The classical music season got officially under way this weekend, and there will be more and more choices facing eager listeners. Even if you cannot afford all the concerts you want to attend, since local radio station WETA, at 90.9 FM, went back to a classical format, there is more local music on the airwaves, too. Tune in this evening (September 16, 7 p.m.) to the live broadcast of the National Symphony Orchestra's Season Opening Ball Concert, with soprano Renée Fleming and pianist Peng Peng, from the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. (DCist will have a review on Tuesday.) WETA's other regular programs include a rebroadcast of last year's Madama Butterfly from Washington National Opera on Saturday (September 22, 1:30 p.m.) and a new program called Front Row Washington, featuring a concert performed recently in a local venue (this week, the Eusia String Quartet with pianist James Dick) every Monday at 9 p.m.

OPERA:
>> The most exciting event of the week is the first performance of the Washington Concert Opera, an unstaged rendition of Bellini's bel canto classic I Puritani (September 23, 6 p.m.) at Lisner Auditorium. Staging an opera with such an absurd plot is probably a waste of money, anyway: the reason for its place in the repertory is the demanding and beautiful vocal writing. Tenor Lawrence Brownlee will assay the outrageous high F of Arturo, and soprano Sarah Coburn will sing Elvira's mad scenes, both of them for the first time in their careers. Tickets: $45 to $90 (with a discount for GW students). Some general admission seats, on folding chairs at the back of the auditorium, may be available directly from the WCO office.

>> The Washington National Opera season opened last night with the first performance of Puccini's La Bohème (review forthcoming). The opera is a perennial favorite, perhaps overdone, but some tickets still remain for two of this week's performances (September 19 and 20, 7:30 p.m.). If you cannot find a place this week, there will be a special opportunity next week, through the new Access to Opera Tickets program, to buy $25 tickets to the September 25 and 27 performances (you must go to the Kennedy Center box office on the morning of the performance only). If you want to experience the opera for free, you should go to the live simulcast on the National Mall this Sunday (September 23, 2 p.m.). This opera is a fine introduction to the delights of opera for a neophyte (but, parents, be warned that some details of the production are not exactly child-friendly).

INSTRUMENTAL:
>> On Thursday night (September 20, 7:30 p.m.), pianist Margarete Babinsky will play an intriguing program of obscure music by Egon Wellesz at the Austrian Embassy. Admission is free, but you must make a reservation.

>> Sunday is the first program in the new season from the Contemporary Music Forum (September 23, 4:30 p.m.) in their normal venue at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The program, ever inventive, includes new and recent works by Broening, Visconti, and McGowan.

ALSO FREE:
>> Pianist Immanuela Gruenberg will give a recital on Tuesday (September 18, 12:10 p.m.) in the lunchtime series at the Church of the Epiphany (1317 G St. NW).

>> On Thursday (September 20, 12:15 p.m.), organist Mary Mozelle and trumpeter Chuck Seipp will play on the lunchtime series at National City Christian Church (5 Thomas Cir. NW).

>> The National Gallery of Art is hosting a free concert on Friday (September 21, 5 p.m.), featuring the U.S. Navy Band Commodores outdoors in the Sculpture Garden.

>> For more concerts, go to Ionarts.