May 27 - June 2 There are, of course, things by the superstars of the title. Giovanni Bellini's "Pietà with the Virgin and Saint John," dated between 1455 and 1460, is a mournful complement to his later "Madonna and Child," which is in the Met's collection. The single Titian is the very early "Orpheus and Eurydice," thought to have been done between 1508 and 1512. And from Lorenzo Lotto we have a charming portrait of Lucina Brembati, who wears a large jeweled toothpick on a gold chain around her neck. Less familiar sights are three smallish narrative paintings from a Lotto altarpiece that has not traveled. And then there are artists you probably won't know at all, like Giovanni Cariani, Andrea Previtali, Moretto da Brescia and Vincenzo Foppa. But really, they're just old friends that you have yet to meet. Through Sept. 3; Metropolitan Museum of Art; (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. IF you belong to the growing clique of people fascinated by all things Kenneth Lonergan (did you know the three-hour director's cut of "Margaret" will be released on DVD in July? Of course you did) then you probably long ago heard rumors about two unlikely sounding plays he has been developing for years. One is about a country singer; the other is a comedy about knights from the Middle Ages that he has been working on since the 1980s. Hey, it worked for Monty Python! Both projects intrigue because they are so distant from the contemporary worlds he has sketched in plays like "The Waverly Gallery" and "This is Our Youth" (both of which could use a Broadway revival) and the movie "You Can Count on Me." Now audiences can get a look at "MEDIEVAL PLAY" at the Signature Theater, directed by Mr. Lonergan. Along with Anthony Arkin, John Pankow and C .J Wilson, the cast features Heather Burns and Tate Donovan, which should warm the hearts of admirers of the original Off Broadway production of "Lobby Hero." So when are we going to see that play about the country singer? "Medieval Play" is running at the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street, (212) 244-7529, signature-theatre.org. THERE are no jazz festivals in town, but this is an ordinary week of extraordinary riches. On Monday at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (Broadway and 60th Street, jalc.org), the trombonist PAPO VAZQUEZ plays with his band, Mighty Pirates Troubadours, an Afro-Puerto Rican jazz septet that unspools tense, hard, miraculous rhythm and improvising. Tuesday through Sunday, again at Dizzy's, comes the pianist ERIC REED with a new band called the UnMonk Quintet (Etienne Charles, trumpet; Seamus Blake, saxophone; Matt Clohesy, bass; Henry Cole, drums), friskily taking apart Thelonious Monk tunes, as on his recent record "The Baddest Monk." The saxophonist RAVI COLTRANE plays with his quartet at Birdland (315 West 44th Street, birdlandjazz.com) from Tuesday to Saturday; he's got a new record "Spirit Fiction," out next month. The Polish trumpeter TOMASZ STANKO will join an A-list of New Yorkers he's never collaborated with (David Virelles, piano; Thomas Morgan, bass; Gerald Cleaver, drums) from Thursday through Sunday at the Jazz Standard (116 East 27th Street, jazzstandard.net). And at the Village Vanguard (178 Seventh Avenue South, villagevanguard.com), the Argentine pianist-composer GUILLERMO KLEIN reassembles his 11-piece New York band, Los Guachos, trained in his flowing, mutating, stacked rhythmic cycles and strong melodies. AMERICAN BALLET THEATER opens the third week of its Met season on Monday with one last "Bayadère," sporting the rub-my-eyes-I'm-dreaming pairing of Alina Cojocaru and Natalia Osipova - quite possibly, in very different ways, the most thrilling ballerinas on the planet - in the two principal female roles. Don't miss them vying for the affections of Herman Cornejo's Solor, nor one of the subsequent performances, during the rest of the week, of Alexei Ratmansky's "Bright Stream." That ballet is a rechoreographed version of a 1935 production by Fyodor Lopukhov, to music by Shostakovich, which despite its politically correct subject matter - life on a collective farm - was deemed unacceptable by Stalin and disappeared from view. Revived by Mr. Ratmansky, it gives us an idea of Soviet art, the idealized optimism of a lost Russia, and a very, very funny comedy that shows Ballet Theater as a unified ensemble of brilliant actor-dancers. You can't go wrong with any of the casts, but balletomanes will be keen to see the Danish-trained Royal Ballet principal Johan Kobborg trying out his pointe shoes and sylphide dress in his debut on Thursday as the Ballerina's Partner. