Welcome to Best Bets, a weekly column in which The Oregonian’s arts desk highlights selected theater, classical music and dance performances and visual arts events. Here are our picks for Feb. 17-23.

“Swimming While Drowning”

Teatro Milagro presents the world premiere of Emilio Rodriguez’s play about a Latino teen who leaves his homophobic father’s home and ends up at a homeless shelter for gays and lesbians, where he meets another Latino boy. Through rap music and poetry, the play addresses issues of identity, belonging and stability. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 25, Milagro Theatre, 525 S.E. Stark St. $20-$27, milagro.org or 503-236-7253.

“Testament of Mary”

Corrib Theatre, which specializes in works about the Irish experience, presents novelist Colm Toibin’s imagining of the final days of the mother of Jesus Christ as she ruminates on his life. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through March 5, New Expressive Works, 810 S.E. Belmont St. $20-$25, corribtheatre.org or Brown Paper Tickets.

“Songs of Love and War”

Portland Opera launches its new “Vino e Voce” performance series with a fully staged set of madrigals by Italian Renaissance composer and priest Claudio Monteverdi. Together, the songs address “courtship and seduction, sensual attraction, unrequited love, sexual passion, betrayal, lovers at war, and the tension between chastity and sensual pleasure,” says the opera’s general director, Christopher Mattaliano. Some performances include pre-show talks, complimentary wine and a post-show question-and-answer session. 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17; 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Feb. 21, 23 and 25, Hampton Opera Center, 211 S.E. Caruthers St. Tickets start at $10; portlandopera.org, Ticketmaster or 503-241-1802.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Portland Baroque Orchestra presents an all-Bach program, featuring all four of his orchestra suites. “Bach’s music appeals to those who seek meaning, sense or emotion,” says guest conductor John Butt, Gardiner Professor of Music at the University of Glasgow and director of Edinburgh’s Dunedin Consort. He’ll give pre-concert talks one hour before each performance. 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Feb. 17-18, First Baptist Church, 909 S.W. 11th Ave.; 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19, Kaul Auditorium, Reed College, 3203 S.E. Woodstock Blvd. Tickets start at $25; pbo.org or 503-222-6000.

Portland Youth Philharmonic/Bravo Youth Orchestras

String musicians from Portland Youth Philharmonic join their peers from Bravo, which provides classical music instruction in high-poverty areas, to present a side-by-side concert that includes Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in D, Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, and Pharrell Williams’ “Happy.” Portland Youth Philharmonic’s musical director, David Hattner, says of Bravo, “They are one of the most important new musical organizations in Oregon.” 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19, Wieden+Kennedy, 224 N.W. 13th Ave. Free.

CCN-Ballet De Lorraine

One of Europe’s most acclaimed companies makes its West Coast debut, with more than 20 dancers performing a classical and modern program by choreographers including Merce Cunningham and with music by composers including Philip Glass. The company, based in Nancy, France, is one of 19 National Choreographic Centers creating new work and serving as a resource center for dance. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 S.W. Broadway. $26-$70, whitebird.org or 503-245-1600.

CCN – Ballet de Lorraine

 

Hap Tivey

Tivey, an installation artist whose work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, combines his knowledge of physics and his experience as a Zen monk in Japan to create “Something Light,” an installation that continues his longstanding presentation of light as an interactive medium. “I like to think our conscious mind enjoys giving structure and color to emptiness,” he told an interviewer last year. 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through March 11, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, 417 N.W. Ninth Ave. Free, elizabethleach.com or 503-224-0521.

If you would like your event to be considered for inclusion in Best Bets, email the details to fineartsbestbets@oregonian.com.

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