“The arts stimulate, educate, and inspire.”

Cultural Planning Town Hall meetings

Ethan Dittrich will be awarded a Music in the Vineyards scholarship during an upcoming concert Friday at the Jarvis Conservatory.

It’s hilarity on the high seas as the Bay Area’s acclaimed Lamplighters Music Theatre performs Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore” at the Napa Valley Opera House this weekend.

“The Great Man” (Doubleday, 320 pages, $23.95), by Kate Christensen: The great man at the center, and in the title, of Kate Christensen’s latest novel never appears in a single scene.