We have been plugging the excellent production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess all week, and it is worth your time and effort to see it, as we did this past Wednesday. However, all remaining performances have apparently been sold out. This means that your best and only remaining chance to experience this great American opera will be later today, when a live simulcast from the Kennedy Center Opera House will be shown on a huge video screen on the National Mall near the U.S. Capitol. Please do yourselves a favor, people, and go watch it, and if you do, take a picture for us. We hope it doesn’t rain. After that, you can focus on what we have to recommend this week.

MARIONNETTES SING OPERA:
>> The celebrated Salzburger Marionettentheater is coming to Washington this week. This event may not be all that interesting musically, since the group performs to recordings, albeit very good ones. Still, we think it is worth the ticket price ($60) to see one of the most famous marionnette troupes in the world. The beautiful puppets will present Mozart’s fantastic Singspiel Magic Flute on Tuesday (November 8, 7:30 p.m.) and his classic Italian opera Don Giovanni on Wednesday (November 9, 7:30 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. At the time of this writing, tickets remain only for Don Giovanni.

FREE CONCERTS:
>> An interesting free concert this week features the Musicians from Marlboro on Wednesday (November 9, 7:30 p.m.) at the Freer Gallery of Art‘s Meyer Auditorium. Every summer, the Marlboro Music School hosts a festival of young musicians, now under the artistic guidance of Richard Goode and Mitsuko Uchida. On this concert, six of those talented players will perform Antonín Dvořák’s op. 48 string sextet and Alban Berg’s Lyrische Suite, rounded off by half of them on Beethoven’s string trio, op. 9, no. 2. Reserve tickets through Ticketmaster for the customary fees, or show up at the door if you just can’t stand to pay for a free concert.