9 things to do this weekend: San Diego Symphony, Philippine dance concert, Fern Street Circus and more

San Diego Symphony: Rafael Payare’s opening concerts

Mahler’s Fifth: 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. (Midsummer Night’s Dream: 8 p.m. Oct. 11 and 12.) Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., downtown. (619) 235-0804. sandiegosymphony.org

Rafael Payare launches his inaugural season as the San Diego Symphony’s music director on Saturday and Sunday with Mahler’s passionate Symphony No. 5. The second weekend will see Payare welcome the buzzed-about Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson and conduct an abridged version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring the orchestra, the San Diego Master Chorale and seven actors. Payare has conducted the orchestra several times before, but this is the first time he will conduct such a long string of consecutive Jacob Masterworks concerts. “It’s going to be wonderful,” Payare said. “Our first five weeks can’t pass without our getting to better know each other. The repertoire is very diverse. Let’s get to know where we want to go. It’s such a variety of music, we’ll be seeing how the road goes as we ride along.” UNION-TRIBUNE

Mural project: “Painting Walls to Break Down Barriers: Let’s Talk About Mental Illness”

On display through Saturday. Across the street from entrance to Gaslamp Quarter, next to Tin Fish restaurant, 170 Sixth Ave.

Renowned artists Ted Meyer (pictured) and Armando Nunez will join forces for an outdoor art installation in the Gaslamp Quarter to “help break down the stigma of mental illness.” The artwork will be created live over two days and will be on display through Saturday — during the annual Psych Congress convention at the San Diego Convention Center and before Mental Illness Awareness Week, which starts Sunday. The mural — launched in partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness San Diego and with San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company Neurocrine Biosciences — will be done by Meyer and local artist Nunez alongside students from Grossmont College. MICHAEL JAMES ROCHA

La Mesa Oktoberfest

4 to 10 p.m. today; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.Downtown La Mesa. Free admission. lamesaoktoberfest.org

Grab your steins and head to the Hofbrauhaus Biergarten for traditional German beers and thirst-quenching cocktails at the 46th annual La Mesa Oktoberfest this weekend. Covering nearly six city blocks of La Mesa Village and attracting more than 100,000 festival-goers every year, the three-day event brings traditional German fare, nonstop music by local and regional bands, and traditional glücklich games, including beer stein races and keg stacking. There will be a German Kinder Karneval with a Ferris wheel, carnival games, jumpers and special foodie treats. The Dackeldorf Dachshund Village — open to any breed of dog — returns with wiener dog races, a fashion show and a “Howl-deling and Trick Contest.” Get a jump on your holiday list at the Craft Faire tent, where you’ll fine one-of-a-kind arts and crafts. CAROLINA GUSMAN

John Brinton Hogan: “Brightest Beacons, Blindest Eyes”

Through Oct. 17. Artist talk 2:30 to 4 p.m. Oct. 11. San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery, 7250 Mesa College Drive, San Diego. Free. (619) 388-2600. sdmesa.edu/art-gallery

John Brinton Hogan’s artwork is part photography, part digital manipulation and part painting. The large mixed-media pieces are an expression of his interests, his anxieties and lasting impressions from his childhood.

“I want to make people think of where we are as a species in this world,” Hogan said. “I haven’t found any answers. It’s a way of working out my anxieties, my fears.”

The unconventional pieces reflect Hogan’s unconventional life journey. The San Diego native has been a skateboarder, the frontman in the local rock group Rust, and an assistant at film companies. He barely made it through high school and didn’t even consider college as an option. Skateboarding, he said, was a lot more exciting. Now the 56-year-old is at Mesa College for his first San Diego solo exhibition, “Brightest Beacons, Blindest Eyes,” which opened last week at the college’s art gallery with 24 of his pieces. MARTINA SCHIMITSCHEK

Concert of Traditional Philippine Dances and Music

2 and 7 p.m. Saturday. David and Dorothea Garfield Theatre, 4126 Executive Drive, San Diego. $15-$35. (619) 946-7409. philippinedanceandmusicconcert.eventbrite.com

