'Pine Eyes'

He tells lies, and that makes his nose grow longer: The tale of the wooden puppet-boy Pinocchio has enchanted children since its initial appearance as a novel in the 1880s, and fascinated adults with its darker content. Both audiences are catered to in "Pine Eyes," a chamber opera by Yale-based composer Martin Bresnick. From a basic ensemble of two clarinets, piano and percussion, Bresnick conjures a bewitching range of moods and sonorities, complementing the narration. Twin Cities singer and actor Nicholas Nelson tells the story, with new music collective Zeitgeist providing the players. (7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Studio Z, 275 E. 4th St., Suite 200, St. Paul. $10-$15. zeitgeistnewmusic.org)

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Robert Shaw, perhaps America's greatest-ever choral director, would have turned 100 a couple of weeks ago. His work at NBC with the notoriously demanding Arturo Toscanini, and later at the Atlanta Symphony, continues to resonate. Minneapolis choir The Singers range widely through his half-century career for "Robert Shaw: A Centennial Celebration," from madrigals to pieces by Rachmaninoff, Debussy and Shaw himself. (7:30 p.m. Sat., Nativity of Our Lord, St. Paul; 3 p.m. Sun., First Lutheran Church, 1555 40th Av. NE., Columbia Heights. $21-$33, singersmca.org)

Opera can be a tricky world to enter, but the Minnesota Orchestra makes it easy in "The Evolution of Opera," its latest "Inside the Classics" presentation. Three singers join the orchestra in a selection of arias and overtures by Monteverdi, Handel, Mozart, Verdi and others, with host Sam Bergman linking the musical dots in his narrative. (8 p.m. Fri., Orchestra Hall, Mpls. $29. 612-371-5656 or mnorch.org)

Chamber music recitals often happen in halls far bigger than the composer envisaged. The intimacy of the genuine experience is re-created at the Baroque Room in St. Paul's Lowertown, in a program pairing piano trios by Arensky and Brahms, both full of burgeoning Romantic melodies. (8 p.m. Sat., 275 E. 4th St., Suite 280, St. Paul. $5-$15. thebaroqueroom.com)

Choral works by Poulenc and Vaughan Williams (the "Gloria" and "Benedicite" respectively) close this year's St. Mark's Music Series, with Ravel's orchestral piece "Le Tombeau de Couperin" thrown in for good measure. Soprano Maria Jette sings the solos, with the Cathedral Choir and Choral Society led by Canon Musician Raymond Johnston. (7:30 p.m. Sat., St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, 519 Oak Grove St., Mpls. $10-$20. ourcathedral.org) Terry Blain