Seldom-staged Offenbach

Jacques Offenbach was the king of light opera in 19th-century Paris, but his more serious opera "The Tales of Hoffmann" dominates what we hear of him nowadays. So full marks to the Lakes Area Music Festival for staging Offenbach's operetta "The Beautiful Helen of Troy" in Brainerd this week. The plot is a cheeky parody of ancient Greece during the Trojan War period, and Offenbach's music is packed full of his trademark wit and tunefulness. English soprano Anna Dennis sings Helen, with tenor Zachary Wilder as her suitor, Paris. (7:30 p.m. Sat. & 2 p.m. Sun., Tornstrom Auditorium, Brainerd, Minn., free, lakesareamusic.org)

Mozart, anyone?

Each summer the Mixed Precipitation company likes tilting operatic convention on its head in its Picnic Operetta, a show where a novel take on an operatic classic is combined with tasty culinary nibbles in an outdoor setting. This year Mozart's opera "La Clemenza di Tito" gets the makeover treatment in "The Clemency of Tito's Tennis Club," with "high-stakes sports drama, natural disasters and '80s new wave music" stirred into the mix alongside Mozart's music. Tenor Jim Ahrens takes the title part, with mezzo-soprano Anna Hashizume as Sesto. (7 p.m. Thu., Dodge Nature Center Farm Education Center, St. Paul; 2 p.m. Sat. & Sun., Upper Landing Park, St. Paul, suggested donation $10-$30, reservations at 1-800-838-3006 or mixedprecipitation.org)

Macheath and more

The period between the end of World War I and the rise of Hitler was an enormously fertile time artistically in Germany, and is showcased in "When the Shark Bites," a show combining words and music. It features the work of playwright Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill while also examining the roles played by their co-writer Elisabeth Hauptmann and singer Lotte Lenya. Songs from Brecht-Weill's "Threepenny Opera," "Mahagonny" and "Happy End" are performed by a cast including Diana Grasselli, Prudence Johnson, Bradley Greenwald and Dan Chouinard. (7:30 p.m. Mon., Wed.-Sat., 4 p.m. Sun., Open Eye Figure Theatre, Mpls., $28, 612-874-6338 or openeyetheatre.org)

TERRY BLAIN