Treasures of Louvre to Hannah Montana

Mark your calendars: Big names, events have dates in Denver

Published September 8, 2007 at midnight

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What do John Elway, Monty Python, Renée Fleming, The Louvre, Garrison Keillor, Hannah Montana and Dianne Reeves have in common?

Ordinarily, not much. But in the coming months, they all share one thing: a date in Denver.

One is opening a new restaurant, others are performing in concert (including a dual-personality show), another offers a large exhibition, and don’t forget the author and the outrageously funny musical.

Confused? We clear up the mystery in our Fall Preview.

FOOD & DRINK

Festival Italiano: Sept. 15-16, Belmar, Lakewood. Italian taste is celebrated with gelato, pasta, pizza, Florentine flag throwers, chef demos, bocce and kids' grape stomping. belmarcolorado.com

Colorado Mountain Wine Fest: Sept. 15-16, Palisade. Colorado's best wine gathering with winery tours, grape stomping, tastings and day-long festival in the park. 1-800-704-3667 or coloradowinefest.com

Colorado Cooks For James Beard: Sept. 28, Panzano restaurant. Multicourse wine feast cooked by top Denver chefs, including Frank Bonanno (Mizuna), Yasmin Lozada-Hissom (Duo), and Alex Seidel (Fruition). $125; 303-395-2677

Great American Beer Festival: Oct. 11-13, Colorado Convention Center. Nation's biggest beer-sampling, featuring 40,000-plus attendees tasting 1,884 beers from 408 breweries. $45-$155; beertown.org

Opening of note: Elway's Colorado Steakhouse; No. 7 opens his second eatery this fall inside the new The Ritz-Carlton, 1881 Curtis St.

CLASSICAL MUSIC & DANCE

Renée Fleming with the Colorado Symphony, Sept. 29, Boettcher Hall. The event of the season features the revered soprano singing Strauss' celestial Four Last Songs, two of opera's greatest arias and a heartbreaking song of the Civil War. $27.50 to $350; 303-623-7876

Opera Colorado presents Verdi's La Traviata, Nov. 9-18, Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Pamela Armstrong stars in this revival of Jim Robinson's staging. $28 to $157; 303-468-2030

Colorado Ballet performs Le Corsaire, Oct. 5-14, Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Known mostly for its bravura pas de deux, this colorful tale involves pirates, slave girls and shipwrecks. $19 to $145; 303-837-8888

Diavolo, Sept. 28, Gates Concert Hall. Returning after an astonishing performance at Gates last year, the athletic, high-flying dance company opens the Newman Center Presents series. $25 to $49; 303-357-2787

Angela Hewitt (Sept. 30) and Krystian Zimerman (Oct. 24), Gates Concert Hall. A new Piano Series from Friends of Chamber Music kicks off with the first of two Bach recitals by Hewitt and a rare appearance by the renowned Polish pianist. $30 each; 303-3988-9839

VISUAL ART & ARCHITECTURE

Substance: Diverse Practices From the Periphery, Thursday-Nov. 9, Center for Visual Art. Exploring innovative design of all types puts this exhibition right in tune with the American Institute of Graphic Arts' conference here Oct. 11-14. 303-294-5207

Weather Report: Art and Climate Change, Sept. 14-Dec. 21, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum has teamed with the group EcoArts for this venture featuring dozens of artists for a look at global changes. 303-443-2122

Artisans and Kings: Selected Treasures From the Louvre, Oct. 5. - Jan. 6, Denver Art Museum. It's business as usual at the Denver Art Museum in terms of exhibitions, beginning with a trove of paintings, tapestries and decorative objects from the French mega-museum. Also consider "Color as Field: American Painting, 1950-75," opening Nov. 9 with artists including Morris Louis, Helen Frankenthaler and Kenneth Noland. 720-865-5000 or denverartmuseum.org

Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver and Star Power: Museum as Body Electric, opening Oct. 28. The museum opens its new home designed by London-based architect David Adjaye at 15th and Delgany streets. A week of events leads up to the big day. 303-298-7554 or mcartdenver.org

