Arts editor HELEN MUSA has the antenna up and the latest Arts in the City column is a showcase of what she’s heard.

It may not be exactly opera, but the flashy world of showgirls and gangsters from 1950s Manhattan will come to life when Guys & Dolls premieres in Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour at Mrs Macquarie’s Point, March 21-April 20. 

Germany’s Freiburg Baroque Orchestra comes to Canberra for the first time, presenting Mozart’s most popular works with Australian fortepiano soloist Kristian Bezuidenhout. Snow Concert Hall, March 29.

Luminescence Chamber Singers will perform Carlo Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories, directed by Roland Peelman. More than 400 years after its composition, they say, Gesualdo’s music still seems avant-garde and is “simply put, some of the best vocal music ever composed”. Wesley Uniting Church, March 29. 

Anne Masters bills her Gallery of Small Things, at Wade Street, Watson, as “Australia’s smallest gallery”. It is showing small wall works by Bathurst painter Nicola Mason and cups/saucers, pourers and dishes by Cowra ceramicist Rebecca Dowling daily until March 30.

It’s been a long time coming, but now Cooked, the debut feature film by 25-year-old filmmaker Cameron Utiger will premiere in hometown Newcastle, March 27-28, then stream on Apple TV, Prime Video, and Google Play. A coming-of-age comedy, it stars Canberra actor Zane Menegazzo. 

Resonant Spaces is a new concert series held inside Canberra Museum + Gallery. It kicks off with David Bridie, founding member of Not Drowning, Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake, and pianist Sophie Hutchings, 2024 ARIA Award winner for Best Classical Album, both responding to the works of Sidney Nolan. CMAG, March 28.

Canberra International Music Festival is assembling its biggest choir to join in the festival finale, Finlandia, to be directed by Roland Peelman, along with a new work by Nicole Smede in the Gathag language and  Sonneurs, led by French piper Erwan Keravec. Registrations of interest via cimf.org.au/contact-us/ by March 31. 

Night and Now is the first concert of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s Llewellyn Series for the year, featuring Elena Kats-Chernin’s composition of the same name, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 and The Unanswered Question by American composer Charles Ives. Llewellyn Hall, March 26-27.