Take a two-hour tour through the Philippines, from the rural countryside to the central regions, to the north and in between, all through the art of dance during the Concert of Traditional Philippine Dances and Music. SAMAHAN Filipino American Performing Arts & Education Center presents popular folk dances, tribal dances, choreographed rituals, and music to share the culture and tradition of the country. LISA DEADERICK

“Amadeus”

8 p.m. tonight; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach. $49-$60 (discounts available). (858) 481-1055. northcoastrep.org

There’s not a whole lot Antonio Salieri won’t do to ambush the ambitions of his rival composer Mozart — at least in “Amadeus,” the late Peter Shaffer’s exuberantly fictionalized account of dastardly doings in 18th-century Vienna. (In real life, the pair were at least somewhat friendly with each other.) In North Coast Rep’s revival of the 40-year-old play, which spawned the Oscar-winning 1984 movie, Tony Amendola plays Salieri with a winning blend of enmity, envy and even flashes of empathy for the wunderkind Mozart, portrayed by Rafael Goldstein with wild-child zest. Salieri thinks he’s getting back at an unfair God by sabotaging the younger composer’s genius. In reality, he just turns his own life into a kind of hell — and ultimately he has to face the music. JAMES HEBERT

Pacific Lyric Association: “Romeo and Juliet”

7 p.m. tonight. 3 p.m. Sunday. (7 p.m. Oct. 12. 3 p.m. Oct. 13.) California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $40, general. Discounts at the box office for military, seniors and students with ID. pacificlyricassociation.com

For most of his adult life, Vista physician Carlos Oliva was able to juggle his career as a medical doctor with his vocation for opera-singing. But last year, he came to a crossroads. In October 2018, Oliva sold his medical practice and realized that he could no longer afford to be the sole underwriter of his passion project: Pacific Lyric Association, the opera company he and his wife, and fellow singer, Teresa Hughes-Oliva, started in 2006. His choice was to either sell the organization or shut it down.

Fortunately, a new suitor was waiting in the wings…and the company’s first production under its new leadership is the Charles Gounod opera “Romeo and Juliet,” which opens Friday for four performances at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. The production will feature 27 singers, 28 musicians and 20 ballet dancers. PAM KRAGEN

Oktoberfest in El Cajon

4 to 10 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. German American Societies of San Diego, 1017 S. Mollison Ave., El Cajon. $10 for adults Friday and Saturday, $5 Sunday; free for active duty military and guests under 21. oktoberfestelcajon.com

It’s the time of year again for enjoying a cold beer, hot brats, cultural performances and more ways to celebrate German culture during the annual El Cajon Oktoberfest. For two weekends, El Cajon will be filled with the sights, sounds and the scent of potato pancakes and pretzels, sauerkraut and red cabbage, traditional German pastries, beers on draft and wines, live music by Guggenbach-Buam from Germany and the Gordon Kohl Band, an opening parade and ceremonial tapping of the wooden keg, along with prizes, activities for kids and dancing. LISA DEADERICK

Fern Street Circus Neighborhood Tour 2019

6 p.m. tonight at North Park Recreation Center, 4044 Idaho St., San Diego. 2 p.m. Saturday at Teralta Park, 4100 Central Ave., San Diego. 2 p.m. Sunday at Willie Henderson Sports Complex, 1035 S. 45th St., San Diego. Free. (619) 320-2055. fernstreetcircus.com

Since 1990, Fern Street Circus has been a staple in San Diego’s mid-city neighborhoods. Founded by musician John Highkin and his wife, visual artist Cindy Zimmerman, Fern Street Circus was born from the interest each had in circus. Highkin and Zimmerman were both living in South Park at the time, and they soon organized a parade from the local school to the park. Their first show had an audience of 500 people. The nonprofit organization is based in a former union hall on Fairmount Avenue with about a dozen organizations within its walls, almost all representing immigrants from such places as Somalia, Haiti, Ethiopia and Latin America. Above the front door fly the Ethiopian and Haitian flags. Fern Street Circus will present a neighborhood tour throughout October with an all-new show, “Tales From Friendship Park,” stories depicting the journeys families made to this country and the situations they encountered at the border. Free performances will be held at various parks around San Diego, with its opening performance Friday at the North Park Recreation Center. CAROLINA GUSMAN