The Duluth Festival Opera will present "Pocahontas," an opera by Burnsville composer Linda Tutas Haugen and author Joan Vail Thorne, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center.

The opera was commissioned and premiered in 2007 at the state of Virginia's Arts Festival. The Virginia Opera presented it in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Va.

It celebrates the life of Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, chief of numerous Algonquin tribes, who lived during the early 1600s when the first European settlers came to Virginia.

Tickets are $17 to $27. For more information, go to www.burnsvillepac.com.

BURNSVILLE

Symphony presents 'American Classics'

The Dakota Valley Symphony will begin its 2011-12 season Oct. 9 with a concert of "American Classics" at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center.

Debra Frasier of Minneapolis, author of the children's book "On The Day You Were Born," will narrate a musical presentation of her book. The concert also will feature "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Aaron Copland, "Les Preludes" by Franz Liszt and "Company" by Philip Glass.

Tickets are $5 to $15 and can be purchased in person at the box office at 12600 Nicollet Av. or at www.DakotaValleySymphony.org.

LAKEVILLE

Author relates moral dilemmas in DNA

Bonnie Rough will discuss her family memoir, "Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA," at 7 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Heritage Library, 20085 Heritage Drive in Lakeville.

She'll read from her book, which details the complex moral crisis she faced when contemplating having children knowing that she harbors a genetic disorder known as hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, or HED.

Rough's appearance is part of the Dakota County Library's annual Minnesota Mosaic cultural arts series sponsored by the Dakota County Library Foundation and funded in part with money from the Minnesota's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, also known as the Legacy Amendment.

For more information, go to www.dakota county.us/library or call 952-891-0362.

STAFF REPORTS