Summer Splash III : Looking For Hot Tips? Well, We Recommend . . . : Music and Dance

Dust off the picnic hamper and lube the corkscrew, it’s summertime again. By tradition, most of the season’s must-hear events compete with crickets and helicopters, in outdoor venues both rustic and urban.

The annual migration from concert halls to hillsides begins May 31, with the Ojai Festival under the venerable oak at Libbey Park Bowl. The five weekend concerts are conducted by composers John Harbison and Peter Maxwell Davies, in premiere-laden programs that match their own works with pieces composed by Mozart in 1791.

Harbison’s repertory includes the world premiere of his “Ave Verum Corpus,” paired with Mozart’s motet on the same text and sung by the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Maxwell Davies is represented by the world premiere of his Ojai Festival Overture, and the U.S. premieres of his “Strathclyde” Concertos Nos. 3 and 4, and Threnody, with the orchestral forces provided by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

The Hollywood Bowl celebrates its 70th anniversary with the concert debut of the new Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, conducted by John Mauceri. The pick-up pops band created by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Philips Classics has already recorded a disc of film music, but makes its first live appearances with the annual family fireworks concerts July 2-4.

Other concerts of the preseason week include Iona Brown and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in Bach and Vivaldi programs. The Philharmonic itself swings into action on the opening gala July 9, under Yuri Temirkanov, with violinist Itzhak Perlman in the first of three consecutive Bowl performances.

Other highlights include three concerts in August conducted by Simon Rattle, plus a still undefined event Sept. 10 to be concocted by Peter Sellars. Programs for the Philharmonic Institute Orchestra feature works by Leonard Bernstein, founding director of the training program.

Across the freeway at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre is a Monday chamber music series in July. Participants are the Takacs String Quartet, the Laredo-Robinson-Kalichstein Piano Trio, duo pianists Misha and Cipa Dichter and members of the Philharmonic.

For those who prefer their music indoors, Music Center Opera has two shows in June. It opens Puccini’s “La fanciulla del West”--starring Gwyneth Jones and Carol Neblett in the title role, opposite Placido Domingo--with performances June 5 and 8 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The production then moves to the Music Center June 12, 15, 18, 21, 23.

The Music Center Opera season ends with “The Turn of the Screw” by Britten, June 22, 25, 28, 30, in a Jonathan Miller production that enlists Helen Donath as the Governess and Jonathan Mack as Peter Quint.

The vagaries of scheduling have again given balletomanes a confrontation of interests. Last year it was the Bolshoi and the Australian Ballet in simultaneous performances, this year American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet go toe to toe.

ABT returns to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for the first time in 10 years, Aug. 6-18. The opening gala is an all Tharp program, with other repertory including the story ballets “Giselle” and “Coppelia.”

The Royal Ballet is at the Orange County Performing Arts Center Aug. 6-11. The repertory features a new “Swan Lake,” surrounding a mixed bill listing MacMillan’s “Winter Dreams,” David Bintley’s “ ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Cafe” and Ashton’s “Scenes de ballet.”

“Dance Kaleidoscope,” the annual summer showcase of Southern California dance and performance art, offers three programs at Cal State Los Angeles, spread across two weekends: July 19, 20, 21 (matinee) and July 26, 27, 28 (matinee).

The initial program is devoted to world dance, including performances from Avaz, Alice Lo, Ramya Harishankar, Dwadd, Yaelisa, Roberto Amaral and Juan Talavera. The second features the Westside Ballet and Long Beach Ballet, plus five modern-dance groups. The final program offers jazz dance and ballet, plus pieces by modern dancers Betzi Roe, Shel Wagner, Eartha Robinson and Meri Bender.