The theme this time around is “Celebrating Earth Day,” and the 30-minute program will take the element of water as its keystone, making note of its ability to seek its own level and morph its state of being. Water, water, everywhere: Jazz singer Tiffany Austin and double bassist Marcus Shelby team up for a Close-Up, an episode of San Francisco-based Opera Parallele’s free online recital series, at 5 p.m. Jazz vocalist Tiffany Austin sings of the virtues of water in an episode of Opera Parallele’s Close-Up recital series. Get your tickets at or by calling (415) 864-3330.

(No motorcycles or convertibles allowed.) The Marin Center is at 10 Avenue of the Flags in San Rafael. Tickets are $250 per car for the fairgrounds and $50 for the lagoon, with cars admitted on a first come, first served basis beginning at 6:30 p.m. The 90-minute adaptation of Rossini’s hugely popular comedy takes place with no intermission, with conductor Roderick Cox leading an 18-player orchestra and a cast that also includes mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as Rosina (with Laura Krumm subbing for the final three performances), tenor Alek Shrader as Count Almaviva and bass-baritone Philip Skinner as Dr. The setting is a drive-in at the Marin Center, where a 120-foot-wide stage has been set up on the fairgrounds for live viewing from patrons’ cars, and at the nearby Lagoon Park, where a huge screen has been erected for a simulcast, with the music transmitted by FM radio. But the REAL news is that the show is live and in person for the first time in 16 months, with enormous care taken to establish social distancing. Friday and repeats 10 more times through May 15. ‘Figaro here, Figaro there, Figaro high, Figaro low’: Baritone Lucas Meachem sings the famed “Largo al factotum” aria as the title character in Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” in a San Francisco Opera production that opens at 8 p.m. Looks like we can count on baritone Lucas Meachem to give a magnetic performance as Figaro in San Francisco Opera’s outdoor production of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.” (Courtesy of Stefan Cohen) The Bay Area is a hub of artistic expression, attracting artists, writers and musicians from around the globe to live, work and create.

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