Clyfford Still Museum officials will unveil its new design by architect Brad Cloepfil by the end of the year. In the meantime, "Clyfford Still Unveiled: Selections From the Estate," in the Hamilton Building, has been extended through the end of the year. 720-865-4317 or clyffordstillmuseum.org

POPULAR MUSIC

Rise Against: Thursday, Red Rocks. The politically savvy punk band plays its biggest Denver gig in what promises to be an explosive show. $28 and $30.50

Monolith Festival: Friday - Sept. 15, Red Rocks. Can Red Rocks sustain a new festival? Organizers plan to find out with two nights of indie rock, from locals to The Flaming Lips. $42.50 per day

Velvet Revolver: Sept. 24, Coors Amphitheatre. With the all-out hard-rock album of the year, Slash, Weiland and the boys are looking to bust stuff up. $10.76 to $65.50

Smashing Pumpkins: Sept. 30, Red Rocks. Perhaps better billed as "Billy Corgan and Some Other People." You'll get the hits and the new album. $49.50 and $54.50

Alan Jackson/Brooks & Dunn: Pepsi Center, Oct. 5. Properly priced and filled with hits, this will be the country music value of the year. $36 to $71

Genesis: Oct. 6, Pepsi Center. Sales for the reunion are surprisingly sluggish in Denver after sellouts nationwide. $57 to $202

Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers: Oct. 13, Boulder Theater. With Clyne's new album No More Beautiful World, the best rock band you've barely heard of goes on tour.

Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Oct. 25, Pepsi Center. Sold out and your kids are very disappointed in you. No, we can't get you tickets

Dianne Reeves: Oct. 27, Gates Concert Hall. Denver's own returns home for what is becoming an annual tradition. $25 to $49

Kelly Clarkson: Nov. 5, Paramount Theatre. Her arena ambitions scaled down to a more reasonable level. On sale Sept. 15

The Hold Steady: Nov. 11, Fox Theatre ($16), and Nov. 12, Ogden Theatre ($17). The last time the band came through fans hailed it as the savior of old-school rock 'n' roll

Suzanne Vega: Nov. 21, Boulder Theater, $22. Taking a jazzier bent on her new album, Beauty and Crime, Vega will undoubtedly include updated arrangements of her bigger hits.

Fall Out Boy, Plain White T's and more: Nov. 23, Magness Arena. Fall Out Boy headlines, but the saturated airplay of the T's Hey There Delilah guarantees teen shrieks of ecstasy. On sale soon.

Brian Setzer Orchestra: Dec. 11, Fillmore Auditorium. Re-energized by the Stray Cats reunion this summer, Setzer brings his annual holiday program back to town. On sale soon.

BOOKS

FICTION: Exit Ghost, by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin, $26): The acclaimed author's alter-ego Nathan Zuckerman battles incontinence and his own mortality. (Oct. 1)

The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold (Little, Brown, $24.99). Sebold follows her best-seller, The Lovely Bones, with a story about a middle-aged woman and her complicated relationship with her mother. (Oct. 16)

Bridge of Sighs, by Richard Russo (Knopf, $26.95.) The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls again details life in a waning blue-collar town, this time focusing on Louis Charles Lucy and his wife Sarah, who are preparing to visit a friend in Italy. (Sept. 25)

A Free Life, by Ha Jin (Pantheon, $26). The winner of the National Book Award for his novel Waiting delivers a story about the challenges a Chinese family faces when it immigrates to the U.S.

