When this reporter was assigned to review Los Lobos at the Napa Valley Opera House Saturday night, the unofficial word was it would be acoustic instruments only. Poor old wolves, I thought, reduced to playing lullaby music, watered-down versions of the old rowdy rock-blues-Tex/Mex mixture that is uniquely theirs.

The first Nimbus Arts Market takes place Sunday, Feb. 10, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in St. Helena. Nimbus artists/instructors will display their work in a market setting.Wares include sumptuous paintings and prints, beautiful ceramic vessels, exquisite hand blown glass, creative cards, colorful knitted hats, stellar jewelry, BEE-wear and much more. Participating artists include Ed Breed, Christine Willamson, Rob Keller, David Garden, Katie Roberts, Nikki Ballere,Will Callnan III, Eleanor Crebs, Ruben Godinez, Nancy Willis and Anne Pentland.

The third Festival del Sole is set to return to the Napa Valley July 12-20. The 10-day schedule includes concerts,  visual art exhibitions, free community concerts and family events.

If I hadn’t seen and heard it myself I might not have believed it.

On Friday evening at the Napa Valley Opera House a large audience was about to be transported back in time to a simpler age, circa 19l0 to 1929. In those years, more than 20,000 cinemas operated across the U.S. and each “Nickelodeon” brought us the silent movies of early film legends, thanks to the genius of Thomas Edison and others who quickly followed.

For the first stop on his “Day Trip” album tour, Pat Metheny returns to the Opera House with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Antonio Sanchez for an evening of jazz.

Since the reopening of the District Auditorium in 2004, Vintage and Napa high schools have resumed the tradition of presenting a musical for the community, each school in alternate years. And the community has responded by routinely selling out the house for the shows.

The four Napa musicians who make up OM-i will bring their funk-inflected world-beat sound back to Copia on Feb. 9.

The national touring company of one of America’s most highly-acclaimed operatic performance groups is on the road to the Napa Valley this week. Opera A La Carte will stage three performances of the crowd-pleasing Gilbert and Sullivan classic “The Mikado” Friday, Saturday and  Sunday at Lincoln Theater.

Doomed by cancer and counting his final days, Johannes Brahms locked himself in his study and destroyed countless manuscripts — a great deal of it chamber music. He did not want them to reach the world posthumously.