Chicago Opera Theater — Tod Machover’s ‘Death and the Powers’: The company launches its spring season with the Midwest premiere of a new sci-fi fantasy based on a fascinating premise: If digital technology somehow allows us to outlive our bodies, what’s in it for us, our families and our society? Diane Paulus’ production uses specially designed technology including a “robot chorus.” Gil Rose conducts. Through Sunday at Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph Drive; $40-$120; 312-704-8414, chicagooperatheater.org
Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Music director Riccardo Muti makes his belated first Chicago podium appearances of the year. He will lead Shostakovich’s popular Fifth Symphony along with works by Cherubini and Liszt, at 1:30 p.m. Friday; $23-$218. The big Muti event is a much-anticipated concert version of Verdi’s opera “Otello” featuring soloists and the Chicago Symphony Chorus; 7 p.m. Saturday and Tuesday; $24-$249. Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; 312-294-3000, cso.org
Lise de la Salle: The extraordinarily gifted young French pianist makes her Chicago recital debut with a program of Liszt and Schumann. 3 p.m. Sunday at Mandel Hall, University of Chicago, 1131 E. 57th St.; $15; 773-702-8068, chicagopresents.uchicago.edu
‘Music of the Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos’: A daylong colloquium (lecture, film, panel discussion and performance) focusing on long-lost music of Jesuits in Spanish colonial Bolivia is overseen by Chicago scholar-composer Gustavo Leone, who restored four such manuscripts, performed here by Baroque Band and Bella Voce. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday at Loyola University Chicago, 1032 W. Sheridan Road; free; 773-508-3820, luc.edu/ccih
Orchestre National de France: One of France’s leading symphony orchestras, not heard in Chicago for more than 25 years, performs Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” Ravel’s G-Major Piano Concerto and Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” under music director Daniele Gatti. Pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is the soloist. 8 p.m. Wednesday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $22-$169; 312-294-3000, cso.org
Pacifica Quartet: The artist-in-residence ensemble of the University of Chicago performs string quartets of Beethoven and Dvorak (“The American”) along with German composer Joerg Widmann’s Quartet No. 3 (“Hunting”). 7:30 p.m. Friday in Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St. $35, $5 students; 773-702-8068, chicagopresents.uchicago.edu
jvonrhein@tribune.com