NONFICTION: The Coldest Winter, by David Halberstam (Hyperion, $35). The author, recently killed in a car accident, offers his trademark narrative journalism in a detailed look at the Korean War. (Sept. 25)

Due Considerations: Essays and Criticism, by John Updike (Knopf, $40). A collection of Updike's essays and literary criticism that touches on everything from the history of the sexual revolution to the sinking of the Lusitania. (Oct. 23)

Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography, by David Michaelis (Harper, $34.95). Michael's details the troubled life of the comic strip creator, tracing its influence on his art. (Oct. 1)

Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race, by Richard Rhodes (Knopf, $28.95). The Pulitzer Prize-winning author offers the third volume in his acclaimed history of nuclear weapons. (Oct. 9)

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, by Rick Atkinson (Henry Holt, $35). Atkinson follows his Pulitzer Prize-winning In An Army at Dawn with this book about the American and British armies' invasion of Sicily in 1943 and advance north toward Rome. (Oct. 2)

EVENTS: Colorado Book Awards, 6 p.m., Oct. 17, Seawell Grand Ballroom, Denver Performing Arts Complex. Tickets $65 until Oct. 1; $75 after that. Information: 303-894-7951, ext. 10.

18th Annual Kappa Kappa Gamma Book and Author Dinner, Sept. 26, 5:30 p.m. patron party; 7 p.m. dinner and program. Featuring authors Stephen Hunter (The 47th Samurai: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel); Dorothea Benton Frank (Land of Mango Sunsets); Andrew Nagorski (The Greatest Battle: Stalin, Hitler and the Desperate Struggle for Moscow That Changed the Course of the World); Karen Quinn (Wife in the Fast Lane). Tickets start at $85. Information: 303-758-4050.

Post-News Pen & Podium Series, all lectures beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts. Frank McCourt, Oct. 2; Claire Messud, Nov. 27; Eric Larson, Feb. 12; Anna Quindlen, March 18. Subscriptions start at $130. Information: penandpodium.com.

Author signings: Peter Yarrow (Sept. 9); Nell Freudenberger (Sept. 11); Garrison Keillor (Sept. 13); Robert Fulghum (Sept. 19); Michael Korda (Sept. 27); Naomi Wolf (Oct. 9); Ann Packer (Oct. 10); Richard Paul Evans (Oct. 15); Stephen R. Donaldson (Oct. 15); Carl Bernstein (Oct. 15); Rick Atkinson (Oct. 22); Richard Russo (Oct. 22); Paul Krugman (Nov. 5); Jenna Bush (Nov. 29).

EVENTS

Oktoberfest: Sept. 21-23 and Oct. 5-7; Ballpark Neighborhood. The event's move from its long-time Larimer Square home means a bigger biergarten, more food and expanded entertainment, but mostly, more beer. oktoberfestdenver.com

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus: Oct. 4-14, Denver Coliseum. See Bello tempt fate atop the Wheel of Steel! View exotic white tigers! OD on cotton candy! $12-$80; 303-830-8497

Kevin Nealon: Comedy Works, Oct. 19-20. Famous for Hanz and Franz, the Saturday Night Live alumnus' wit is so dry, he's been declared a fire hazard. $33; comedyworks.com

Starz Denver Film Festival: Nov. 8-18; various locations. Movie buff heaven with new international films, features, documentaries, short subjects - plus premieres, panels and seminars. denverfilm.org

Blue Man Group: Nov. 25, Pepsi Center. The trio's How To Be A Megastar Tour sends up the rituals and buzz of the primal arena rock concert backed by an eight-piece band. ticketmaster.com

THEATER

Third: Friday-Oct. 20, Space Theatre, DPAC. Wendy Wasserstein's final play pictures a leftist college professor unwilling to accept the Iraq War or those who defy her. 303-893-4100

Spamalot: Sept. 18-Oct.7, Buell Theatre: No less than Eric Idle himself turned the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail into a Broadway goof spectacular. 303-893-4100

Thom Pain (based on nothing): Sept. 28-Oct.28, Modern Muse at the Bug Theatre. Erik Tieze stars in Will Eno's reflections on the beauty and terror of life. $20, 303-780-7836

Defiance: Oct. 2-Nov. 4, Arvada Center. John Patrick Shanley looks at racism on a Marine base in 1971 in a drama about power, duty and responsibility. $23-$46, 720-898-7200

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: Oct. 16-28, Buell Theatre. The movie comedy moves to the stage, with a score by The Full Monty's David Yazbek. 303-893-4100.

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