Touchstone Pictures

Film and theater director Julie Taymor brings her inventive visual style and innovative casting to a storm-tossed Shakespearean drama in "The Tempest," screening April 29-May 4 at Cornell Cinema.

'Tempest' with a twist

Film and theater director Julie Taymor ("Across the Universe," "The Lion King," "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark") brings her inventive visual style and innovative casting to a storm-tossed Shakespearean drama in "The Tempest," screening April 29-May 4 at Cornell Cinema.

Taymor wrote and directed this adaptation and added a change of gender for the main character -- Helen Mirren is Prospera, Duchess of Milan, who is betrayed and exiled with her daughter, and then exacts her revenge against Antonio (Chris Cooper). The film also stars Djimon Honsou as Caliban, Alfred Molina as Stephano and Felicity Jones as Miranda.

Showtimes are April 29-30 at 7 p.m. in Uris Theatre, and May 1 at 4:30 p.m. and May 4 at 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. Information: http://cinema.cornell.edu.

Mighty Winds

CU Winds, comprising two ensembles directed by Cynthia Johnston Turner, give their final concert of the year April 30, 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall, with guest composer Steven Bryant and guest cellist Caroline Stinson. Admission is free.

The program features the Cornell Wind Symphony on William Schuman's "Chester" and Bryant's parodic tribute "Chester Leaps In," and Camille Saint-Saëns' "Orient et Occident." The Wind Ensemble performs two premieres -- a cello concerto Bryant composed for Stinson, and "Through the Veil" by doctoral composer Jesse Jones -- as well as professor of composition Steven Stucky's "Voyages," originally commissioned by the Yale Band in 1984. The program closes with Dmitry Kabalevsky's "Comedians' Gallop," written for the theater in 1940.

The Department of Music presents several free concerts this week, including a voice recital by students of Judith Kellock, May 1, 3 p.m. in Barnes Hall; music by undergraduate composers, May 2, 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall; and the finale of David Yearsley's run through the complete J.S. Bach Trio Sonatas, May 4, 12:30 p.m., on the new baroque organ in Anabel Taylor Chapel. Information: http://music.cornell.edu/calendar.

Backyard art

The joint exhibition "Motifs From My Backyard / Expanding Turf" is on display through April 30 at Cornell Plantations' Brian C. Nevin Welcome Center. The exhibition features works by Gregory Page and by students in the course Turfs: Invasive Species as Art. The welcome center is at 124 Comstock Knoll Drive in Plantations' Botanical Gardens.

Scottish ballads

Legendary Scottish singer Jean Redpath, who last performed in Ithaca in 1986, returns for a concert April 30, 8 p.m. at the Community School of Music and Art, 330 E. State St., Ithaca. Tickets are $15 advance, $17 door; students $10/$12; children 12 and under free; with discounts for Cornell Folk Song Society members, seniors, teens. Information, ticket outlets: 607-279-2027, http://www.cornellfolksong.org.

A "Prairie Home Companion" regular, Redpath is known for her interpretations of Robert Burns and has sung traditional and contemporary Scottish songs and ballads and for more than 50 years.

Redpath also leads a vocal workshop May 1, 1-3 p.m., Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. $15. To register, contact Margaret Shepard at mbs19@cornell.edu.

The lives of eagles

Cinematographer and photographer Neil Rettig will discuss his 30 years of observing and filming the world's largest raptors in "Eagle Experiences," May 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road.

Rettig will be accompanied by his trained harpy eagle at his presentation, which explores the lives of eagles through photos and video, ranging from hunting behaviors of bald eagles and Philippine eagles to the hidden haunts of the harpy eagle. The talk is free. Information: 800-843-2473, http://www.birds.cornell.edu/events.

Cultures in collaboration

International Culture Lab, co-founded by assistant professor of directing and acting Melanie Dreyer, will present "S/he," exploring what it means to be a woman from two cultural perspectives, May 4-15 at Ithaca's Kitchen Theatre.

The project, the result of three years of research, planning and fundraising, weaves together two one-act plays by Turkish playwright Zeynep Kaçar and American playwright Tammy Ryan. A panel of local experts on tattooing, domestic violence, reproductive rights, Turkish culture and sexual dysfunction will speak with audiences before and after each performance, offering perspectives on the plays' themes and a forum for debate. Other related events include a mock trial at Cornell Law School and a visit from Turkish scholar Nilüfer Göle on May 5. After the Ithaca premiere, the production will travel to New York City in October and Istanbul in November.

Tickets are $23 and $24, with $11 student rush tickets available at each performance. Information: http://www.intlculturelab.org or http://www.kitchentheatre.org.

Public service lecture

Jane Coyne '88, program manager for Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders, will deliver the 2011 Kaplan Family Distinguished Lecture in Public Service, May 4, 5 p.m. in Call Auditorium, Kennedy Hall. Coyne left the corporate world in 2003 to join MSF as a field logistician and worked on project initiatives providing medical services in Uganda, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. Appointed to her current position in 2009, she leads a team in Paris that manages MSF's operations in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Kenya and Georgia. Her visit is sponsored by the Cornell Public Service Center.

Islam, veiling and Europe

Sociologist Nilüfer Göle will present a University Lecture on "Islamic Visibility in European Publics: Secularism, Culture and the Sacred," May 5 at 4:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Center's Film Forum. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Göle will offer comparative theoretical perspectives, questioning how recent debates and conflicts over Islamic veiling relate to changing visual codes of public life in contemporary Europe, and how conflicts and dialogues about gender and Islam alter our understanding of culture's role in participatory democracies.

Göle is the author of "The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling," "Islam in Public: Turkey, Iran and Europe" and "Islam in Europe: The Lure of Fundamentalism and the Allure of Cosmopolitanism." She is a professor of sociology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Her visit is hosted by the Institute for German Cultural Studies.

Slope Day tickets

Guest passes are available for the Slope Day concert by Nelly, Cool Kids and Ra Ra Riot, May 6 at 1 p.m. on Libe Slope. Passes are $25 and can be ordered online before 9 p.m. Sunday, May 1, at http://cornellconcerts.com.

Guests must be at least 18 years of age and show a valid ID at the gate. Tickets for guests, limited to two per person, are on sale only to undergraduate and graduate students with ID and alumni. There are no e-tickets.

Students must pick up physical tickets at Willard Straight Hall Ticket Office between noon and 5 p.m. May 2-5. Alumni need to go to the Bartels Hall Ticket Office, May 6 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Students can also buy food tickets (five for $10) online and at Willard Straight Hall, which will sell remaining guest passes (if available) for $30, starting May 2 at noon. There are no refunds, and tickets not picked up will be forfeited.