Lyric Opera House

Clay Aiken You can admit it: You're a Claymate, a Clay fanatic, a Clay addict. You love Clay Aiken, his voice, his personality, his various 'do's, everything about the 28-year-old American Idol runner-up. And nope, there's no place you'd rather be Wednesday than the Lyric Opera House, where the singing sensation brings his holiday songs for a festive Christmas show. Aiken will perform tunes from his Christmas album, Merry Christmas With Love, as well as other holiday favorites. The show begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. Tickets are $50 and $65. Call 410-547-SEAT or go to ticketmaster.

When Evita tangos onto the Lyric Opera House stage this week, listen closely to the creaking of those venerable floorboards. You just might hear the 113-year-old institution quick-stepping into the future. Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1979 musical blockbuster will be at the Lyric for only three performances, but this show represents a new course for the venue, because it was selected by the theater's staff instead of by an outside promoter. If you go Evita will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. Tickets are $45-$65.

One of the world's most exciting young lyric sopranos, Ruth Ann Swenson, will sing the role of Juliette in the Baltimore Opera Company production of "Romeo et Juliette" tomorrow at 8:15 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Lyric Opera House. Swenson, a huge favorite at the Metropolitan and San Francisco operas and a spectacular success at her Carnegie Hall debut last weekend, is a last-minute substitution for the indisposed Leotina Vaduva. A performance of "Romeo" Saturday at 8:15 p.m. will feature the Korean soprano Sujung Kim, who made a fine impression as Juliette last Saturday on opening night.

Those endearing, if hapless, bohemians are back at the Lyric Opera House - shacking up and breaking up, romanticizing the simple things of life, trying to avoid the tougher stuff as long as possible. The characters in Puccini's La Boheme are so familiar, their stories so inevitable, that you might think they would have worn out their welcome by now, 110 years after the opera's premiere. But they've never really lost their freshness, partly due to the ingenuity and beauty of Puccini's music, and partly because, at heart, they're still so much like us (or, at the very least, like people we know)

"Rent," the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, is coming to the Mechanic Theatre for five weeks in the fall of 1998.The show, presented in cooperation with the Lyric Opera House, will be at the Mechanic from Sept. 22 through Oct. 25.Mechanic subscribers will have first call on tickets Sept. 29 through Oct. 11. Lyric subscribers will get first call Oct. 13 through Oct. 18. Non-subscribers can buy tickets for other dates.The announcement that "Rent" will come to the Mechanic was part of a story in yesterday's Sun about the Lyric Opera House's 1998 season.

`Sisters in the Spirit' / Lyric Opera House Powerhouse vocalists Yolanda Adams and Kelly Price headline "Sisters in the Spirit" Saturday night at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. The show starts at 8, and tickets ($39.50) are available through Ticketmaster by calling 410-547-SEAT or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com. Keller Williams / Rams Head Live Multi-instrumentalist Keller Williams plays Rams Head Live, 20 Market Place, Saturday night at 9. Tickets are $17.50, $19.50 the day of the show.

A new production of West Side Story, the classic Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents musical, opens Tuesday and runs through Oct. 20 at the Lyric Opera House. Direction and choreography are by Alan Johnson, who also staged the revival that played the Lyric in 1996 and whose credits include collaborating with everyone from Shirley MacLaine to Mel Brooks. Heading the cast as Tony and Maria are Drew Niles and Natasha Harper. Niles played Kenickie in the Olney Theatre Center's production of Grease last spring, and Harper was the final actress to portray Luisa in the long-running off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks.

Jamie Foxx, star of WB's hit sitcom "The Jamie Foxx Show," returns to his roots as a stand-up comic tonight at the Lyric Opera House.Foxx received his first break when he was plucked from an open casting call to join the ensemble of Fox television's ground-breaking sketch comedy series "In Living Color." His career has continued with recent film roles opposite Vivica Fox in "Set It Off" and "In Living Color" ex-castmate Tommy Davidson in "Booty Call."Jamie Foxx appears at the Lyric Opera House, 140 Mount Royal Ave., at 7: 30 tonight.

The wrong opening date was listed for the Baltimore Opera's production of "Il Trovatore" at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. The opening performance is tomorrow at 8: 15 p.m. Other performances are March 19, 21, 22 and 23; times vary. Tickets can be purchased by calling 410-727-6000.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 3/14/97

Floetry, Vivian Green and Lyfe -- Lyric Opera House / The neo-soul artists headline the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave., at 7:30 tonight. Tickets are $35-$65 and are available through Ticketmaster by calling 410-547-SEAT or visiting ticketmaster .com Clay Aiken -- Lyric Opera House / American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken brings his Christmas show to the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave., at 7:30 Wednesday night. Tickets are $45-$65 and are available through Ticketmaster.