Erin Keane

The Kentucky Opera opened a company premiere last night of Benjamin Britten's "The Prodigal Son," an installment of the celebrated 20th century composer's Parables for Church Play trilogy. It's part of the company's contemporary chamber series, staged in St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Harrods Creek and featuring a small chamber orchestra ensemble, members of the Choral Arts Society and the Opera's studio artists.

It’s fine to hit the downtown First Friday Trolley Hop without a plan. Park, wander in and out of galleries, grab a drink or dinner with friends and hop a TARC trolley from one end of downtown to the next and back—you’re sure to find something to catch your eye or ears.

But with so many events and gallery receptions happening at once, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, so every month we take a look at five don’t-miss art events happening during the hop.

Theatre [502] closes its second season with Annie Baker’s “The Aliens,” an Obie Award-winning play about three misfits who bond behind a Vermont coffee shop.

“The Aliens” opens Friday in the Victor Jory Theatre at Actors Theatre of Louisville and runs through Oct. 13.

Theatre [502] co-artistic director Mike Brooks says when he read “The Aliens" two years ago, it jumped to the top of the company’s “must-produce” pile. 

The Kentucky Opera opens a company premiere this week. Benjamin Britten’s “The Prodigal Son,” which premiered in 1968, is part of Kentucky Opera's Chamber Series of Contemporary Opera staged in alternative venues around Louisville.

Performances are Thursday and Friday evening at St. Francis in the Fields Episcopalian Church in Prospect. 

The Louisville Ballet opens its 2012-13 season this week with Val Caniparoli’s “Lady of the Camellias.” The ballet, with music by Frédéric Chopin, runs for three performances on Friday and Saturday in the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts’ Whitney Hall.

Looking for Lilith Theatre Company opens an all-female production of William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” this week, setting the merry war-between-the-sexes romantic comedy in the days following the end of World War I.

The production opens Thursday and runs through October 13 in the new downstairs mainstage space at the Alley Theater in Butchertown’s The Pointe (1205 E. Washington St.).

Director Owsley Brown III will accept a Gramaphone Award for best classical music film for "Music Makes a City," a documentary about the Louisville Orchestra, at a ceremony in London today. Brown will accept the award on behalf of the Louisville-based production team, which includes co-director Jerome Hiler and producer Robin Burke. 

“Music Makes a City” documents the Louisville Orchestra’s rise in 1948 from a struggling semi-professional ensemble to a full professional orchestra with an internationally-renowned new work commissioning program.

The Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts, which provides free studio arts education to Kentucky high school students, will reinstate its new media program for the next fiscal year.