Falstaff

"I read with reluctance the librettos that are sent me," wrote Giuseppe Verdi, the great opera composer. "It is impossible, or almost impossible, for someone else to divine what I want." In the case of "Rigoletto," the musical tale of murder, treachery and tragedy to be presented this weekend by the Annapolis Opera, Verdi wanted a script that almost no one else liked. That play was Victor Hugo's "Le roi s'amuse," which opened and closed Nov. 22, 1832, after a single disastrous performance.

Cinco de Mayo in the heart of Baltimore's Latino community brought salsa dancing, native Mexican dress and free-flowing tequila to Fells Point yesterday, where anyone with a good two-step was welcome to join the party. Amid the festivities on South Broadway, local politicians and police commanders turned out in numbers greater than in the past. Mayor Sheila Dixon and Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm, as well as Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown were there. The organizers of the event pointed to the turnout of official guests as evidence of the Latino community's growing force in political and civic life.

Here's your chance to star in a major motion picture production. About 4,000 extras of all ages, shapes and sizes are needed for `Deep Impact,` a Dreamworks/Paramount Studios film to be shot in Washington, and Manassas, Va. The movie, about a comet, is produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Mimi Leder.If you are interested in working as a paid extra, attend an open call from noon to 5 p.m. today at Osbourn High School, 9005 Tudor Lane, Manassas. Bring a current photo and a pen.If you are unable to attend the open call, send a current photo -- snapshot or Polaroid is fine -- along with your name, address, Social Security number, telephone number, height, weight, sizes, hobbies, skills, military experience if any, and make, model, color, year of your automobile.

"Frasier" has even more competition than usual tonight. In addition to "Home Improvement" on ABC, there's the latest Museum of Radio & Television special on Fox -- one devoted to science fiction, at a time when the genre has never been hotter. There's also a TV special that, not too many years ago, would have sounded like sci-fi: a live broadcast from Antarctica.* "Live From Antarctica" (2-2:30 p.m., channels 22, 67) -- This program isn't just coming to your home -- it's being fed directly to schools.

1993 was a strange time in classical music; a year when four anonymous women singing obscure chants and songs from 13th- and 14th-century England clobbered Pavarotti, Rampal and Galway on the charts.The Anonymous 4 they call themselves, and their "English Ladymass" (Harmonia Mundi 907080) was indeed the release of the year at the world's record stores. It topped the Billboard classical charts for many weeks, and CD Review dubbed it "Classical Disc of the Year."Area music lovers will be able to hear this early music phenomenon in concert this evening at St. John's College where the Anonymous 4 will perform their now-famous reconstruction of the Mass to the Virgin Mary that was offered daily in the Lady Chapel of Britain's Salisbury Cathedral some seven centuries ago.Unison chants, motets and more complicated polyphonic pieces make up the Mass, which will be augmented with poetry and readings narrated in Middle English.

A 32-year-old Eldersburg man was fatally shot in his home yesterday by a housemate who then ran several blocks away before killing himself, state police said.Kenneth Lee Sims and Jeff Lott, 20, both of 6511 Marvin Ave., were arguing in an upstairs bedroom shortly after 3 p.m. when Mr. Lott apparently grabbed a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol and fired twice, state police spokesman Michael McKelvin said.At least one bullet hit Mr. Sims, who lay on the floor when Mr. Lott took the gun and ran out of the house, Mr. McKelvin said.

Federal officials have arrested a relative of the two suspects indicted in the beheading of three children in Northwest Baltimore in May, according to law enforcement officials. Victor Espinoza, the father of one of the suspects and the brother of the other, is being held at the Dorchester County Detention Center, officials there said. A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to discuss Espinoza's situation, including why he was arrested, saying the agency does not talk about cases that may affect other investigations.

A 16-year-old boy was among three people arrested in connection with two homicides last week, and police said they have obtained an arrest warrant for a suspect in a double shooting that occurred over the weekend in Hampden. Walter Anderson, 16, of the 2400 block of Winchester Road, was taken into custody Friday and charged in the killing of Michael White, 24, according to police. White was shot Thursday afternoon in the 600 block of Presstman St. and taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m. In a one-page statement of charges, detectives wrote that Anderson and White had gotten into an argument earlier in the day and Anderson returned with a handgun.

It's a rich week at the AFI Silver. Starting today, Werner Herzog's 1972 Aguirre, The Wrath of God is shown in an exclusive new 35 mm print in honor of the film's 35th anniversary. Klaus Kinski, Herzog's muse and "best fiend," stars as Don Lope de Aguirre, leading a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado along the Amazon in the 16th century. Tomorrow through Wednesday, the Cinema Tropical festival continues with Young Rebels, the first movie from Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the team behind Oscar-nominated Half Nelson.

Just because Roland Park Middle School's team was undefeated didn't mean students weren't nervous yesterday as they entered the local finals of a national academic contest.They bit their fingernails, pulled their hair and furrowed their brows before beating Falstaff Middle School, 87-43, to advance to a national preliminary round here next week."I knew we would win," said Goodwin Chen, an eighth-grader who wants to become an astronaut. "We're the best."The climactic moment for Roland Park came when Goodwin correctly spelled "lieutenant" as time ran out for the final quarter.