Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival

It's now the biggest annual event in Sydney apart from the New Year's Eve fireworks and includes so many performances, music events and parties that it's impossible to see them all. A good place to start is the free Festival launch (Feb 11, 8.15pm) on the Sydney Opera House forecourt, which offers a grab bag of teasers of things to come, plus music, refreshments, plenty of whipped body butters and a dance party to finish. The Parade (Mar 4, 8pm) is the highlight, of course - a time when gay politics and sheer fun collide.

Art

The Louvre, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Musée d'Orsay display some of the most inspiring and well-known artwork in the world---but depending on your mood, culture could just as well be hidden in an independent gallery, an air-conditioned movie theatre on the Champs-Elysées, or in the makeup-covered hands of a mime. No matter where you stroll, dance, or groove to the beat, you will be following in the footsteps of someone who came to Paris in search of inspiration. A generation of hungry intellectuals was lured to Paris by the call of handcrafted jewelry, academic and artistic freedom (not to mention warm croissants) during and after World War II, and under the influence of potent espresso, and even more potent red wine, they set the dramatic tone for the artistic community that prevails in Parisian cafés today.

Die Verfolgung schwuler Männer im Dritten Reich

This exhibition, on show at the Gay Museum, is devoted to the thousands of homosexuals who were murdered by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. Focusing on the persecution of gay men in Berlin, it documents the seismic shift in attitudes from the heady days of the Weimar Republic to the stifling atmosphere of the Third Reich. It also features a list of the names of the hundreds of men who perished in Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin.

The Marriage of Figaro

Probably the greatest comic opera ever written by Mozart or anyone else, 'Figaro' is a stream of plot and counter-plot, intrigues and disguises. Figaro prepares for his wedding to the lovely Susanna in Count Almaviva's castle (he is the Count's valet), uncomfortably aware that his master has his own designs on the bride. Figaro's affections are sorely tested before the happy ending arrives. It stars Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Rebecca Nash, Richard Alexander and Natalie Christie. Conducted by Jane Glover.