Love and nature

See William Shakespeare's romantic comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream" among the trees at Cornell Plantations, with free outdoor performances this month, directed by stage and screen veteran J.G. Hertzler of Cornell's Department of Theatre, Film and Dance. Performances begin at 6 p.m. July 10 and 12 and July 17-19, in Jackson Grove in the F.R. Newman Arboretum. Bring your own seating or blankets. Admission is free; a $10 donation is suggested. Note: no performance Saturday, July 11. For Plantations events, visit http://www.plantations.cornell.edu/event/2009/07/09.

From two-step to tango

Regional zydeco dance band Li'l Anne and Hot Cayenne performs Friday, July 10 at 7:30 p.m. on the Arts Quad, as part of a free concert series sponsored by Cornell's School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions. Rain location: Uris Auditorium. Also, internationally acclaimed guitarist David Burgess will perform Tuesday, July 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts' Kiplinger Theatre. A former student of Andrés Segovia, Burgess plays Brazilian sambas, Argentine tangos and Inca melodies, as well as ragtime, classical and bossa nova numbers. Full schedule of free events: http://www.summer.cornell.edu/events.

'Amarcord' returns

Cornell Cinema screens a new 35mm print of Federico Fellini's "Amarcord" July 10-13 in Willard Straight Theatre. The acclaimed director's affectionate, bawdy remembrance of his seaside hometown of Rimini in the 1930s -- when Italy was under fascist rule -- won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 1974. The score by Nino Rota is also memorable. The film's restoration was supervised by original director of photography Giuseppe Rotunno.

Global issues

Professor Francis DiSalvo, director of the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future, will speak on "World Challenges: Making Our Way to a Sustainable Future," July 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Statler Auditorium. In the free public lecture, DiSalvo will outline some of the challenges facing the world -- including energy, environment, economic and human development, and overpopulation -- that require significant and timely responses, and the role of academic institutions in addressing these issues. More lectures: http://www.summer.cornell.edu/events.

Thought leaders

The School of Criticism and Theory's free lecture series presents talks on topics in the humanities and social sciences by members of SCT's 2009 summer session faculty. All lectures are at 4 p.m. and are open to the public, in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall.

On Monday, July 13, Michael Steinberg, a professor of history and music and director of the Cogut Center for the Humanities at Brown University, on "Music and Melancholia." On July 14, Wai Chee Dimock, professor of English and American studies at Yale University, speaks on "High to Low: Migration of Genres Across Time." On July 15, Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, an associate professor of Italian studies and comparative literature and director of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Brown University, has a talk on "Parentheses, Or: The Repression of Psychoanalysis in Italy."

The lecture series concludes July 21 with "Why Lyric?" presented by Jonathan Culler, the Cornell Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature. Information: http://sct.arts.cornell.edu/events.html.