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, abt.org; $20 to $190. EVEN if you can't sing, it's hard not to be jealous of the four young people in "RENÉE FLEMING: A YOUNGARTS MASTERCLASS," showing at 6 p.m. on Monday evening on HBO. Who wouldn't want to be invited to watch Ms. Fleming rehearse, or to be welcomed into her home to talk music? The show is the first installment of a new season of the YoungArts series, which pairs aspiring singers, artists, playwrights and so on with someone at the top of the profession for mentoring. This isn't just a keep-up-the-good-work pep talk. In Monday's episode, Ms. Fleming has one young man sing with a cough drop balanced on his tongue, another while clenching a pencil between his teeth. The exercises are efforts to refine some aspect of the students" technique. Later the four get to watch Ms. Fleming rehearse at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which turns out to be a bit of a lesson for Ms. Fleming as well. "I just thought, oh my God, I have to do everything right now," Ms. Fleming says afterward. I have to do the things that I asked them to do. Participants in future episodes include Patti LuPone, John Guare and Bobby McFerrin. AS an actor Erich von Stroheim was billed as "The Man You Love to Hate." As a director in the silent era, he was a filmmaker studios couldn't help but hate. With a mania for detail, he thought nothing of going over budget, missing deadlines and shooting mountains of footage. VON STROHEIM, on Mondays through July 30 at the Film Forum showcases his work, beginning with his troubled masterpiece "Greed" (1924), with a showing on Sunday as well as tomorrow, accompanied by Steve Sterner on piano. An adaptation of Frank Norris's "McTeague," the film, not available on DVD, was chopped and chopped again (from about nine hours to about two and a half), but even truncated retains its power. The Film Forum print runs just under two hours. Next Monday, a double bill pairs von Stroheim's sole foray as a director into talking pictures, "Hello, Sister!" (he was pulled from the project and most of his scenes were reshot) with George Fitzmaurice's "As You Desire Me," a 1932 Greta Garbo vehicle. Von Stroheim plays a controlling novelist and Garbo an amnesiac. She starts the film with a blond bob, and in her high black collar, black leggings and buckle shoes looks like a swashbuckling version of Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, South Village; 212-727-8110, filmforum.com A STRING quartet has endless options in terms of repertory, but a classical saxophone ensemble has far slimmer pickings. Since Matt Levy founded the PRISM QUARTET 25 years ago he and his colleagues have been evangelizing on behalf of this unusual instrumentation. The group has commissioned at least 120 works for saxophone quartet, including one by Samuel Phillips-Corwin, which will have its premiere on Thursday at Symphony Space. The program, which focuses on minimalist composers and those they influenced, also includes pieces by Terry Riley, Philip Glass, John Adams and Michael Torke. 7:30 p.m., Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway; (212) 864-5400, symphonyspace.org; $21, $15 for students and 65+. Luna Pearl Woolf wrote "APRÈS MOI, LE DÉLUGE," scored for a cappella choir and cello, as a tribute to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The work, which takes its title from a quotation often attributed to the decadent and irresponsible Louis XV of France, will be performed with Julian Wachner conducting the excellent Trinity Choir and the cellist Matt Haimovitz as soloist. Mr. Wachner, who is also a composer, will lead the ensemble in his own "Rilke Songs," as well as Laura Elise Schwendinger's "Six Choral Settings," Du Yun's "San" and five spirituals. 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall; (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $48-$62.