arts Annual Benefit Concert, Saturday, April 21, 7pm

An evening of music benefiting arts programs in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, the concert featuring Venice, with Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprockett) and special guest Jackson Browne.
It’s the ninth year that For the Arts has brought professional musicians together with the talented student musicians from Santa Monica High School, Malibu High School and Olympic High School.

Tickets: Prices range from $35 – $75. For more information: 310-396-4557. Barnum Hall, Santa Monica High School, 601 Pico Blvd.

Rosary Mantra: Music of Messiaen, Dutilleux & Gubaidulina. Jacaranda. Saturday, April 21, 8pm

Jacaranda celebrates Olivier Messiaen’s anniversary and the music of octogenarian Sofia Gubaidulina, Russia’s foremost living female composer, with a west coast premiere. Organist and Jacaranda’s Music Director, Mark Alan Hilt, will perform landmark Messiaen organ works for the 20th anniversary of the French composer’s death and will join the 13-member ensemble under conductor Scott Dunn for Gubaidulina’s 2001 Risonanza. Cello virtuoso Timothy Loo performs work by the oldest living French master Henri Dutilleux.

Tickets: Advance online: $35 general, $15 student. At the door: $40 general, $20 student. For more information: 800-595-4TIX. First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, 1220 Second St.

The Frontier of Leisure: Southern California and the Shaping of Modern America. Santa Monica Public Library. Sunday, April 22, 2pm

Author Lawrence Culver discusses and signs his new book, “The Frontier of Leisure: Southern California and the Shaping of Modern America.”

Southern California has long been promoted as the playground of the world –- the home of resort-style living, backyard swimming pools, and year-round suntans. “The Frontier of Leisure” reveals how Southern California’s culture of leisure gradually manifested itself in suburban developments throughout the United States, and influenced not only architecture and urban planning, but race relations, policy toward Native Americans, perceptions of nature, and politics.

Lawrence Culver, Ph.D, is a professor of history at Utah State University. A book sale and signing will follow his presentation. This program is co-sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter.

Free admission. Seating is limited and available on a first-arrival basis. For more information: 310-458-8600. Main Library. 601 Santa Monica Blvd.