OPERA
SATURDAY, AUGUST 18 (continuing through AUGUST 26)
7:30 PM

Salieri:  La Cifra
dell'Arte Opera Ensemble Mozart & Salieri Festival
La Mama
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan

$36-$40; $32-$36 seniors; $25 students
http://dellarteopera.org/project/la-cifra/

The lovable dell'Arte Opera Ensemble puts on modest, intimate opera productions every Summer, featuring a bevy of promising young singers.  This Summer they're doing a Mozart/Salieri festival, featuring those two famous colleagues/rivals/murderer-and-victim (depending on whom you believe).  The thing to see this week, at least if you enjoy Classical-period opera (and if you don't, I feel sorry for you), is Salieri's rarely performed (not that anything by Salieri is frequently performed) dramma giocoso -- with a libretto by Da Ponte!-- La Cifra.  Speaking of dramma giocosi with libretti by Da Ponte, they're also putting on Don Giovanni Thursday night and Sunday matinée.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT:  Now that it's been discovered, maybe it won't be as easy to get into as previously, but the food and drink at The Bar at Momofuko Ko are just insanely good.