FESTIVALS
International Festival of Authors
All year long page-flipping fanatics look forward to a lakeside fandango of writers and their readers. Events include panel discussions, youth activities and onstage interviews, including a moderated chat on Friday with Sara Gruen and Sarah Winman. The latter stole notice for her darkly comic first novel (When God Was a Rabbit), while the former isn’t worried whether or not her new piece of historical fiction (At the Water’s Edge) matches the bestselling, film-adaptation success of her last (Water for Elephants). “I know I was struck by lightning,” she told NPR. “And it’s not going to happen again and that’s okay.”
Oct. 22 to Nov. 1. $15 to $18. Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W., 416-973-4000 or ifoa.org.
DAYTIME
Anthony Hopkins
Described by Richard Attenborough as “unquestionably the greatest actor of his generation,” the film star whose famous character’s name rhymes with cannibal insists that painting and composing, not acting, are his first loves. Indeed, a new collection of Mr. Hopkins’s serigraphs and original acrylic works on canvas makes its way to Canada as part of the second international tour of his art. The pieces are whimsical, surrealistic and richly coloured, products of a fascination with dreams and states of consciousness and inspired by the German expressionist Emil Nolde and the Austrians Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele.
Oct. 17 to 31. Free. Harbour Gallery, 1697 Lakeshore Rd. W., Mississauga, 905-822-5495 or harbourgallery.com.
NIGHTTIME
Armide
Opera Atelier needs no other reason to remount Jean-Baptiste Lully’s masterpiece Armide other than the story of a Christian knight and the sorceress-princess of Damascus is perhaps the finest production in the company’s repertoire. That said, this year the baroque enthusiasts celebrate their 30th campaign and are all set to pack their period instruments for a trip to the Royal Opera House in the Palace of Versailles, as part of a program of events in France commemorating the 300th anniversary of the death of Louis XIV, for whom Armide was written. By all means, then.
Oct. 22 to 31. $38 to $191. Elgin Theatre, 189 Yonge St., 855-622-2787 or ticketmaster.ca.
FOR THE KIDS
Sesame Street Live
The touring show from the Muppet-based franchise is Make a New Friend, but most of the furry characters are already chums to the pint-sized and their parents. But while Big Bird, Count von Count and the shrill, all-red Elmo are old friends to audiences, the addition of the newcomer Chamki, a pal of Grover’s from India, offers the opportunity to share cultural similarities and celebrate differences, as well as to sing, dance and, inevitably, scarf down cookies.
Oct. 17 (10 a.m., 1:30 and 5 p.m.) and Oct. 18 (10:30 a.m.). $40 to $55. Sony Centre, 1 Front St. E., 855-872-7669 or ticketmaster.ca.
ONE NIGHT ONLY
Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band
The ACC concert on Saturday by the cute Beatle Paul McCartney is sold out, but the show by the Fab Four’s homelier drummer at Massey Hall three nights later has a few tickets still available. His band includes Todd Rundgren and talented but faceless players from past pop-rock eras, but rest assured the former bandmate to John Lennon, George Harrison and the first Yesterday singer picks his partners well. The set list includes Yellow Submarine, It Don’t Come Easy and, of course, A Little Help From My Friends, not only a song but the story of the 75-year-old Starr’s enviable career.
Oct. 20, 8 p.m. $88 to $225. Massey Hall, 178 Victoria St., 416-872-4255 or roythomson.com.