Best Bets / July 9-15, 2000

Jazz

This summer, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra will be featured with notable guests in eight concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. The initial performance, this Wednesday, showcases the adventurous and popular singer Cassandra Wilson, above.

Theater

“Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” is back for its second Southland run. The musical extravaganza about a magical romance, cavorting kitchenware and a feisty heroine features a couple of “Phantom of the Opera” stars, Susan Owen and Grant Norman, in the title roles, with Chris Howard as the bullying blowhard Gaston. Opens Tuesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Pop Music

After warming up with Warped, the summer head-banging season begins in earnest Saturday when Metallica holds forth at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. No orchestras here, dude, just the hard-rock heroes topping a bill of Korn, Kid Rock and System of a Down. On the horizon: Tattoo the Earth (Aug. 12), starring Slipknot, Slayer and Sevendust, and OZZfest (Sept. 2-3).

Movies

“X-Men,” the live-action, big-screen adaptation of Marvel’s popular comic books, depicts mutants whose extraordinary powers spark fear and loathing in humans. Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman and Famke Janssen star. Directed by Bryan Singer. Opens Friday in general release.

Museums

Hand-crafted objects made from glass, wood, ceramics, fibers and other materials make up “Treasures of Slovenia: Traditional and Contemporary Craft and Design,” opening Saturday at the Craft & Folk Art Museum. Below: bpwls made by Janez Golob from wood native to slovenia.

Music

Opening the 10-week subscription season at the Hollywood Bowl--the amphitheater’s 79th consecutive summer season--the Los Angeles Philharmonic Tuesday and Thursday hosts American conductor Leonard Slatkin. Tuesday, with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and baritone Samuel Ramey as soloists, Slatkin leads music by composers ranging in style from Mozart to Richard Rodgers.

Dance

Dancers and musicians from India join American colleagues when Malathi Iyengar’s locally based Rangoli Foundation retells the ancient Hindu epic “Ramayana” through classical and folk idioms Saturday at the Los Angeles Theatre Center and next Sunday at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park. As in Homer’s “Iliad,” the narrative involves an abduction that launches a cataclysmic war.

Video

Winner of the Oscar for foreign-language film, “All About My Mother” is an exceptionally moving drama written and directed by Spain’s premiere movie-maker, Pedro Almodovar. Cecilia Roth, Marisa Pardes and Penelope Cruz head the cast of this tale of a single mother who loses her only son on his 17th birthday. The film arrives Tuesday on video and DVD.