Out and About: Top 10 things to do

A romantic comedy about David and Paige Walling (Hugh Laurie and Catherine Keener) and Terry and Cathy Ostroff (Oliver Platt and Allison Janney) who are best friends and neighbors living on Orange Drive in New Jersey. Their comfortable existence goes awry when daughter Nina Ostroff (Leighton Meester) returns home for Thanksgiving, and rather than developing an interest in the successful son of the Wallings (Adam Brody ), it’s her parents’ best friend David who captures her attention. In cinemas around the country.

This year, the Ra’anana Symphonette promises a procession of virtuoso musicians. The next guest is famed violinist and conductor Sergej Krylov, who will play solo and conduct the concert. The program includes Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 (“Unfinished”), Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.5, and more.October 31, November 1 and 3 at 8:30 p.m. at the Art and Music Center in Ra’anana, (09) 745-7773 www.symphonette.co.il

The Israeli Opera opens this year’s Shabbat of Gold series with the Israeli Opera singers, who will perform hits from the classical as well as more popular and Israeli repertoire in five concerts, starting this Saturday at 11 a.m.

The first concert will bring together 10 of the Israeli Opera’s best sopranos, who will sing arias from beloved operas by Puccini, Mozart, Offenbach and Verdi. The concerts are hosted by Michael Ajzenstadt, the opera’s artistic director.

The premiere concert of a special project, the Kerman Mandolin Quartet, will take place at the Einav Center on Saturday. The quartet, with four solo players from Israel, France, Italy and Spain, plays classical works written for traditional string quartets, replacing the violins with mandolins, the viola with a mandola and the cello with a mandocello.

Saturday at 8:30 p.m., Einav Center, Tel Aviv.

Opening the Hot Jazz series this year is Colombian harp jazz musician Edmar Castaneda. His longtime partner Paquito D’Rivera once described Castaneda as having “enormous talent and charisma.” Playing the unlikely harp on the jazz stage, he is considered one of the more original figures in jazz today. Performing with him will be Andrea Tierra, a Colombian-born vocalist who mixes jazz and flamenco, and local accordion and flute player Salit Lahav, and Jokka Parfinnian in the rhythm section.

Michel Camilo, an accomplished pianist and jazz composer who mixes Caribbean rhythms in his music, and leading flamenco guitarist Tomatito will be here for one performance only as part of a world tour, with an evening bearing the name of their latest album. Spain Again. “The two musicians set out luminous melodies and surrounded them with arpeggios or darting guitar lines, so that each phrase spawned ripples like a pebble dropped in a still pond,” wrote the New York Times of their performance.

Monday at 9 p.m., Tel Aviv Port Hangar 11. NIS 199-399. Call (03) 521-5200 or *2274. www.hadran.co.il

Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife, empress Augusta Victoria, made a historic trip to Jerusalem as the focal point of their travels to the Holy Land in 1898 between October 29 and November 4. Their visit received unprecedented coverage. Local press reported on the journey, and foreign newspapers devoted caricatures to the trip. An exhibition at the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem focuses on the royal visit, showing original newspapers, photographs and a series of huge projected images and typical cameras of the era.

Opens Monday, until March. Tower of David Museum, Jerusalem

Days of the Olive festival is back for the 18th year, offering attractions, tours, musical performances, workshops and many more adventures in the North. Join the olive pickers and learn about oil producing in the past and today, take advantage of special offers at the local restaurants and have fun from November 1 to 11.Call for detailed information: 073-706- 0808. http://zait.galil.gov.il

The Yoga Arava event returns with 25 compounds along the Arava area, some of the best yoga teachers and yoga-light areas for families and beginners. The event will take place November 1-3, featuring many workshops on the different kinds of yoga, tours and group meditation sessions in the desert. The opening event will take place on November 2 at Timna Park at sunset with master Dechen Thurman from New York, who will lead a class, followed by a light vegetarian meal and a musical show (NIS 80). The event is open to all.For more information, go to www.yogaarava.co.il

They are charismatic, sexy and talented, and they are here with their show Rock the Ballet. American dance company The Bad Boys, established in 2007 by dancer-director Rasta Thomas, is constantly storming the world, receiving praise from critics and audiences wherever they perform. This week, they will perform around the country as part of the Hot Dance series.

Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. at the Jerusalem Theater, (*6226). November 2 to 5 at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, (03) 629- 7777. November 7 at Haifa Auditorium at 8:30 p.m., (04) 835-3508, November 8 at the Beersheba Arts Center at 8:30 p.m., (08) 626-6400.